A couple years ago, I was contracted to write a short story set in John Ringo’s Black Tide Rising zombie universe. That story was “Descent into the Underworld,” and gave a glimpse at what was happening in Italy during the time of pandemic apocalypse. I chose Italy, as we hardly ever see end-of-the-world stories set there (ironic, given its history) and because I had recently taken a trip there, exploring the peninsula from gelato shops to ancient Roman ruins, the floating wonderland that is Venice to the millennia-old caves at Orvieto.
A year later, I was asked to write a sequel. Even though I hadn’t originally planned on writing a sequel, there were some seeds that I planted in that first story that could be harvested. I encourage all writers to do this. It adds verisimilitude to the world you create. In harvesting those seeds, I wrote “Isle of Masks and Blood”, which continues the tale of our former-hitman-for-the-mafia Silvio Cipriano, this time moving the action from Orvieto to Venice. And though I wasn’t planning on a third story, I planted a few seeds just in case.
Well, a few months ago was a major harvest. I was asked to write a full-length novel set in the world of Black Tide Rising, and which would continue the story of Silvio Cipriano and his compatriots.
And boy, did I ever have fun writing this one.
The book is Perdition’s Storm, and it is hitting bookstores in November, 2025.
The cover art is from the very talented Kurt Miller. Both the artist and the writer (yours truly) are 100% human, thank you very much.
