Protecting His Heart? Riddle of the Mandala? Ninja Attackers of Death? Who knows

I thought I’d do something a bit different this year and tell you what kind of writing stuff I’m working on from time to time.

At the moment, I’m writing the first draft of the sequel to Guarding His Body, working title Protecting His Heart.

We meet a new set of characters in this book. Chris Lance is a British IT consultant, based in Singapore. One of his newer hobbies is collecting Asian works of art and, from a tip-off, he flies to Hong Kong to bid on an intricately-patterned mandala that’s unlike anything he’s seen before. When he returns with it, however, he finds the mandala — and himself — the object of some nasty attention.

Laurie Bernardine is a martial artist who initially breaks into Chris’ apartment in order to steal the mandala from him. However, she isn’t the only one with that goal in mind, and the artefact ends up getting snatched by a mysterious gang instead, headed by a ruthless meglomaniac. (Aren’t they all?)

But, if the mandala is already gone, why is Chris still being targetted with violence? Laurie knows she must keep him safe while she figures out the riddle of the ancient mandala.

That’s the story in a nutshell. I thought I’d like to base more books in south-east Asia, as a counterweight to the many books set in Western countries and Singapore seemed like the natural choice since it’s so modern and yet with twists of Asian culture permeating its fabric. Also, I’ve lived there and can pop back every time I need to imbibe some “atmosphere”.

Maria tells me that I’m a quick writer, although that could be because I like sitting in front of a computer for hours on end whereas she actually has a life, taming her ranch, doing a fantastic job of furniture restoration and yelling at her husband, Greg, after he’s gone and got himself hurt in various endeavours. In any case, my current schedule has me completing the first draft of Protecting by the end of February. Then it’s a rest while I work on something else. Then it’s edits. Then I’ll send it to Total-E-Bound and see if they like it as the second book in the His Bodyguard series. With any luck, I’m hoping the finished novel will see the light of day by the end of the year. Keep your fingers crossed and I’ll remind myself to update you as I go along.

Have a good weekend all, and if you’d like to add yourself as a Friend via Google (see sidebar), feel free! Would love to see more avatars there.