I’m working on three books at the same time. The reason is Chaos, which is finished pending final proofing, has been in the works for ten years and I want to get it out there.

A couple years ago, while searching my computer and backup for all my files on Chaos, I found Fire Song, which I started more than 30 years ago. For those of you in FAW – Flint Area Writers – an early draft was what I read in hopes of becoming a member of FAW. Their Facebook page: FAW on Facebook.

FAW is going strong. They helped me immensely then as they continue to help each other and new members hone their craft.

• Dark fantasy: Chaos.  Arden McEwan thought she and Kerrick Malone had saved Earth from the clutches of the evil Nadra. She was wrong.
  
• Fantasy: Fire Song.  Nonay Valdi’s secret ability to summon Fire is discovered, and she faces exile. She lives in the world of the Four Realms, and has heard the Lee-Ath sing, which means she is not right in the head.
• Paranormal: Camille’s Treasure. Twenty-four-year-old Cameron Morgan struggles to come to terms with her mother’s recent suicide. And she sees the ghosts of children. Fresh out of college with an art history degree and no job prospects, she goes to Traverse City, Michigan–all expenses paid–to attend the reading of a will in which she is named a possible beneficiary.

Interesting background about Fire Song: My character was originally named Ayla. Members of the FAW group informed me I could not use the name as it was used by a current bestselling author, Jean M. Auel in her book Clan of the Cave Bear. I had not read it. 

My original story, a post-apocalyptic set five hundred years after nuclear holocaust on earth, bore a passing resemblance to Auel’s book. I made up the name Ayla by going through a phone book and changing letters in names. Who remembers phone books?

I changed Ayla to Elya, and Elya became the protagonist’s mother. The protagonist is called Girl of no Name because she was not born of a citizen of an isolated province, and her petition for a name is repeatedly denied. The new iteration of Fire Song is not a post-apocalyptic, but set in a different world. Girl of No Name’s adoptive parents shorten her “name” to Nonay. She hears the Lee-Ath sing and can control Fire, which is illegal, and if caught she will be banished. Of course, she is seen summoning Fire.