It’s beginning to look spring-like near me, and as the weather gets warmer, obviously it’s time to…settle down at the laptop for more writing!  I was very happy to meet my March goals – I finished the latest revision pass of The Princess Behind Thorns, the first in my newest series, and sent it off to beta-readers last week.  I’m putting that one on pause until I get feedback, and then I’ll do final revisions and get the story out to all of you!

For April, I’m working on the second book in the Thorns series, The Princess Beyond the Thorns.  I wrote this one for NaNoWriMo a few years ago, when I thought it was only the second half of the first book.  But it got…long.  So I have a rough first draft of Book Two already, and am working on some initial revision this month. I really enjoy this installment in the series – Terrence and Rose fell in love in Book One, but they still have some things to work out in Book Two.  Plus the attention shifts to two new villains, and the stakes get higher.

I don’t want to give away too many spoilers, but here’s a short excerpt!

Rose’s parents had their own vault in the mausoleum, a lengthy inscription on the floor detailing their history, and life-sized stone statues in the center of the space.

“Well, that brings back memories,” Rose murmured, looking at the statues.  They were standing arm in arm, heads high and expressions regal, staring into the distance.  Rose shivered, and moved closer to Terrence, shoulder leaning against his arm.

“Does it look like them?”

“Yes,” Rose said faintly.

Terrence had been watching Rose.  Now he looked at the statues, looked closer at the image of the dead queen, then back again at Rose.  “I never realized—your mother looks a lot like you.”  It gave him a queer feeling in the pit of his stomach.  He reached out to put his arm around Rose, suddenly not liking the sight of a statue resembling her standing above a grave.  How strange to think suddenly, too, that if she had never been enchanted, or if the enchantment had ended after a few weeks as planned—she probably would be buried in here somewhere.

Thorns is my primary focus right now, but I also have some news related to my Guardian of the Opera series.  No new writing, but I’ve been doing some new design work – and I’m going to be unveiling new covers!  I like the covers I have, and the paperbacks will staying the same, but I decided to refresh the ebooks with new cover designs.  So stay tuned for new cover reveals soon!