The cover for Book 9 of The Chronicles of Daphne Blazefire, titled “The Missing Link,” came in today. Here’s what it looks like:

The book blurb from this is as follows:

While trawling the galactic net for entertainment and encrypted schematics, Rusty, Daphne Blazefire’s quirky (and possibly sentient) robot companion, stumbles across something curious: a cache of unsolved criminal cases, long buried in forgotten databanks.

One case stands out: the disappearance of Lyra Venn, daughter of one of the wealthiest families in the inner systems. Detective Ramsey chased every lead, until the trail went cold. A million-credit reward has gone unclaimed for years.

But when Daphne reads the file, something clicks. A memory. A name. A detail she'd dismissed long ago suddenly shines like a beacon. Could she really be the missing piece in a galaxy-wide mystery? And if so, who’s been hiding the truth… and what are they willing to do to keep it buried?

After this, there will be one more book for this set of books, rounding it off to 10 books. Then I’ll put together a boxed set (for those that like to binge-read all of the books in a row). Then I’ll start a new set. I already have enough books to fill another 10-box set of Daphne books (if only I could write faster).

Now that I’ve stacked a bunch of work to complete, the schedule should run something like this:

1. Dust Bargain will be published before Christmas.
2. Memory War (book 2 of The Chronicles of the Robot Whisperers) will be published sometime around the end of January.
3. The Missing Link will be published sometime around the end of March or the beginning of April.
4. By the time I’m near the end of Memory War, I should have two more covers ordered.

At the moment, I plan to alternate between Robot Whisperer books and Daphne books. After I complete the 10-book box set of Daphne books, I might do two Robot Whisperer books in a row to try to catch up with those books. Right now, Frozen Logic isn’t getting too much reader love, and that’s because it’s a stand-alone book for a “possible” set of books. I say possible with quotes, because I know it’ll be a set with at least five books, but hopefully ten. Readers, however, are finicky about starting a new set with only one book written (I’m a crazy reader, so I know the psychology behind that and make some of the same decisions myself). Therefore, I need to get at least three or four books written to attract readers to that set of stories. Hence, the reason for a push to get more of those books done before diving into a second set of Daphne books.

I’m estimating two months per book. I’ll have to up my daily word count by a tiny amount to make that happen, but it’s doable. Even Dust Bargain might be done just before Thanksgiving. At least, that’s what I’m shooting for. And, Dust Bargain is right on schedule right now. I had a few sick days, but I managed to catch up after that. Sometimes the scenes just flow, and I get a burst of words in at one time. I wish it always happened like that, but writing a novel is somewhat unpredictable at times.

Anyway, keep watching the widget on the website. Dust Bargain will be published before you know it.