What month is it????

So.... I've had a blast this summer, apparently! No time to blog, so that must mean it's about time for school to start again and kick some work out the door. 

The first part of the year was dedicated to studying the craft, actually. I swallowed The Story Grid whole, I think, then went back and went over it all again, and have since reviewed it further still. It's AMAZING... and I have some charts and graphs I keep with me, just to remind me while I plot my next series. 

Wait -- next series?? What happened to Elliot's fourth book? Combat in the Cold?? Wasn't there going to be a knock-down drag-out fight at the end? Elliot still needs to save to world or something, right? Will he ever get the chance to show Sky he can eat pizza with chopsticks?? 

Well.... I have made it a deadline now. I want to have Combat finished, in the can, and printed copies in my hand by October 6. Why? Because there's a book fair that weekend and I think I'm going to get myself a table and throw my books on it and have a fun day up on the Long beach Peninsula in Washington. 

So what have I been doing while NOT finishing Elliot's last book? I've been planning a 12-book series, of course, called the Chronicles of Cordelia. Cordelia being a tiny town on the northwestern tip of Oregon that reminds me a lot of Astoria. Huh. Weird. 

The series will start by focusing on my main character, but other books will allow other characters to have their time in the spotlight, with my main character always in there somewhere. There will be love and heartbreak, BFFs and friends lost forever. New friends, new loves, families and friends, and plenty of magic -- witches and ghosts, myths and legends. Maybe even some buried treasure.

I am so so so excited about this new series... I want to have plenty of fun extras ready when the first book rolls out, and all of that must be planned too. My hope is that with all of the plotting I've already done for each installment in the series, the writing will clip along, and that means the books will get to my readers even faster. There are FIVE MONTHS until 2019 --- so it's time to BUCKLE UP. 

Have I mentioned my daughter takes amazing photos?

Mary is 13 and finally got a camera last Christmas. She does not mess around.