Last weekend, maybe as a flight reaction from all the academic editing I should be doing, I was inspired to revisit some of my works-in-progress. I pulled up my four Cislunar novel(la)s — Hopscotch, Red Rover, Twenty Questions, and Tag —  and tinkered with them a bit. Tag still needs at least one more scene, and possibly two, before I’ll be satisfied with it. At the moment it ends too abruptly — I need to figure out a smoother transition between the climax and the final sign-off.

I don’t know what to do with them, either. The quartet is about four men in the  city of Cislunar who team up to investigate a series of murders that lead to a larger saga of political intrigue between church, state, and magistry. Each novel(la) is told from a different man’s viewpoint: Arcady DuBaton, the rough-and-tumble Watch sorceror who fancies himself a hardboiled detective and has a little problem with setting fires; Tegeus Droit,  former champion of the lord of hell, once known as a bloodthirsty mercenary general but now retired and trying really hard not to kill anyone out of sheer boredom; Axton, a secretive alienist and anatomist who’s just finished a ten-spot in Hellsgate and is struggling to adjust to civilization again; and Michael Aronson, a viscount and the third most powerful sorcerer in Cislunar whose attempts to be a good guy are coming into conflict with his personal ambitions.

Alas, this fourfold format means trouble when it comes to sales. The books are a little short to be sold as individual novels (52-62K words) — and trying to sell four at once would be difficult — but they’re probably too long to be sold as one novel in four parts.

This is where having an agent would make a difference! I suppose I should try to find one soon, although I’ve been hoping to do so with King’s Monster. The Cislunar Quartet has been a load of fun to write, but maybe because they’ve been more fun than work, I imagine them as less “serious” and thus less likely to sell. Hmmm.

Either way, I still have to finish Tag first. And given that NaNoWriMo is speeding toward me, I doubt that’ll happen soon.

Now, about the effective implementation of steam cannon….