"A piece of art is never a finished work...

...It answers a question which has been asked, and asks a new question.” - Robert Engman

This morning I finished the final edits on THE NECROMANCER'S APPRENTICE, which, you may remember, is coming to Evernight soon as a free read! Huzzahs! Re-reading the story for the third or fourth time this year, I realised there's a lot of scope for a sequel. Whilst this is definitely a story that stands on its own, there are still questions woven in that spark my writerly interest and make me wonder what happens next in this world...

...And this is bad, because I really don't need to be adding more series to my pile. I'm still working on In Cold Blood (which is clearly not going to be a nice little 30k novella anymore), and then I'm going to move onto Blood Canticles 3 because I am dying to get back to Lola and Tristesse. I want to at least have made a solid start on the next Urban Wolf novel before the end of the year, and I also have an ongoing Amber Morgan series that I'm crazy about. Plus the last two books in the Deva Chronicles trilogy. That's before we even get to Crow Called and Mercy's Gate, which you'll see on the left under the Work in Progress header. I want to finish them too, eventually...

I also want to write some short stories about LESBIAN WEREBEARS because I cannot get that idea out of my head right now. So a sequel to a free urban fantasy short story that's actually already been published once is waaaaaaaaaay down the to-do list. But there are questions left for me with Evanthe and Morrow's story. At one point I did plan a whole series of shorts set in their world, but focusing on different couples. I even had about half of one written, but that story vanished when my first laptop finally gave up on life. I guess the first question that needs to be answered though is, does anyone else want more in this world? I won't know that for a while...So I think any potential sequels can stay on the back burner for a few months yet.

But! The fact remains that THE NECROMANCER'S APPRENTICE is edited, the dedication and excerpt have been sent to my publisher, and I'm eagerly awaiting the spanky new cover and release date. Can't wait to share those with you, and I can't wait to see Evanthe's story back in the world. Fingers crossed it won't be too long now!

"The Wild still lingered in him and the wolf merely slept."

Jack London - White Fang

My writing policy last year was to write what I felt compelled to write, not try to stick to a pre-determined list. It worked really well - 2015 is, I think, officially my most successful year as a published author. Huzzahs! So obviously I'm sticking to that policy this year. At the moment I'm finishing an Amber Morgan project...and then will probably move onto another Amber Morgan project...and then maybe another. I don't know for sure, but all the ideas at the forefront of my mind right now are Amber ideas.

That's not to say there aren't Naomi ideas. There are! But I think they all need a less pantsy approach than I normally take with my books. There's Blood Canticles 3 (probably titled Through Fire), which will probably require two POV characters and needs a whole new world built for it. I'm still putting together that second world (if you've read DARK DAYS, you know what that world is!), and I don't feel ready to start writing until I've nailed down a few more details.

There's the languishing Mercy's Gate, which I started in 2014 (then called Nightmare Moon). It's the book of my heart. The Book/Series that I most want to write and find a home for, and that alone is making it weirdly hard to write. I need it to be exactly so, which to be honest isn't a great frame of mind to write a first draft in, because first drafts are not for exactly so in my opinion. First drafts are just for getting the bloody thing out of your head. But I've been stalling for over a year now and I need to gather my courage, put aside my internal editor for a bit, and just write the damn book.

And, maybe foremost in my head right now, there's a new Urban Wolf book. I loved writing COLD NIGHT MOON so much, it made me go dig out the Urban Wolf novel I started a while back, then shoved away for reasons I don't quite recall anymore. The working title is Black Dog, and I do think this will be the next Naomi project I tackle. It's going to be a tough one - sixth book in the series, time to really, really explode the world and set Ayla some new challenges. I've had a Big Idea for ways to progress the Urban Wolf series for a while now (in fact, I even started a spin-off called In Cold Blood that was going to help me do it), but other projects took precedence and Black Dog ended up almost forgotten. COLD NIGHT MOON reminded me that I still have a lot of stories to tell for my werewolf girls (including that spin-off, which introduces a whole new cast of werewolf girls!).

So I think I can safely say that Black Dog is next on my to-do list. Time to unearth all my werewolf folklore encyclopedias!

Oh, and I'd like to introduce you to my new writing assistant. She's not as good as Fergus yet, but she's showing great promise. Meet Yuki.