,STONELANDS: 7 Reasons You Want To Read It

(OR, Why This Book Took So Effing Long To Release)

Today, seven years since the release of my last novel, The New Magic, I’m pleased/satisfied/relieved to announce that STONELANDS is finally here. 

A lot of you have asked what took so damn long. While there are factors in my personal and professional life that I’m not going to go into here, the biggest reasons are that this book is just so lethally on-point, the industry didn’t know what to do with it. 

To sum it up, here’s a list of a few of the things that set this novel apart… each one of which slowed the path to publication.

In no particular order: 

1) STONELANDS features a magic portal, Navy SEALs, conspiracies, graphic sex, a gay subplot, an amputee veteran, and a Blackfeet main character.

Writing about all of these things in a cohesive and realistic narrative, while doing justice to all of them, took a lot of thought and editing. (So. Much. Editing.)

2) You never see this level of modern military realism in contemporary fiction, let alone in the Fantasy genre—and there’s a good reason for that. 

Most military fiction authors don’t have first-hand experience informing their manuscripts about elite unit operations. (Looking at you, Mr. “I’m attached to the Rangers to fight an orc invasion, and they treat me like one of their own even though I’m a Leg without a Tab.”)

If the author does have said cred, military fiction seldom deals with sensitive topics about the way the U.S. military actually functions, especially at elite levels–Special Missions Units, Task Forces, and units I worked with that I can’t even mention the acronyms of, much less the codewords for, without doing Federal time. This is where I got my mail for most of my career.

The military details that comprise major plot points in STONELANDS are so accurate, the manuscript required several rounds of formal review and declassification by officials at the Pentagon, the US Special Operations Command, and the Defense Intelligence Agency. 

Even though it’s a Sci-Fi/Fantasy crossover, I needed to change, remove, and even redact a startling amount of material to get it cleared. Case in point, here’s the OPORD I drew up for the formation of the Task Force in STONELANDS, which had a couple of sections blacked out just to be funny. When it came back from DOD review, it looked like this:

Um… yeah. There are hardly any legible words left on it. I still included this in the book, but it’s more of an artifact of curiosity than the helpful background summary I originally intended. Fun fact, the signature on it is by an actual guy who did the DOD clearance review.

Those of you who have read my work before know that even when it comes to the magic elements of fantasy, I don’t use “handwavium” to explain things away. Accuracy is essential to my worldbuilding, so I wasn’t willing to gloss over the military details that make the whole thing work. But it had to be done in a  way that ensured the Joint Special Operations Command wouldn’t have to shoot everybody who reads it.

3) I landed a deal for the film rights with an A-list VFX producer before the book was even released. 

I can’t say much more about it other than what was printed in Publisher’s Marketplace, but working this deal with my agent took my focus off of editing for a while. Sorry, not sorry. 

4) Multiple Big 5 publishers held the manuscript for literally years, gushing about the writing and the story . . .

“crisp writing and live-in military details” — Big Wig Publisher #1

“a brilliantly executed cross-genre thriller” — Big Wig Publisher #2

The feedback they gave was positively glowing. But they dragged their feet on buying it, while feverishly holding on to the manuscript for further consideration by their marketing monkeys.

The reason for that is…

5) STONELANDS is a military action thriller with key themes of identity and intersectionality. 

Most military fiction plays to conservative cultural biases, consistent with how “Red America” views its military. The thing is, Americans who’ve never served in the military have no idea how “woke” it really is. By basing STONELANDS on first-hand military experiences and relationships, I discovered that by necessity it had to tackle intersectionality issues in modern-day Special Operations Forces, something I’ve never seen another author cover; themes in STONELANDS include racism, ageism, ableism, the challenges faced by women and LGBTQIA+ personnel in elite units, and a crop of young and forward-thinking leaders at odds with a conservative “old guard” on all of the foregoing. (Not to mention colonialism and exploitation under the guise of resource development.)

The characters are fictional, but the intersectionality subplots are all firsthand. SOCOM’s approach to these issues had begun to shift for the positive as I retired, but WOW, are these problems ever back with a vengeance under this new, um, leadership. Such that it is.

TLDR: This is a woke-as-fuck military adventure that will upset some of the worst people you know.

Either the industry thinks that nobody wants it, or they’re too scared to try.

6) STONELANDS is a standalone title, but is concurrent with The New Magic and dovetails with The Outworlders series.

Because of its concurrence, I essentially had to write two books at once. I needed to line up details within Stonelands and the rest of its series before I could finish Book III of The Outworlders, Coin of the Realm. 

You can read STONELANDS as an extension of the extant series if you wish. There are some very cool Easter eggs if you’re a fan of my other work. (PS. Coin of the Realm is drafted, but I’ve got to go through it again and make sure that the details of the universe all line up before I release it. Expect it in 2026.

7) STONELANDS is only available in print (no e-books).

The perfectbound paperback is beautiful, and it’s available now. Audiobook and hardcover are forthcoming, likely this fall.

This is a deliberate choice in response to the scourge of piracy and theft of The New Magic e-book that robbed me of royalties, which made publishing any more books financially unfeasible until the afore-mentioned film rights deal came though. 

If the cost of printed books is prohibitive for you, ask your library to purchase it. The ISBN is 9780997887594. (If you’re pissed about all of this, go beat the living crap out of someone you know who steals e-books. It’s their fault.)

So there you go, seven years . . . and seven reasons I hope STONELANDS has been worth the wait.

Go forth and enjoy the ride.