A while back I spoke of my concern with my third book’s title, due to a few unrelated yet troubling posts made by other authors and asked readers of my blog or other social media sites to help me select a name.

So I’m pleased to announce that I’ve finished the first draft of my third book, Thicker Than Water!

Freakin’ finally, amirite?

An example of the obstacles I faced.

This book took me a lot longer to write than either of the first two books, and decidedly longer than I had intended. The reasons are manifold–new job, new losses, new obstacles etc. but I think the main thing is that this book is the darkest I’m intending to write, and that took a lot of energy from me.

Those of you who know me or who have followed my thoughts before know that I have very strong feelings about an author’s responsibility to their characters and their audience when it comes to discussing trauma. I take it quite seriously, and it means getting inside the head of my characters and reaching for their pain. It was slow going, learning about the different ways people deal with the events I talk about, figuring in how that would alter later reactions to things, and then, of course, trying to capture that in a way that makes sense.

Not to say this book is all sad. I hope to show a lot of what people have been asking about–how they came into this life, why they treat each other like they do, and what makes them tick. It was always the intention for book 3 to be a bit of the origin story and I’m really excited to introduce several characters I hope you will love as much as I do.

Many naps were required to finish this book!

So, now on to editing, which has always been my stronger suit, I think. I hope to have my first beta readers on it by Halloween, and we’ll see how long it takes to finalize things from there.

If you’ve read books 1 and 2 and are interested in being a beta reader, please let me know! I try to have about 6 or 7 folks who are not editors read it before I send it for final clean up, as I think writing is always collaboration between author and audience, so might as well get a couple rehearsals in before the live performance.

Very motivated to get Thicker Than Water into your hands and out of my head!