Updates!

I have had many of my Scribblers ask about Forever England, so an update is due! First of all, thank you for your interest! It’s awesome to know that many eager readers awaiting book two of the Shadows in Drab and Green series. I promise I am toiling away.

My goal for this series has been to release a book about every 12-18 months. For those of you checking your watches–yep! I am not on track. But, I am moving forward and am motivated to keep burning the midnight oil by hearing from my fans.

Over the past year year, I’ve had a few unexpected diversions that kept me from making the progress I had hoped to. As most of my Scribblers know, I am an indie author. What does this mean? For me, it means that I don’t have an agent, I am not working with a traditional publisher and, it’s not my full time gig–no matter how much I love writing and participating in the wider writing community. This also means that writing is something I do when I can steal away a few moments here and there. In my real life, I am an officer in the US Navy, and a busy mom of three. And because of this, I’ve spent almost the entire past year deployed overseas, which really curbed my progress on Forever England (but was great for helping me to resolve my broader outline and organize my storyline for maximum progress now that I can devote more time to my writing). In fact, it’s helped me to learn a little bit more about curbing writer’s block, which is a planned topic for another post. But, back to the topic at hand…

…Forever England continues the story of Nora and Colin, and Edward and Elizabeth and the rest of their character entourage. My goals for the series remain the same–the portray the intricate relationship between society and politics in England and Ireland during the First World War. For those who felt that White Dove skewed too far toward the Irish perspective, I spend considerable time exploring the English experience of war in the second book, which is the inspiration for its title (for those of you who follow WWI-era poetry, here are links to the poems that inspired the titles White Dove –written by an Irish nationalist, and Forever England— a line from a famous poem about British patriotism in the early days of the war. Any guesses as to the poem that will inspire the third and final book title?)

I learned a few things during the writing process for White Dove that have helped me immensely during the writing and outlining for Forever England. First, this was my first attempt at two parallel storylines. In the first book, I wrote the book sequentially, switching between sets of characters as the book progressed. I learned that this method is really difficult for me because I have to engage with one set of characters, then leave them, only to pick them up again a few chapters later. This time, I am writing as if they are two separate books, then weaving together the storylines. This has actually helped me to stay focused on the storyline and be aware of ways to best interconnect the two plot lines.

So where am I now? I have finished the Irish storyline (and for those who wanted a little more action than the first book offered–this storyline is a page turner!) and am about one-third of the way through the English storyline. As you may have guessed, Edward and Gerald are off at war on the continent and Nora and Colin are spiraling further into the Irish nationalist movement and learning more and more about the delicate politics that drive the relations between the descendants of the Ulster planters (in the land that becomes the North) and the descendants of the Catholic tenant farmers (in the land that becomes the Republic of Ireland after the Irish Civil War.)

What is left to do? I have some more writing ahead of me and of course, the editing! Editing usually goes faster for me because I spend a significant amount of time reworking things as I go. I’ve even been known to do total chapter rewrites in the middle of the writing process because it helps me to streamline my work. (Many writers do not recommend this, but it seems to work for me and my writing schedule, so I am rolling with it.) After I finish my own editing, I will bring in the professionals for a few rounds of content editing and copyediting.

In the meantime, I appreciate your patience! What can you do while you wait? Consider writing a review for White Dove (Goodreads and Amazon are great places to do this! I read every review I get very carefully and try to even address some critique in the second book. They do influence my work.

I will continue to keep you updated as I go. Thanks for your interest and support. In the meantime, know that I am typing away and squeezing in some blog posts and a few promo events to get the word out about the trilogy. I’ll post the promo events here, so if you happen to be local you can pop in. I love to meet my fans!

Until then, keep Scribbling!

Katie