It’s hard to believe that I am deep into the structural edits of Book #3 in The Wolves of Llise series. The Harper Voyager team designed this gorgeous cover. It’s my favorite of the three books! I love the colors, the hint of frost on the fall leaves, and that brass button that is given to Devin in Book #2 as a token of entry to Madame Aucoin’s home. Fall is my favorite season by far and this cover epitomizes it!
 

This  book was a long time coming. Months passed with a few feeble attempts on my part to begin and then finally in December when there were dozens of other things demanding my attention and an unexpected hospitalization that only just had me home for Christmas, my head was suddenly full of dialogue, scenes, and new characters. I felt as though my head would burst before I could lay everything out on paper. Before Winter emerged fully grown on the computer screen. Words tumbled out, the count growing with each day, and I spent the next 3 months deep in the northern provinces of Llise. Four days a week, I took my breakfast upstairs to my office, skipped lunch, and emerged staring vacantly around 6:30 in the evening. I barely saw my husband and daughters, because my writing devoured most of my day. 
Writing can be as addictive as adrenaline – coursing through your mind and body until you can’t think about anything else. It becomes so important that you forget to eat or drink or sleep or pay your bills on time. The creative process provides its own energy, burning bright and true. It can also burn you out but you are unaware you are being consumed by it while you are in the throes of giving birth to a novel. It’s no secret that I usually get sick after I’ve finished a book.  It’s worth it though. It’s just the price I pay for putting my thoughts into words on paper.

Before Winter is the third book in a trilogy, but I am loath to leave these characters behind. There is still so much of Llise to explore. Already I am toying with where a fourth book might take these characters I have grown to love and have created with my own mind and hands. Creation is heady stuff! I’m not about to stop now!