The Pace, She Quickens

The end is in sight.

I've been working on the new Masks cover for what seems like forever.  Now I only have a few details left, maybe a half day's work (which will take me two days) and I can get started on the cover for Confidante.  With any luck, I'll put up Confidante and reissue Masks with the new cover by the end of the month.  They might even go up during my super-secret working retreat this week.

Work on the third book is stewing, perhaps even boiling over.  I want to write on it sooo badly, but I think the build-up before putting more words on the page is good for me.  I've already decided to change a bunch of stuff in the beginning, so it's fantastic that I haven't made my way halfway through the book before I discovered I had better ideas for where and when and how to start.

In other writing news, work progresses on the origin story for the Gelantyne mask at a more sober pace.  There's something lurking in there that I haven't found yet.  I want to introduce another character that's only been mentioned once so far but will probably be a huge element in this story, and I'm not sure how.

The maker of the Gelantyne mask is a middle-aged woman who took over her father's theater mask business.  She came from a broken family and hasn't opened herself to the possibilities that love brings to pull herself away from work long enough to give love a chance.  Then one day, two strange men show up on her doorstep. Not that unusual a circumstance for someone whose father's fame and reputation had spread as far as it has, but these men want something more than a theater mask.  It seems innocent at first, of course, just another mask, but something about them, especially the one whose voice and hands draw her to stand ever closer, suggests terrible danger.  To fill this contract, she may risk more than a broken heart.