This page is the fourth and final set of notes on writing by P. A. D. Jacob, documenting works published after his first wife's death, and in the wind down of the regular web newsletters and the final demise of HiPiers. It also documents unpublished works that have been identified (not including early works mentioned in Anthony's autobiographies).
See the part 1 web page for works referenced in BiOgre. See the part 2 web page for works referenced in How Precious Was That While. For works published during the HiPiers newsletter period, written after How Precious Was That While, and during his wife Carol's lifetime, see part 3.
A new hipiers.net website was posted after moving to California. Since the posting user is PiersWeb2025, I'm referring to it as PiersWeb. <piersweb2025@gmail.com> is the new email. Anthony now refers to columns, not newsletters. Some seem more like short notes. For MaryLee's blog, see murimccage, which has occasional reflecions and observations on Piers and his writing through 2025. In the Fall of 2025, MaryLee fell ill, and passed.
This article is intended to be read from top to bottom, enabling a kind of chronoligical reading order. This table of contents provides links for reference.
Fire Sail was finished in April 2016, the first draft finished in March. I read the 5 November 2019 Open Road Integrated Media first edition with a picture of an older woman and a young man standing on clouds looking at a firey part of the sky in the shape of a sail, illustrated and designed by Amanda Shaffer.
An aging woman, feeling past her prime, and a young man, feeling hopeless for love, find each other as they traverse the tests needed to enter the Magician of Information's castle. In typical fashion, the magician orders them on a quest to deliver a magic sail boat to its owner. Thing is, they don't know the owner, and what does that have to do with their questions? Certainly a typical Xanth. I detect some wrapping up of loose ends since the switch of publishers to Open Road Media, as well as a more relaxed style. This was enjoyable at the beginning, coasted a bit for awhile in the plot, and then warmed up as the story passed its xenith (spelling intended).
As an incidental note, I sent Anthony the only pun suggestion I've thought of for Xanth, suggesting that the fourty-second Xanth novel surely must take advantage of a Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy Easter egg of some sort. Alas, that never made it into this book, and apparently I'm not the only one who thought of it as someone else got the credit in Jest Right.
I am reading the 25 January 2020 Dreaming Big Publications trade paperback. Most of the stories were written after Tryst of Fate. Here's the story titles:
Walk the Walkin April 2019, (see the May 2019 HiPiers newsletter)
Ride the Ridein Read the Read. Little boy Tommy is goaded into riding one of the scariest roller coasters known, but his past traumas make it difficult.
Jest Right was begun in February 2017 and finished in April, (see the author's note). I read the 14 July 2020 Open Road Integrated Media hardcover. The cover design and illustration are by Amanda Shaffer, showing a woman dancing in a leotard under denim overalls with the shoulder straps loose.
Jess is a woman who's talent is to not be taken seriously, which has caused untold havoc to her hopeful love life. Magnus is a man looking for a warm-up act for his traveling entertainment group, but needs someone who can travel and is thus unattached. They are both going to the Good Magician to solve their problems when they discover each other, and realize they may not need the Good Magician, until they rescue lost Myst, the youngest of the rescued children from Five Portraits. With renewed but different purpose, when they get to the Good Magician, he's been affected by a forget spell, and sends them on an unknown mission.
The first half of Relationships 7 was written next, followed by Hair Peace.
A Home for Skylaafter Six Crystal Princesses.
Notes were started in December 2017, the first half written in January 2018, and finished in March 2018. See the December 2017 and January-April 2018 newsletters. The march newsletter mentions that daughter Cheryl stepped down from the newspaper she worked at for 20 years. I am reading the 9 February 2021 Open Road Integrated Media hardcover edition.
I read the Mannison Press February 2021 first edition paperback, with cover illustrations by Deidre J Owen and pixabay.com, written in April 2019. See the May 2019 and April 2021 HiPiers newsletters.
Ride the Ride
was also written in April 2019. Ride the
Ride is mentioned in the June 2020 HiPiers newsletter. These were
both Mannison Press collections.
The final story Fly the Fly
is unique to this volume, finished
in February 2021. It was written after The Genetic Code (a
collaboration with David Fletcher).
A girl meets a skeleton and becomes friends. A boyish man becomes friends with a ghost. All three finally become linked together.
Notes first taken June 2018. See the July 2018 HiPiers newsletter. The January-April 2019 newsletters indicates that this was started in January and finished in March. I plan to read the 19 October 2021 Open Road Integrated Media hardcover edition after starting Hilltop Farm.
Hilltop Farm was mentioned in the August 2018 newsletter.
Hilltop Farm was apparently finished in December 2018, started
as a summer project
in June 2018. I'm planning to start the
10 December 2021 Write Place paperback after finishing
Skeleton Key.
The first notes for Six Crystal Princesses were written in May 2019 (see the June 2019 HiPiers newsletter), was started in August 2019 (see the September 2020 newsletter), and finished December 2019 (see the January 2020 newsletter). I plan to read the 31 May 2022 Open Road Integrated Media hardcover after finishing Relationships 8.
First mentioned in the December 2019 HiPiers newsletter, which seem like preliminary notes as Six Crystal Princesses is in progress. The June 2020 newsletter indicated the novel had been started in May. Apoca Lips was finished in December 2020, though I suspect that is not the final or submission draft. See the January 2021 newsletter.
The June 2020 newsletter mentioned four novel length projects
was a collaboration with J. R. Rain, who stopped the work, perhaps
because it was taking too long during the pandemic, the loss of his wife,
and his remarrying. Also see the August 2020 newsletter.
Mundania Press was noted as no longer responsive, but it appears that though Dreaming Big Publications is noted in the October 2020 newsletter as being a primary publisher to take over, unfortunately this is about the time that it too became (effectively) unresponsive (though I noted comments in 2025 from the publisher that they are a one-person shop and can only work on so many books at a time).
I plan to read the 31 January 2023 Open Road Integrated Media hardcover.
Originally titled The Ugly Nymphs, notes were made immediately after completing Apoca Lips (see the January 2021 HiPiers newsletter), initial notes started in December 2020, then retitled Three Ugly Nymphs. Three Novel Nymphs was finished in May 2022, (see the June 2022 newsletter). See the February 2022 newsletter for beginning the writing, and retitling. The August 2022 newsletter reported on the novel's completion.
Knickelpede Knight is Xanth #49, first mentioned in the January 2023 HiPiers newsletter, writing begun in April, and finally published, but only barely: an audio book release is available. Knickelpede Knight is the first writing done after the move to California, as first identified in the April 2023 PiersWeb newsletter. The previous newsletter, February (March was missed), ends with the note of another fall Piers took, with a hit to the head. Maybe MaryLee decided enough was enough, and the mile-and-a-half trip for the snail mail, and the feral pigs and black bear, weren't worth it. The July 2023 column indicates the completion of the novel, as does August.
Here are stories, collections, incomplete works, or books that are as yet unsold, but not suspected as having been abandoned. Notes are references to where Anthony discusses details of the story, or where I've found further information. The Unstilled World is discussed in context of Sos the Rope.
Virtugirlwas ever published, though there is a submission page for stories, and a blog asking for donations. See the January 2015 HiPiers newsletter.
Invisibly Captive. As with other Dreaming Big Publication sales, nothing seems to have come from them since Hair Peace. As I've mentioned elsewhere, that's a one person publication, and it can be intolerably slow.
The Alien Cleanersis a collaboration with MaryLee, mentioned in the June and August 2020 HiPiers newsletters.
The Wrong Starsbeing written in August. It was written during (before) the writing of Apoca Lips.