In the Works: A Brief Departure from Historical Fiction

For the past several years, my storytelling has lived largely in the world of historical fiction. Dusty trails, forgotten towns, war-torn landscapes, and the complicated people shaped by them have occupied my imagination and, hopefully, yours as well.

For my next novel, the time element will change to be more contemporary.

Over the last months, I’ve been quietly working on something different. Darker. Stranger. More unsettling.

My next project drifts into conspiracy, mystery, and thriller territory while still keeping both boots planted firmly in the soil that has always inspired me most: the American heartland. This time, the setting is western Kansas, where the wind never truly stops blowing and secrets seem to settle deep into the earth alongside generations of hardship, faith, drought, sacrifice, and survival.

And yes, there will absolutely be agricultural and spiritual overtones woven throughout the story.

Kansas has always been special to me. While growing up in northeast Kansas did not expose me to the wide-open spaces offered by much of the rest of the state, I have spent considerable time in those settings. And in the case of my next book, those wide-open spaces somehow manage to hide things better than crowded cities ever could. There’s isolation. The silence can be deafening. But the people are rock-solid. This new work conveys the sense that something important, and maybe dangerous, is about to happen beneath the surface while most people look the other way.

That atmosphere has become the foundation for this new work.

I’m not ready to reveal much more just yet, but I can say this: the story explores desperation, belief, manipulation, rural decay, and the dangerous power of people convinced they alone can see the “truth.”

If you’ve followed my historical fiction work, some of the DNA will still feel familiar. The landscape matters. The people matter. Moral lines blur. But this project steps into an entirely different storm.

Keep watch in the coming months.

More details soon.