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Suggested reading order of all my books is based on the book numbers as they’re laid out. In all cases, read them from Book 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. all the way through to the last book in the series. Only two of my series need a bit more explanation about reading order.
Woodcutter’s Grim Series
In December 2020, I finished writing the final Woodcutter's Grim Series offering with Bridge of Fire, which was presented in three separate parts as they were published in 2021. After completing this last installment, I realized that the timeline of the series doesn't match the order in which the books were written, perhaps unfortunately.
Series timeline (i.e., the order of events in the series):
1. Papa
2. Blood of Amethyst
3. Dancing to the Grave
4. Moonlight Becomes You
5. Bewitched
6. One Night of Eternity
7. Beauty is the Beast
8. THE DEEP
9. HUNTER’S BLUES (A Mirror Darkly World Novel)
10. Bridge of Fire; Part 1: OUT OF THE ASHES
11. Bridge of Fire; Part 2: A NEW BEGINNING
12. Bridge of Fire; Part 3: INTO THE SUN
13. The Amethyst Tower, The Final Chapter
In the above listing, The Amethyst Tower is indeed "The Final Chapter" of the entire series. However, when my publisher and I were reissuing all the books with new cover designs and formatting at the end of 2020, we made the decision not to publish the short stories in this series individually anymore. It was then that the question of whether to package the books according to the series timeline or the suggested reading order came up. In other words, should we offer Papa, Blood of Amethyst, and Dancing to the Grave in one volume and The Amethyst Tower separately or put all four stories in one volume? On the surface, it seemed logical to do it according to the series timeline, given that the last story in the series usually comes…well, last. However, with this series, that didn't make as much sense as it normally would, and I hope to make the reasons for that clear here.
When I wrote Papa, Blood of Amethyst, Dancing to the Grave, and The Amethyst Tower, I thought I was done with the series. It never occurred to me that I'd ever write another story (let alone a whole mess of them) for the series. When I wrote those first four, my goal was to have all the stories tie into each other so there's a series arc built into each of them that contributed toward the conclusion in The Final Chapter. Given that, those four stories are simply incomplete without each other. The ending of Blood of Amethyst would be shocking and devastating without The Amethyst Tower, leaving that story arc just hanging there, without all the threads tied up. Dancing to the Grave has the seeds of its completion (with the fate of "Rapunzel" taking place at the end of it, which is the catalyst of The Final Chapter) in The Amethyst Tower. When all four of those stories are read one after the other, individual story satisfaction from Papa, Blood of Amethyst, and Dancing to the Grave only comes after reading The Amethyst Tower. Years later, I decided to write more series stories when I came up the idea of a miniseries within the overall series: Moonlight Becomes You, Bewitched, One Night of Eternity, and Beauty is the Beast deal with the Shaussegeny curse. In starting all over with new entries in the series, whether subconsciously or otherwise, I was already aware that the first four books I'd written needed to be read in the order they were written/published because of their shared series arc. If the stories were packaged according to series timeline, we would be forcing new readers to the series to hold out for that integral gratification of Papa, Blood of Amethyst, and Dancing to the Grave through nine more stories--some of them novels. To me, that felt more than a little unfair.
While at first glance, the way I went about the process of continuing the series after I wrote Papa, Blood of Amethyst, Dancing to the Grave, and The Amethyst Tower may seem illogical and not linear at all, I did have some method to my madness. First of all, this series deals with a unique form of time travel with the portals and other mystical elements built into it from start to finish. Specifically, one of those extraordinary components is the Mirror Darkly World, first introduced in HUNTER’S BLUES. The events that take place in that book play a large role in Bridge of Fire, providing what felt to me like a mind-blowingly cohesive connection between the two fairy tale worlds in this series in a way that isn't and wasn't there before Bridge of Fire's development. Because of all these elements, I think any "jumping around in the timeline" of the series is embedded into the premise and perfectly understood by anyone following it, book by book. Second, I wrote every book after the first four Papa, Blood of Amethyst, Dancing to the Grave, and The Amethyst Tower as if readers already knew the end of the story. All the stories that followed were written with the series arc premise built into those first four stories I wrote intact. Readers make sense of the stories that followed in light of the initial series arc foundation that concludes with The Amethyst Tower events. In other words, all the subsequent books work best when The Amethyst Tower is read directly after Dancing to the Grave. In conclusion, the Woodcutter's Grim Series makes the most sense read in the order it was written and published:
1. Papa
2. Blood of Amethyst
3. Dancing to the Grave
4. The Amethyst Tower, The Final Chapter
5. Moonlight Becomes You
6. Bewitched
7. One Night of Eternity
8. Beauty is the Beast
9. THE DEEP
10. HUNTER’S BLUES (A Mirror Darkly World Novel)
11. Bridge of Fire; Part 1: OUT OF THE ASHES
12. Bridge of Fire; Part 2: A NEW BEGINNING
13. Bridge of Fire; Part 3: INTO THE SUN
Falcon’s Bend Series
There are chronological details in this series that will end up spoilers if they’re out of order. The novels are all in order chronologically and according to the book numbers. For the short story collections--"case files"--they can, for the most part, be read in any order. They're not linear, necessarily. For that reason, the shorts don’t have or need book numbers because I've indicated the time period they take place at the start of each individual story. I've always inserted the case file volumes between two novels because most of the stories fit within the two novels that preceded them. To be specific, this is what I mean:
DEGREES OF SEPARATION, Book 1
TEARS ON STONE, Book 2
FALCON'S BEND CASE FILES, VOLUME I (THE EARLY CASES)
This particular case files includes stories that took place in the time periods of Books 1 and 2.
THE FIFTEENTH LETTER, Book 3
ROMANTIC NOTIONS, Book 4
FALCON'S BEND CASE FILES, VOLUME II
This particular case files includes stories that took place in the time periods of Books 3 and 4.
AS PATIENT AS DEATH, Book 5
PRETTY FLY, Book 6
FALCON'S BEND CASE FILES, VOLUME III
This particular case files includes stories that took place in the time periods of Books 5 and 6.
The suggested reading order then is, as I’ve laid it out above.
Woodcutter’s Grim Series
In December 2020, I finished writing the final Woodcutter's Grim Series offering with Bridge of Fire, which was presented in three separate parts as they were published in 2021. After completing this last installment, I realized that the timeline of the series doesn't match the order in which the books were written, perhaps unfortunately.
Series timeline (i.e., the order of events in the series):
1. Papa
2. Blood of Amethyst
3. Dancing to the Grave
4. Moonlight Becomes You
5. Bewitched
6. One Night of Eternity
7. Beauty is the Beast
8. THE DEEP
9. HUNTER’S BLUES (A Mirror Darkly World Novel)
10. Bridge of Fire; Part 1: OUT OF THE ASHES
11. Bridge of Fire; Part 2: A NEW BEGINNING
12. Bridge of Fire; Part 3: INTO THE SUN
13. The Amethyst Tower, The Final Chapter
In the above listing, The Amethyst Tower is indeed "The Final Chapter" of the entire series. However, when my publisher and I were reissuing all the books with new cover designs and formatting at the end of 2020, we made the decision not to publish the short stories in this series individually anymore. It was then that the question of whether to package the books according to the series timeline or the suggested reading order came up. In other words, should we offer Papa, Blood of Amethyst, and Dancing to the Grave in one volume and The Amethyst Tower separately or put all four stories in one volume? On the surface, it seemed logical to do it according to the series timeline, given that the last story in the series usually comes…well, last. However, with this series, that didn't make as much sense as it normally would, and I hope to make the reasons for that clear here.
When I wrote Papa, Blood of Amethyst, Dancing to the Grave, and The Amethyst Tower, I thought I was done with the series. It never occurred to me that I'd ever write another story (let alone a whole mess of them) for the series. When I wrote those first four, my goal was to have all the stories tie into each other so there's a series arc built into each of them that contributed toward the conclusion in The Final Chapter. Given that, those four stories are simply incomplete without each other. The ending of Blood of Amethyst would be shocking and devastating without The Amethyst Tower, leaving that story arc just hanging there, without all the threads tied up. Dancing to the Grave has the seeds of its completion (with the fate of "Rapunzel" taking place at the end of it, which is the catalyst of The Final Chapter) in The Amethyst Tower. When all four of those stories are read one after the other, individual story satisfaction from Papa, Blood of Amethyst, and Dancing to the Grave only comes after reading The Amethyst Tower. Years later, I decided to write more series stories when I came up the idea of a miniseries within the overall series: Moonlight Becomes You, Bewitched, One Night of Eternity, and Beauty is the Beast deal with the Shaussegeny curse. In starting all over with new entries in the series, whether subconsciously or otherwise, I was already aware that the first four books I'd written needed to be read in the order they were written/published because of their shared series arc. If the stories were packaged according to series timeline, we would be forcing new readers to the series to hold out for that integral gratification of Papa, Blood of Amethyst, and Dancing to the Grave through nine more stories--some of them novels. To me, that felt more than a little unfair.
While at first glance, the way I went about the process of continuing the series after I wrote Papa, Blood of Amethyst, Dancing to the Grave, and The Amethyst Tower may seem illogical and not linear at all, I did have some method to my madness. First of all, this series deals with a unique form of time travel with the portals and other mystical elements built into it from start to finish. Specifically, one of those extraordinary components is the Mirror Darkly World, first introduced in HUNTER’S BLUES. The events that take place in that book play a large role in Bridge of Fire, providing what felt to me like a mind-blowingly cohesive connection between the two fairy tale worlds in this series in a way that isn't and wasn't there before Bridge of Fire's development. Because of all these elements, I think any "jumping around in the timeline" of the series is embedded into the premise and perfectly understood by anyone following it, book by book. Second, I wrote every book after the first four Papa, Blood of Amethyst, Dancing to the Grave, and The Amethyst Tower as if readers already knew the end of the story. All the stories that followed were written with the series arc premise built into those first four stories I wrote intact. Readers make sense of the stories that followed in light of the initial series arc foundation that concludes with The Amethyst Tower events. In other words, all the subsequent books work best when The Amethyst Tower is read directly after Dancing to the Grave. In conclusion, the Woodcutter's Grim Series makes the most sense read in the order it was written and published:
1. Papa
2. Blood of Amethyst
3. Dancing to the Grave
4. The Amethyst Tower, The Final Chapter
5. Moonlight Becomes You
6. Bewitched
7. One Night of Eternity
8. Beauty is the Beast
9. THE DEEP
10. HUNTER’S BLUES (A Mirror Darkly World Novel)
11. Bridge of Fire; Part 1: OUT OF THE ASHES
12. Bridge of Fire; Part 2: A NEW BEGINNING
13. Bridge of Fire; Part 3: INTO THE SUN
Falcon’s Bend Series
There are chronological details in this series that will end up spoilers if they’re out of order. The novels are all in order chronologically and according to the book numbers. For the short story collections--"case files"--they can, for the most part, be read in any order. They're not linear, necessarily. For that reason, the shorts don’t have or need book numbers because I've indicated the time period they take place at the start of each individual story. I've always inserted the case file volumes between two novels because most of the stories fit within the two novels that preceded them. To be specific, this is what I mean:
DEGREES OF SEPARATION, Book 1
TEARS ON STONE, Book 2
FALCON'S BEND CASE FILES, VOLUME I (THE EARLY CASES)
This particular case files includes stories that took place in the time periods of Books 1 and 2.
THE FIFTEENTH LETTER, Book 3
ROMANTIC NOTIONS, Book 4
FALCON'S BEND CASE FILES, VOLUME II
This particular case files includes stories that took place in the time periods of Books 3 and 4.
AS PATIENT AS DEATH, Book 5
PRETTY FLY, Book 6
FALCON'S BEND CASE FILES, VOLUME III
This particular case files includes stories that took place in the time periods of Books 5 and 6.
The suggested reading order then is, as I’ve laid it out above.
