So, my last post was a bit heavy, perhaps.  This time around should be shorter and a great deal lighter!  I wanted to provide a quick update for anyone interested in my next writing project.

 “Persian Blood” ended up being a sort of hybrid work, grafting an ancient, historical fiction storyline onto a modern, military adventure story.  While I am very happy with the result, my desire is to write true historical fiction.  Preferably, fiction set in ancient and medieval Northeast Asia, a mystical realm about which little has been written in the West.

My next work—as yet untitled—doesn’t quite get me where I want to go, but does take a step in that direction as it is a work of pure historical fiction.  Set in Republican Roman times, the story follows the misadventures of thief, murderer, and all-around loathsome excuse for a human being, Fulvius.  Raised in the dangerous shadowy world that made up Rome’s back streets, far from the opulence that victory over Carthage in the First Punic War had brought to the wealthy, Fulvius looks out for one and only one person in the entire world, and right or wrong is judged in relation to what will most benefit him.  Fortunately for the (relatively) law-abiding citizens of Rome, Fulvius is captured, tried, and sentenced to a well-deserved public execution.

Only the rumored approach of Hannibal’s army, fresh on the heels of victory over the Romans at Cannae, saves Fulvius—if a lifetime of forced service in the Army can truly be called salvation.  Still, he is spared immediate death and joins a new legion undergoing abbreviated training nearby as the Republic girds itself for the next battle with its nemesis, Hannibal.  It is in this hastily-organized legion, filled with paroled criminals, released slaves, and those passed over as unfit for duty by previous legionary recruiters, that Fulvius finally finds a home, a thoroughly corrupt system in which he can flourish.  Until, that is, he meets his first truly incorruptible Roman and finds he is poorly prepared to contend with the nobleman’s sense of absolute right and wrong . . .

 I’m just getting started on this one, with only a draft prologue and first chapter written to date.  The opening scenes require knowledge of the Republican Roman system of law and punishment that goes beyond what I currently possess.  So, I’m doing the research now.  Once that minor obstacle is overcome, the rest of the novel should write itself quickly.  I’ll try to provide updates and, perhaps at some point a sneak preview, as it comes together.  Hard to predict a publication date at this point, but again, as it progresses I should get some idea of a timeline and will pass that along here.

Wish me luck!

M. G. Haynes