New Moon – New Book

Life is a collaboration.

I have been spending time the last few mornings incorporating the edits I have received from my various confidants. A core group – my inner circle of readers – has been following along on a daily basis from word one, reading the book chapter by chapter and giving me their thoughts/edits in real time. Knowing that the crew was waiting each day fueled the process, and gave me the discipline to sit and write each morning. I am forever in their debt. They let me know that the final resolution worked not just for this one book, but for the entire five book series, which they all know better than I do. I am so appreciative of their respective commitments to the process. They know how important this book is to me. I love them all.

Then there was a secondary group that has gone above and beyond their obligations as my friends to cold read the complete draft of Where The Ley Lines Meet and made the time to contribute to making it the best it can be. Each reader brings their own perspective to the story. And trust me, each new set of eyes picks up something new.

Some have challenged my perspective on individual scenes or characters, and that is good. It made me go back and tweak different parts of the book.

They are all now part of the backstory to the writing of The Claire Saga – The Claire Trilogy, its prequel, Finding Jimmy Moran, and now the sequel, Where The Ley Lines Meet.

And it will never be perfect. I am limited and flawed in talent and skills. But I hope that the resolution of this story does the prior storylines and characters justice. I want the reader to come away from the experience feeling satisfied that I gave them the best that I can. And that I told a story that they discovered that they needed to read. Hopefully it made them laugh, and cry, and want to hang with the characters, while they all found each other and bonded over food, drink, fighting and love. Because while the act of reading is a solitary pursuit, if the book has done its job, it has brought the reader into its pages and made them feel like they were part of the experience.

A good story will take the reader out of their respective here and now, and let them get happily lost in the somewhere else.

Most of all, I want the reader to feel the magic I have experienced hanging out with Claire these past few years.

An Amazon reviewer named Jack Blasingame, recently posted a review that captured my heart and my intention for these books.

“This story and this author deserve the support of readers everywhere. And every reader – able and willing to do so – deserves the opportunity to read about Claire and her incredible, very extended, totally awesome family.”

Because, when it is all said and done, it is all about family. Mine, yours, ours. And hope for a better future.

So, Monday is behind us. Always a good thing.

I have to get out there and make a living.

But first, a kitty cuddle and my rounds to visit with my four legged friends.

The dreadmill can go fuck itself. I’ll get back to it once I send WTLLM off to BRW.

You fine, five readers get out there and take on Tuesday.

But whatever you do, make today a great one.