Once again, Adrienne Stringfellow is narrating, and I’m glad she is.

Give it a listen on Audible!

The Faceless Man will follow with its own audiobook by the end of the year. But you can already read the complete Terrific series in paperback and ebook formats.

The post Listen to ‘The Silver Stranger’ appeared first on Daniel Sherrier.

I’ve been working toward this day since 2003, when I started writing a play about a young woman who develops telepathy and discovers that people she knows are secretly superheroes. That play, Super!, led to a pilot script for a nonexistent TV series I called Selfless, and that led to scripts for a comic book series I called Terrific, which inspired a prose series of the same name.

After a few failed novel drafts, I finally landed on the right story and published The Flying Woman in 2018. A second novel followed in 2022 with The Silver Stranger (the closest of the quartet to the original play, though still very different), and the third book struggled until I shifted from novels to shorter stories that build on each other, which I serialized here on Substack. Instead of a third and final novel, I ended up with two story collections: The Faceless Man and The Green Shadow.

Throughout all of that, the core premise remained constant: superhero identities as the cocoons in which people developed into their best selves.

In the superhero genre, at one end of spectrum you’ve got the purely benevolent, flawless superheroes of the Superfriends mold. At the other, the cynical non-heroes of The Boys and the like. To me, more interesting than either extreme is the question of how a flawed person becomes a true superhero. What’s it like for a fallible human being to try to live up to such an exceptional ideal?

That theme continues all the way through The Green Shadow.

Synopsis for The Green Shadow

This is the end. Maybe the end of everything.

For two years, Miranda has tried to become the best Ultra Woman possible. She’s defeated many foes and rescued countless lives. But she hasn’t saved everyone.

Her failures haunt her in the form of the Green Shadow, an ominous specter that lingers in the corner of her eye, reminding Miranda that she isn’t built to be a perfect hero.

In other tales, Alyssa meets a man who can create paradise, but only at a tremendous cost. Ken experiences a bizarre metamorphosis. Carey struggles to adapt to a flawed world. And a deadly villain prepares to strike at last.

This final sequence of stories brings the TERRIFIC series to its thrilling conclusion, as imperfect people must strive to be the heroes their world needs … or there may not be a world much longer.

Read The Green Shadow.

Read the full announcement on my Substack.

Thank you!

The post ‘The Green Shadow’ Has Landed appeared first on Daniel Sherrier.

The Green Shadow, the fourth and final Terrific book, is in production and should be out in paperback and ebook this August. For now, I have a cover to share. Justin Burks has once again created the art and design, as he’s done for the previous three books, and I’m thankful he was available and willing to complete the series.

Here it is:

And now for the official synopsis:

This is the end. Maybe the end of everything.

For two years, Miranda has tried to become the best Ultra Woman possible. She’s defeated many foes and rescued countless lives. But she hasn’t saved everyone.

Her failures haunt her in the form of the Green Shadow, an ominous specter that lingers in the corner of her eye, reminding Miranda that she isn’t built to be a perfect hero.

In other tales, Alyssa meets a man who can create paradise, but only at a tremendous cost. Ken experiences a bizarre metamorphosis. Carey struggles to adapt to a flawed world. And a deadly villain prepares to strike at last.

This final sequence of stories brings the TERRIFIC series to its thrilling conclusion, as imperfect people must strive to be the heroes their world needs … or there may not be a world much longer.

I haven’t set a specific publication date because I’m not doing preorders. Once it’s ready, it’s going live.

Of course, you can already read the first three books. I won’t stop you.

The Flying Woman

The Silver Stranger

The Faceless Man

The Second Audiobook

Meanwhile, the second audiobook is also in production. I’ve listened to the first half of The Silver Stranger, narrated by Adrienne Stringfellow, who voiced the audiobook of The Flying Woman as well. It’s sounding great so far, and it should be out within the next few months.

Read more about The Silver Stranger.

Thank you!

The post ‘The Green Shadow’ Is Coming appeared first on Daniel Sherrier.

Here’s the basic blurb:

Superheroes are supposed to be perfect. They’re also not supposed to exist, but one has recently emerged, in defiance of all known laws of physics. Miranda Thomas is hardly concerned with any of that. She’s focused on little else but her lifelong ambition of becoming a movie star … until she discovers a fatally wounded woman who seems much more than human.

This encounter gives Miranda an opportunity to become only the second superhero her world has ever known. But how can she become a perfect superhero when, for all her power, she’s only human?

Listen to it on Audible.

It was fun to revisit a novel I wrote several years ago, and the timing worked out well; I was listening to the first book while writing and revising the final Terrific story. Full circle. While of course there are little bits and pieces I’d do differently in 2026 compared to 2018, I’m still happy with it. I enjoyed my own work, which I suppose is a good thing.

But with an audiobook, I can’t take all the credit. A talented narrator is key, and I was fortunate to find one.

These days, Amazon offers authors the option of adding a “virtual voice” to our books, but I never considered that for a second. I was a theatre major back in college, and I focused on playwriting. Listening to actors interpret and perform my scripts was a joy. It was never exactly what I envisioned, but it was usually better. Their creativity enhanced my own. Multiple heads are better than one head plus a robot.

I’ve experienced the same working with cover artists. Justin Burks has illustrated and designed each Terrific cover, including the Audible version of The Flying Woman shown above. Each time, I give him some basic ideas, and he comes back with far better ideas, and the final product far surpasses whatever I was picturing. At pretty much every convention or book festival, I receive compliments about his book covers.

And it’s the same idea here. Through the Audible audition process, I found Adrienne Stringfellow and quickly knew she was the right fit. Her performance brings each character to life, and the book is better off for her skill. I definitely needed to cast a real actor to voice this aspiring actor-turned-superhero. I’m glad I did.

Adrienne has narrated other audiobooks, so be sure to check those out as well.

Meanwhile, I’m polishing the final Terrific book, which will collect the current volume of serialized stories. It will be called The Green Shadow, and I hope to have it ready by the end of the summer. If you’ve been following along, the final storyline kicked off recently. More to come!

The post Listen to ‘The Flying Woman’ appeared first on Daniel Sherrier.

Here’s the basic concept:

In a struggling bookstore in a dying mall, a dispirited accountant finds a childhood dream on an old spinner rack.

For more information about this event, and to find other new stories, check out The Midnight Vault on Substack. Events like these are an excellent opportunity to discover talented up-and-coming and new-to-you authors, so I encourage you to venture into the vault and dig around.

Thanks to all who take a look!

The post The Spinner Rack appeared first on Daniel Sherrier.

First up is the Hanover Book Expo on Saturday, November 8, at VFW Post 9808 in Mechanicsville, featuring many local authors and a range of genres.

But if you’d like to focus on fantasy, sci-fi, and superheroes, you can opt for Virginia ComiCon on Saturday, November 22, at Richmond Raceway.

Or come to both! Any which way, I’ll be there with all three Terrific books.

The post Come to the Hanover Book Expo and Virginia ComiCon! appeared first on Daniel Sherrier.

I started serializing my next book on Substack nearly one year ago. That next book is now an actual book: The Faceless Man.

In the initial announcement last year, I said:

Superheroes work best in a combination of short and long stories—episodic adventures as well as ongoing sagas. The smaller stories humanize the characters so that we care about them when they’re trying to save the world.

I had already written and published two superhero novels, but the third one kept failing to work. And that’s what it was missing—the smaller stories whose plots can’t sustain a full novel on their own but which do continue to build on each other and flesh out the characters. Without these, the eventual grand finale wouldn’t be nearly as meaningful. The Faceless Man fills in that missing piece of the puzzle.

Here’s the blurb for the new book:

“We must become something more than we were,” Fantastic Man had told them.

But he’s gone now—the world’s first super-powered crimefighter is missing in action, leaving only a few to carry on. Miranda strives to live up to the ideal of Ultra Woman despite reminders of her own shortcomings. Ken dons the blank mask of Mr. Amazing while wondering if there’s a better way. And Alyssa tries to put her brief stint as the Silver Stranger behind her.

Their adventures continue in The Faceless Man, a collection of stories and vignettes that journey from the depths of the human mind to the surface of the moon.

Olympus City produces an endless variety of extraordinary phenomena wrapped within fallible humanity, pushing these three friends to their limits—pushing them to become something more.

The paperback and ebook editions are now available. You can also add it to your shelf on Goodreads. If you read and enjoy it, please be sure to leave a review! Each review is a huge help.

The serialized versions have begun retreating behind paywalls, but paid subscribers of my Substack publication will continue to have full access. The last story has two chapters left; they’ll publish on the current schedule and will initially be free to all subscribers (but not forever!).

The Faceless Man is the third book in the Terrific series, following The Flying Woman and The Silver Stranger. While I’d recommend reading them in order, you can start with any of the three.

Thank you for reading, and thank you to everyone who read and supported the original serialized versions of these stories! Your encouragement has been tremendously appreciated. And to everyone who was already waiting for the third book, thank you for your patience!

The post New Release: ‘The Faceless Man’ appeared first on Daniel Sherrier.

The third book in the Terrific series will be out in March 2025.

The Faceless Man collects the stories I’ve been serializing on Substack. They’re still free to read right now, but they’ll start going behind paywalls soon, when more polished versions are available in paperback and ebook form.

Justin Burks, the same artist who created the covers for The Flying Woman and The Silver Stranger, developed this cover as well. I certainly think he did a great job as always.

Stay tuned for further updates. For now, here’s the basic synopsis:

“We must become something more than we were,” Fantastic Man had told them.

But he’s gone now—the world‘s first super-powered crimefighter is missing in action, leaving only a few to carry on. Miranda strives to live up to the ideal of Ultra Woman despite reminders of her own shortcomings. Ken dons the blank mask of Mr. Amazing while wondering if there’s a better way. And Alyssa tries to put her brief stint as the Silver Stranger behind her.

Their adventures continue in The Faceless Man, a collection of stories and vignettes that journey from the depths of the human mind to the surface of the moon.

Olympus City produces an endless variety of extraordinary phenomena wrapped within fallible humanity, pushing these three friends to their limits—pushing them to become something more.

The post Coming Soon: The Faceless Man appeared first on Daniel Sherrier.

Read the first part here.

You can also keep up with the series by following this index here.

Don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t already. Thanks for reading!

The post The Manor Within appeared first on Daniel Sherrier.

I’ve been working on the sequel to The Flying Woman and The Silver Stranger, and I realized it needed a different format: shorter stories that build on each other, a mix of episodic adventures and ongoing sagas. That’s the sort of structure superheroes are built for.

Please see this post on my Substack site for more details — and also to subscribe for free. You’ll be able to get each new installment delivered straight to your email as I post them. The first one launches this Sunday, April 7.

Thanks for reading!

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