Greetings, Loyal Reader!
Noble Cause (2010)
As part of preparing Royal Crush for release, I am re-rereading book 2 in the Jason Cosmo series, Noble Cause. My main goal is to make note of any little story details that will affect the revision of Royal Crush. Along the way I’ll fix the few typos I’ve come across (and otherwise resist tinkering with the story beyond a word here or there). But those purposes aside, I’m simply enjoying the book!
Now, you might say, Duh! You wrote it, McGirt. Of course you enjoy it.
But things aren’t that simple. Noble Cause was long slog to write as I changed the focus of the story multiple times before settling on the final plot. It took me several years to complete. I read the book multiple times while preparing it for publication in 2011 — but I was reading to edit, to proofread, to correct, to format…that is to say, those were all working readthroughs.
This one is too, in a way, but I can also, for the first time, just get into the story as a reader. ((Well, as much you can with a book you wrote. There aren’t any plot twists that are going to take me by surprise. At least, I hope not.))
This is a good thing. As I have alluded before, I spent so long wrestling Noble Cause into being that I was temporarily burned out on Jason Cosmo and had to turn to writing other things for a while.
Now it is fun again! These are not books I can write unless I’m having fun doing it and I definitely am. I’m a little more than halfway through Noble Cause and looking forward to my favorite sequences, which are still to come.
I’m simultaneously revising Royal Crush (and hope to have news about the cover art soon…), and I’ve even dusted off my synopsis and outline for the long, long, long-awaited Boltblaster, which will be my next Cosmo-related book after Royal Crush.
So, Loyal Reader, if you haven’t yet read Noble Cause, now is the time! If you have, I’d love to hear from you what you liked, or didn’t, about the book. If you would be so kind as to post your honest review of Noble Cause at Amazon or your favorite online retailer, I’d appreciate it. And I hope you’ll join me this summer for Jason Cosmo’s next adventure, Royal Crush!
Best regards,
Dan McGirt
Last time, I gave a brief account of how I conceived the idea of a Boltblaster prequel spin-off book from the Jason Cosmo series. Alas, my former publishers — Signet/Roc in the US, Pan in the UK & Commonwealth — were less than enthusiastic. In the publishing environment of the 1990s that left me with little incentive to write the book. It made sense to move on to other projects, with the Jason Cosmo series effectively defunct.
