Hey, hey! I know it’s been a while since I dropped in here, but things have been happening! Books have come out, both my short story collection Three Tales of Powers which released on Halloween, and the third book of the Sugimori Sisters series, The Holiday Experiment Files, which is out today! I also finished Winter’s Consort book 4: A Protector Over Winter back at the end of October. That’s right, it’s done! And what’s more, it’s well into production work, as is the series as a whole. Things are right on track for the release of book 1: A Prisoner to Spring in March 2022, and I’m SO EXCITED! Not to mention, of course, the Compiled Lab Notes of the Sugimori Sisters, the omnibus of these silly science experiment stories which will release on New Year’s Eve.
After all the sweat and tears these books have taken, I needed a break. So I decided to take the whole month of November off from writing. That meant not participating in NaNoWriMo, which did feel kinda weird, but given my output this past year and a half, I think it’ll work out just fine in the end. Instead, I read books, I played video games, and I refilled my creative well. And I have definitely come out the other side with lots of fun ideas, which I’m jumping into this month. Some of my first projects will be goodies for my newsletter subscribers, so if you haven’t already, you might want to sign up 🙂
But the main goal for December is to set myself up for success in January. About five years ago, I wrote a fun fantasy novel about a clockwork queen and her daughter facing off against sky pirates and a robotic dragon in a spooky forest. It was really good then, and I still think so today, but I didn’t publish it because it was clearly book one of a trilogy, and I… had no idea what ought to happen in book 2. One thing I learned from publishing The Songbird River Chronicles was that I absolutely hate publishing a series while I’m still writing it, and at the time I wasn’t confident enough in my ability to write quickly, so I just held onto the clockwork novel. Over the years since, I’ve tried many times to sit down and come up with a plot for book 2, but nothing ever seemed to work right.
But now I’ve got something, and I’m super excited to finally return to these awesome clockwork ladies and their fun world of machines and magic. I’m going to be starting on the second book in January, which means I need to do a readthrough of the first book this month in preparation.
Here’s to the final push of 2021!
