I have nothing much to report this week, as I have taken some time off between releasing the last in the Larkspur series, and starting in earnest on the next series, while also working up ideas for The Clearwater Companion. It was my birthday last weekend, and I released ‘The Larkspur Legacy’ on the same day to mark my birthday and that of Archer, Lord Clearwater, though he was born way before me, in 1859. I chose that as his birthday so I would remember it.
Thank you so much to my readers who jumped in and purchased Legacy over the weekend, it shot up to #9 on the new release chart for LGBTQ Historical fiction and shared a screen with KJ Charles and her fabulous latest releases. It makes all the hard work pay off, for sure. Thank you.
This week, I am doodling notes for a possible new series. More mysteries, the same time period, the same mix of fact and fiction, but with entirely different characters. Exactly what this is to be, though, I am not yet sure. I am in a state of ‘getting over’ the last 18 connected books in Clearwater and Larkspur, and moving on. There’s a danger I will simply reinvent the same characters, so a break is needed. This week, I am catching up on some other writing jobs while making my notes, and next week, I shall be abroad for a week, so that should clear my head too. It’s a good idea to take a break now and then. I’m known for leaping straight from one thing to another, and when you’re writing a connected series, that’s easier to do.
In fact, after writing Deviant Desire and knowing I wanted to carry on, and after getting through ‘Twisted Tracks’, I found the rest came more easily. One reason for that was because I had, by then, created my five main characters, and didn’t need to think too much about them. They develop through the rest of the series, of course, but I only had to think about the new additions, developing the villains, moving time and character arcs forward, and so, found both series easy to write. Now, I am nearly at the end of one journey and at the start of another. I am changing trains, you might say, and, like Clem Carter in the Larkspur series, heading for an unknown destination.
Midnight on the Great Western – ‘The journeying boy’
Thomas Hardy
In the third-class seat sat
The journeying boy.
And the roof-lamp’s oily flame
Played down on his listless form and face,
Bewrapt past knowing to what he was going,
Or whence he came.
[Read the rest here: https://www.oxfordlieder.co.uk/song/1431]
Exciting times.
