Before we go looking for the 11th demon, here is a glimpse of the possible cover of my upcoming book, “The 1st Demon: Imago Diaboli”. Full cover reveal is coming soon.

It took several years but I decided to self publish my first two Jonathan Steel books through iUniverse and then, BookPros. BookPros was a fantastic company. They mainly focused on marketing and publicity but then got into the “hybrid” publishing business. They only took books they decided were marketable and a writer had to go through the same process of presenting a book proposal as they would have to get a contract with a traditional publisher. However, beyond that point, I had to fund the project just as anyone would with self-publishing but the advantage was the excellent marketing and publicity program.

BookPros released “The 13th Demon” and “The 12th Demon” and both were successful. In fact, it was my success with BookPros that led ultimately to my third agent and a five book contract with Strang Communications (Now Charisma Media).

My local Barnes & Noble was kind enough to allow me to have book signings for both books and then asked me to participate in a unique event. Our manager for the Barnes & Noble asked several local authors to come every Saturday in the month of November and write a novel. We had about six of us sitting at a large table in the store with our laptops working on a novel. Potential authors were invited to come by and join us.

I first met Winnie Griggs at this event. Winnie Griggs is an award winner writer of book series (https://www.winniegriggs.com/) and she spoke at our recent Aspiring Writer’s Workshop conducted by our Louisiana chapter of the American Christian Fiction Writers. Our little group sat around the table and for a few hours every Saturday worked on novels. Anyone could come by and talk to us and ask questions. Winnie gave a short workshop on writing a novel.

By then, I had two books finished of my twelve demons and was working on the third book. It would be about UFO’s and ETs. But I wanted to do something that was an “in between” work bridging the second and third book. I had left the reader in a bit of a cliff hanger at the end of the second book. And the third book would begin a couple months later. I decided to write a story connecting the two books and it would not contain one of the twelve demons.

I also wanted to try an experiment. I would write each major scene from a different character’s point of view in first person. This would force me to get into the heads of each character and learn how to speak in their voice. By the end of November, I had finished what would become “The Ark of the Demon Rose”. I ran it through Xlibris with no intention of actually selling the book. It was short, but still long enough to qualify as a novel. I had a dozen or so copies printed and gave them away to my supporters. Free. No cost.

Now, I was years later and producing those five books for my contract. What to do with this book? After conferring with my representative, we decided I would retcon that book into the lineup of twelve demons. It became “The 11th Demon”. I worked very hard with Strang to rework and re-introduce the first two books. I have written about the difficulties of having to shorten the word count of those books making them less than what I had intended. This led to my recent release of the re-edited books as “Demon 13: Dark Covenant” and “Demon 12: Wolf Dragon”.

I have now re-edited that original “Ark of the Demon Rose” as “Demon 11: Ark of the Chimera” and here is the cover. It is now available at all outlets. If you have purchased prior copies of “The 11th Demon” still available from Westbow Press, this book has new content and is different from that original book. Westbow continues to provide that original book and I have asked for it to be returned since, technically, I own the copyright but that is a lesson for another day. I recommend seeking out “Demon 11” if you want to see more of the original content.

Tomorrow, evil will reign from the skies!