I'm Back -- Writing the New Series

Well, it's certainly been awhile, a couple of months anyway. First, I had to deal with a few personal issues, then a few professional issues, and then I had to clean my house. For those of you who do not write for a living, you have no idea how hard it is to keep the dust bunnies at bay.

set for Easter dinner

Anyway, I began to map out the new series story arc about a month ago. I took a weekend and laid all my notes out on the dining room table, went through each packet, and then made up an outline. The following weekend, I made up outlines for each of the books, and corresponded them with the overall series arc. Something I hadn't done with The Reluctant Grooms series. (I wrote that by the seat of my pants.)

what it looks like today

However, with this series, as it meets up with The Reluctant Grooms in various ways, I thought it best to outline. Hopefully, I won't lose my way.

I have started writing and finished the first five chapters of Book One. There will be 6-8 books in this series, I haven't actually decided yet. I'm trying to come up with a prequel that won't confuse my readers, but it's hard. I have everything in my head -- getting it down on paper is the worst part.

I've also done a few mock-ups for cover art, but have yet to speak with my cover designer about those yet. I'm wondering if I should have the "ladies" on the covers. Yet, as I was cruising the latest Regency romances on Amazon recently, I noticed more and more cover art that looks like mine. I want something different this time.

I've also re-edited all 9 volumes of The Reluctant Grooms. For the final time. I hope. I cleaned up the inconsistencies, punctuation, and any other flaw I found. And this also gave me the cleaned files for uploading to paperback, which I am on my way to converting. So for those of you who would like paper versions, they will be out before the end of June.

So here we are. I'm going to try and maintain a regular blog schedule over the summer. I'll post on Sunday mornings to keep you updated on my progress. For those of you who follow me on Twitter, on the days that I write, I'll post my word count. gallgher_anne  (My Twitter handle)

I'm looking forward to this series. It's going to be a bear to write -- new characters, new research, new storylines -- but I think it will be fun. I get to fall in love all over again.

See you next week.

PS  And no, I did not tell you the name of the series because I don't want to jinx myself. Call me superstitious.

PPS I'm hoping to have the first book completed by the end of the summer.

Anne Gallagher (c) 2015