Hi all and apologies for not posting more regularly. I am really under the pump work-wise just now with the manuscript for Blackthorn 
& Grim Book 3 due to be submitted by the (extended) deadline of late January, so I am not attending to my social media very well. I have done a recent interview with the lovely Anne Gracie for Word Wenches, where she and I discuss Dreamer’s Pool, Tower of Thorns, and the writer’s life in general.
I’m hoping to finish the manuscript by the end of December and spend January polishing it further. This is not a first draft – the ms has been extensively edited already on a ‘fix it as we go’ basis. That last substantial edit and polish focuses on logic and continuity and helps me get the ms as perfect as possible before it goes to the publisher. If I’d organised my time better or had fewer veterinary crises in 2015, I would have had time to set the completed manuscript aside for a few weeks, so I could then go back to it with fresh eyes. As it is, I will be lucky if I can manage a few days for that. But I should meet the deadline at least.
This is quite a complex book and has not been an easy one to write. Because my contract is for three books in the series, and because I would like to continue the adventures of Blackthorn and Grim beyond that, this novel has to work both as the end of the series and as a possible jumping off point for further stories. That is a tricky balancing act – it’s a lot of story for a single novel.
We now have a title for B&G Book 3: Den of Wolves. I hope you like it. It does reflect the dark and devious nature of some characters in this story, which is set largely in a place called Wolf Glen.
I’ll be back as soon as I can with further dog tales and book reviews, also a Q&A with UK historical novelist Margaret Skea, whose new book, A House Divided, has just been released.
PS the image I chose to illustrate this post relates to a story thread in Tower of Thorns.
Image copyright Florence M. Guerinet (Bremond) from dreamstime.com
