Launching tomorrow: Let’s talk about Jules

Tomorrow—

Not the Quiet French Kid, an inexpensive novelette featuring the origin story of Jules Zweigenbaum from the Fashion and Fiends series, launches. A novelette is basically a long short story or an extra short novella.

This one includes some excerpts from all of the Fashion and Fiends novels so far.

Jules Zweigenbaum entered the series in the second volume, Courting Apparitions, where readers met him as the personal chef of Étienne d’Amille. Known for his langoustines and his French/German/American heritage — Jules had more of a role to play in the supernatural drama than merely make meals.

In the subsequent volume, Recovery, Jules morphs into a more prominent character (pun intended, IYKYK). With the help and attention of Dr. Jacqueline Saint-Ebène (or Doc Saint as some of her military patients call her), Jules explores East Africa and his own capabilities.

So, why a novelette about Jules now? A peak into 1990-something American high school when a boy raised in Southern France (Biarritz for my French nerds) suddenly finds himself in Northern California.

I’m working on the fourth volume of Fashion and Fiends, and it’s called Road Trip. Like Not the Quiet French Kid, it’s a coming of age story and features Jules as the only point-of-view character. But, in this novel, it’s not Jules on a journey but Jules and his elder brother Benji accompanying their little sister, Minette, through her transformation.

Jules thinks he’s helping his sister and looking for his missing boss… make that bosses… but he’s also trapped in what I hope will be a Bildungsroman with a horror fiction twist.

With all of that goodness in mind, let me give you… the cover reveal for Road Trip. Special thanks to our talented art director, Gayle Hendricks.