Hello Foxes!
In a plot twist surprising absolutely nobody (unless you’re new here, in which case, welcome!) I have written an extra book.
Whoops.
My plan was always to draft the entire Whisperers “trilogy” before publishing the first volume. The entire time I was writing the third book, I had this nagging feeling in my head:
This is two books.
No! I said. No, we’re writing a trilogy, and for once in your life, Fox, stick to the damn word count.
Well, we all knew that was never going to happen. I can’t even write a short email.
But I made myself adhere to the trilogy concept, despite knowing I was going down a difficult path, and yes, I managed to finish the series in three books …
… the third of which is longer than the first two put together. We have a political coup, a rebellious uprising, a spy-thriller-esque murder mystery, threats from every quarter and an artist magician unable to paint. Oh, and not one but two romantic subplots.
That’s probably enough material for four books, but I’ll trim it down. The nice part is it’s already written. The un-nice part is I’m not sure exactly how to untangle it and make it into two books.
But recognising the problem is progress, right?
In less likely news, I also wrote a short story
I think the trick with short pieces for me is that they can’t be written by themselves; they are an overflowing from something else. Which makes them less short stories and more like bonus companion scenes, but still. I wrote something short!
And you can read it, if you want to. It’s a fairly harrowing scene from before the Whisperers trilogy series starts, where Del and Santo (friendly exes in the main series) have just broken up and Del is struggling with a magic-induced panic attack. On the edge of a cliff.
I don’t know how well it will work if you haven’t read Secrets yet, and you won’t have read Secrets yet unless you’re in the early access tier on Ream or have possession of a time machine, but if you’re keen to give it a go, all you have to do is follow me over on Ream. Following does require an email address, but don’t worry, my nonsensical rambling is far more minimal over there.
If you’re not into first person present tense, don’t worry, the rest of Whisperers is third, past, with dual POV ;)
Secrets illustration updates
Remember last fortnight I shared a photo of what essentially looked like a blank piece of paper?
Here’s how that turned out!
I’ve also finished the illustration of Del in his studio employing a rather unorthodox method of painting:
All these pieces will appear in the illustrated edition of The Secrets We Save, coming to Kickstarter in July, so if you haven’t signed up for the pre-launch yet, you can do that here.
Young Adult Fantasy Giveaway
If you’re into YA, there’s still plenty of time to get your name in the draw for this:
Alright. I’m off to untangle the myriad threads of The Truth We Won’t Believe. Wish me luck!
Happy reading,
Kel