Honeymoon From Hell, a refresher
Wyverns Never Die, book #3, is coming.
As book three of Honeymoon from Hell comes out tomorrow, (2/5/25) I feel like I need to have a refresher course… for me, not necessarily for you, dear reader. Keep in mind, these are relatively recent for you. I’ve been juggling these books through my father’s death, my move to Texas, so it’s been busy.
What is Honeymoon from Hell? Well, do you remember my Love at First Bite series? It featured a vampire who goes to confession, and a human college student who had certain bloodthirsty proclivities?
I sold it largely as my “Catholic vampire” novels. I took some microbiology, some metaphysics, some theology, threw them into a blender, and came out with a vampire world that (I’m told) is on par with Vampire the Masquerade. (No. I never played Vampire the Masquerade, but my wife was a GM / DM for a Vampire the Masquerade LARP back in the day. She informs me there is some overlap.)
Anyway, if you don’t remember the Love at First Bite books, they were:
The series ended with everyone walking off into the sunset … everyone who was still ambulatory, anyway.
Since I was bringing the series to a close, I was fairly free with the character deaths.
What comes after happily ever after?
“Until death do you part,” obviously.
However, before my heroes, Marco Catalano and Amanda Colt, can get to the church on time, the have to survive the engagement. There’s a running battle through a hospital, Area 51, fae armies, and a Panda with a machinegun… because of course he eats, shoots, and leaves.
Then the fun starts.
An elven assassin.
Mad science and magic.
Guest-starring a police officer with the power of a saint who fights demons.
If you’ve followed the rest of my books, you know who some of those people are.
Yes, there will be cameos from even more characters.
Part of the joy of sub-publishing is that it’s all my IP, I can do what I like. Otherwise, there would have been a Saint Tommy Novel three years ago called Cross Over.
Now, there’s a Honeymoon from Hell novel of the same name. Funny that.
My wife has worked on the covers
A few years ago, Robert Kroese joked that “Why don’t any of these vampire romance books have a title like The Neck Romancer?”
Challenge accepted, Rob.
And here it is.
Many, many years later.
I had a lot of requests for a sequel series for Love At First Bite.
And I wrote a short story here and there. One of which got published in Storming Area 51.
Then Rob opened his mouth.
I started developing a new plot. And of course it needed a necromancer. And it had to be a Chicago Alderman. If you don’t get that joke, I feel like you must be new here. (Think about it. What can a necromancer do? Why would he be a Chicago politician?)
Then I was off to the races.
Especially when the zombies attacked the wedding.
As The Neck Romancer takes place in Chicago, The next part of the journey comes in the form of a more traditional honeymoon location.
Wine country.
Which is funny, as Amanda does not drink … wine.
And then the dragons arrived.
One of the reasons I like the look of this cover is that in context, the exchange of looks is like “What Fresh Hell Is this?”
This one involves triads, a corrupt state senator named Roland Li, and supernatural weapons.
Yeah, it’s amazing what happens when you come into a book with an actual plan.
Granted, I came in with a plan, not an outline. Marco and Amanda are hard to outline. They didn’t want to play. They were 100% going to do what they wanted and when they wanted, and if I had any other ideas, to heck with me.
By book three, Marco Catalano has not cared where he’s been on this honeymoon, as long as he’s been with Amanda.
Amanda wanted to see Chicago, they saw Chicago.
She wanted to visit wine country, they visited wine country.
Now, they’re going somewhere of interest to both of them: WyvernCon, in Atlanta.
Hence the title of this one is…
Not gonna lie, I think I like this cover the best.
Anyway, all’s well, until someone tries to kill them on the train—a human assassin who is prepared for both of them. The vampire nest that’s promised them sanctuary has turned on them. Merle Kraft’s brother is in town. Cyber zombies walk the con. Werewolves stalk the parade.
Then a nightmare comes back to haunt them both.
Ah, book four. A novel five years in the making.
Look familiar?
Yeah. I’ve been hinting at it for years. But now, we finally have Thomas Nolan meeting Marco and Amanda in Rome.
And the fun … oh, yeah. This wasn’t exactly the revenge tour that I had back in Destiny, but I enjoyed myself.
Oh, yeah, while I think about it? There’s one additional guest player. He’s a one mister Ryan.
So, we’re going to have a party.
As for the title… I never said I was subtle. I’m pretty sure I’ve been pretty clear about being the opposite.
Clearly, this one is on pre-order for the moment, but it’s coming out next month, so there won’t be a long wait.
Now, book five.
You can see that the cover took some inspiration from … well… any Thrawn novel. My wife likes more complicated covers. Book three is a great example of this.
Book five took a lot of building, and a surprising amount of planning. If you can guess what happens in this one, you’re better at this than I am.
I had an idea of what was going to happen, here and there, but this took me largely by surprise.
Now, obviously, I knew what the final shootout was going to look like. I knew just how bad it was going to be for those fighting it. But yikes, I did not expect half of this book to be pure shootout. I didn’t expect some of the character deaths. I didn’t expect some of the reactions to the character deaths.
Again, it’s hard to anticipate these characters. I generally can’t. Sometimes, I expect them to go right, they go left, and sometimes they just plow straight down the middle.
And yes, the title is a terrible pun. But I had to go there.
Anyway, if you haven’t yet, maybe buy some books, leave some reviews.
In any event, I’ll see you later.
Non illegitimi carborundum, y’all.