Island of Fog Book 8: Prison of Despair

Posted on January 8, 2014 (Subscribe to Blog)

Prison of Despair (Island of Fog, Book 8)

Introducing the next book in the series! Prison of Despair (Island of Fog, Book 8) is the first of a two-part story to be published this year and continued in Book 9 just a month later. Yes, you heard correctly. Books 8 and 9 will be released within a month of each other in 2014.

Prison of Despair is aptly named. It features a prison, and its prisoners are filled with... well, despair. The general plot involves a villain who takes a lot of hostages and forces Hal and his shapeshifting friends to put themselves under house arrest in a prison outside the village. Being shapeshifters, they can escape any time... but doing so will bring dire consequences. No matter; the incarceration is expected to be a temporary measure until the hostage situation is resolved. Of course, things escalate and the shifters stay quite a bit longer than planned.

The problem is that this prison is specially designed to bring remorse and despair to its residents. Those who are unfortunate enough to stay there are released feeling like they've been locked up ten times longer than they actually have. A great way to put criminals on the straight and narrow, no? And since it's quicker, it costs taxpayers less.

It's not all doom and gloom. Hal and his resourceful friends do find ways to escape the prison undetected, which is fine as long as they're back in time for roll call. Can they resolve the hostage situation while supposedly being locked up in their cells?

The eighth book in the series will feature a villain from a previous book and will pick up on a worry Miss Simone had at the end of Book 7. No prizes for guessing, but I don't want to spoil it here because Book 7, Valley of Monsters, is still fairly new.

Prison of Despair is fully mapped out and ready to be written. I'll be getting stuck in sometime in February right after I've written Sleep Writer, my first Unearthly Tales book. Exciting times!

Stay tuned for news on Island of Fog Book 9, which currently has a title but no cover.

Comment by BRIAN B. on Wednesday, January 8, 2014...

Love the cover. ;-)

Comment by ROGER ESCHBACHER on Thursday, January 9, 2014...

Awesome. To say this series has legs would be an understatement of the first order. Looking forward to reading it (hoo boy, I've got a lot of catching up to do)!

Comment by CAREY on Friday, January 10, 2014...

Keith, you are such a help to us "in the same shoes" authors. I would love to see (if you've already written it) or read a new post about how you are so prolific. You have another job and a family (I assume). Can you give us your best practices?

Comment by KEITH ROBINSON on Friday, January 10, 2014...

Thanks all!

Carey, that's a nice idea for a post, assuming others will find it interesting. I'll work on that soon. :-)

Comment by ZACH on Monday, February 24, 2014...

When does the book come out? Just wandering cause I'm a really big fan of the series :)

Comment by KEITH ROBINSON on Monday, February 24, 2014...

Should be around August, Zach! :-)

Comment by GRANT S on Wednesday, May 7, 2014...

I stumbled across this book, and have now read, one through seven. Keith your a great writer with an awesome story line. I love how you just keep the story going. It's such a good series, that I now have both my daughters reading it because it's just fun.. However Keith I was bummed to hear your ending it at book 9. I believe this is one of those rare series that could just keep going and going and I'd read them all because it's fun, and takes me to another world for a couple hours a day. Nancy Drew has had the same story going for ever now and it's not that good. Anyway I'm sure everybody agrees with me when I say, your a new addition to my library!!!!

Comment by KEITH ROBINSON on Wednesday, May 7, 2014...

Thank you, Grant! You know, I often say "this is the last book," and then I go and continue the series! I do think Books 8 and 9 are the last ones on my horizon FOR NOW, at least for Hal, but I will definitely be writing spin-offs, which will shine a spotlight on other characters in the past and present, and while these books will probably be shorter, they will still be very familiar in style and will tie in very tightly with the main 9-book series.

So never fear, there's plenty more to come. I just think, for now, that Hal's immediate arcing story is coming to a conclusion. Maybe after I have a few spin-offs under my belt I'll feel an urge to pick up Hal's story again. :-)

I definitely appreciate your support though!

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