ACE WON’T BE FINISHING THE HEROES SERIES, BUT I WILL

In July of 2011, Heroes at Odds, the sixth book in my series with Lee and Taro, was released. Shortly thereafter, I announced that ACE had chosen not to complete the series, due to insufficient sales.

However, I wasn’t going to leave the story unfinished. I started writing the first book, Resenting the Hero, in 1997. I had a whole “master arc,” if you will, planned from the beginning. There are clues or elements in each book that brings me to the end. I couldn’t just let that go.

While I was, of course, very disappointed to learn the rest of the series wasn’t going to be professionally published, as I moved away from that disappointment, I started to get a little excited about the opportunity this change represented. I knew I was going to write the rest of the story no matter what, that was just a given, and that I would be making it available to be read, but working on my own has allowed me to make certain changes.

When I got the news from ACE, I had planned for two more books to complete the series. I’ve said from the beginning that I wanted to write a book from a different character’s point of view, and I was thinking book seven would be it. However, the closer I got to that time, the more I believed the editor wouldn’t go for it.

Given I can now write whatever and however I want, I decided to take what would have been the main plot of book seven and address it with short stories from the points of view of many characters; Lee, Taro, characters I’ve already written about, and new characters. I have, at this time, put on my blog at moiraj.livejournal.com fifteen short stories, with plans for more. I haven’t written short stories since it was demanded of me in high school, and I really expected this project to be a bit of a chore, but I’ve been loving it. It’s fun to get a whole story out in a couple of thousand words. It’s fun to write from a different perspective.

The list of my short stories, with links, is here: http://moiraj.livejournal.com/128007.html

In the meantime, I’m working on the final book of the series, from Lee’s point of view, in the usual manner. Until I come up with a title, I’m calling it Heroes Seven. I have already written several drafts and it’s now in the hands of a freelance editor. My plan is to have it on my blog, available to read, on September 1, 2012.

If you have any questions, you can contact me on Twitter @moirajmoore, leave a comment on my blog at moiraj.livejournal.com, or email me at moirajmoore@yahoo.com.