I find myself torn in at least three directions these days.
Having sent final copy of The Renegade Wife off to my editor at Soul Mate, I have been staring at blank Word pages and editing task lists trying to formulate a marketing plan. Since the book has an expected release date of October, I had better get cracking.
Renegade begins in Upper Canada, and tells the story of a curmudgeonly recluse, Rand Wheatly, who finds himself the reluctant host of a woman and her children when he finds the squatting in his house. When he discovers she isn’t a widow but a renegade wife who ran to protect her children from their abusive father, he has to make a decision. He returns to England to enlist the help of his rich and powerful family to hunt for and protect them, no matter what it costs him. It is the first of a new series I’m calling Children of Empire. All the stories will be set in the 1830s and 40s and all will involve a close group of friends and family with dealings in various parts of the growing British Empire. Renegade’s Pinterest Board is here.
At the same time, I have begun to write the next book in the series, The Reluctant Wife. That one begins in India with Rand’s brother Frederick, an officer in the East India Company forces. Envisioning characters and scenes is a disjointed process. A long walk will sometimes give me two scenes. Other days, nothing. Since I hope to have it in draft by August, I can’t wait for a muse to land on my desk. I need to unleash the ones in the basement. I’m listening to a lot of Ravi Shankar, looking at period paintings, and reading reading reading. Watch for a Pinterest Board soon.
While that is happening, I completed and am editing a holiday novella to include in the Bluestocking Belles holiday boxed set. An Open Heart has a heroine who is young but by no means naive and a hero who needs to readjust his thinking about women’s roles, even in a traditional Jewish home. My challenge is to keep that project from taking time from the other two.
Speaking of Canada, did you catch my post Brûlé and the Great Lakes on History Imagined?
And then there is Life. I juggle. But first? Coffee.