I am still clawing my way out of a month-long chest infection in addition to the flare of my aforementioned chronic health problems, but this week has been the first time in about six months that I have felt well enough to be able to write. My focus has been on Old Flames, which was originally supposed to be a newsletter-exclusive novelette and was also supposed to have come out last fall. I was having trouble with the plot before my health knocked me out of commission, but I am happy to say that I have finally figured it out and am very happy and excited about the change! The new plot doesn’t subtract anything from the original plan, but adds a lot more that will make the story flow better with the rest of the series (got that mystery subplot going!), incorporates more magic, and I think really does justice to Laney, heretofore the odd McCarthy out.
The change also means that the book is shaping up to be more book-sized than novelette-sized. (I’m still not sure if it will be as long as Alexandra’s Riddle, but it will probably be around the length of Arriving from Arkansas.) Since I had already promised the book to my newsletter subscribers, I will still be sharing it with them for free when it’s done, but the plan now is for it to be a limited-time download that’s only available to current subscribers, not future subscribers. Once the download period has passed, I’ll be publishing the book—complete with a paperback edition—through Crimson Fox Publishing, making Old Flames the official Book 2 of the Northwest Magic series (even though chronologically it takes place before Alexandra’s Riddle). The other books in the series will shift accordingly. And, of course, they’re all stand-alones, so they can be read in any order!
I haven’t updated the book’s blurb yet, but the current blurb isn’t that far off-base, it’s just missing some plot elements. I’ll update the book’s page and Goodreads listing when I have a better idea of when it’s coming out and the finalized plot details!
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