I began writing again in March of 2005, after visiting my best friend and his high school sweetheart.  Memories of the tension their interracial relationship created, coupled with imagery recalled from my childhood--including memories of race riots and children getting sprayed with fire truck hoses--inspired the conflict that opens the story.  (I grew up in a town where swastikas STILL adorn the light poles in the older parts of the city.)  Mrs. Weekley, my third grade teacher left me with the strong impression that all of us stand equal in the sight of God, but I find that the racism I remember from my childhood persists within the human heart, despite all efforts to erase it.  I hope that my readers adore Brenna, and respond to the the typical Tamarian reactions to her with disgust!

    The process of beginning work on another novel seemed daunting, given that I spent YEARS writing the last one and years before that, on "Midnight," a science fiction story that I never completed, but whose characters evolved into Garrick and Brenna.  Many months of brainstorming paid off, however, and I found that the new narrative poured out of my mind as if it were being told to me.  The book required fifteen months to complete in its basic form, and by the time I neared its finish I'd been consistently cranking out close to 20 000 words per month.  This astonishing effort resulted in a novel that is considerably longer than The Edge of Justice had been.

    My decision to pick up the story shortly after the last one ended made transitioning into the new novel an easy task.  I tried to be careful about bridging between the stories so that readers who enjoyed The Edge of Justice could link remembered details from that narrative with this one, while at the same time trying not to be too obscure for the sake of a new reader who might not have read the earlier book. Two previewing readers who had not read The Edge of Justice had no trouble becoming immersed in the new story.

    While The Long Journey continues the story between Garrick and Brenna, it also involves his younger brother, Algernon, and their wayward sister, Kira.  The narrative explores their search for love, acceptance and a purpose for life, set against the background of an insurrection in the neighboring country of Kameron.  Garrick, whose talent for leadership earns him an opportunity for officer's training, finds himself hard-pressed to meet the strict demands of the OTS program in the Tamarian military.  Brenna, traumatized by her battlefield experiences in the war against the Azgaril, struggles to learn the Tamarian language while studying at the university in Marvic.  Bereft of her loved ones and spiritually adrift, Brenna strives to make sense out of the new direction her life has taken.  Meanwhile, her family, and their high-tech light forges, face destruction at the hands of rebel warlords in Kameron.  A Tamarian Expeditionary Force, which includes Garrick, is soon tasked to defend the light forges and secure Tamarian investment in this technology.  In the midst of this growing conflict, Garrick's younger brother, Algernon, learns that his twin sister, Kira, has run away from the sacred Temple Elsbireth overlooking Marvic, in the company of a Kamerese drug dealer.  Inspired and accompanied by Astrid, a girl widely rumored to be Kira's lesbian lover, Algernon undertakes a perilous journey into war-torn Kameron to find and rescue his sister.

And thus, The Long Journey begins!