*deep breath*

On Oct. 2, Daughters of Legianne was officially handed over to my editor. The first step of this editing process will focus on the developmental edits.

Giving it to alpha and beta readers made my stomach a swirling mess of nerves. Signing on two readers who just read the book and gave flow/cohesiveness feedback made my toes tingly from nerves.

Don’t even get me started on what it felt like to finalize the book’s cover.

Or get the page templates set-up for formatting.

Somehow, this next step has made this whole process feel the most real.

I don’t have an official release date, but I am aiming for around my grandfather’s birthday this spring. Should things not work out, it won’t work out and I just move the date range forward into the year.

Given book two has been really hard to write from the emotional heaviness it contains, causing me to need to pause more frequently despite how desperate this part is pounding at my head to be written – this is a good thing.

I know some people take years and years between releases, and that’s okay, but my goal is working on 18-month timelines for all four books each. Six to write, a year for editing, mending, expanding anywhere things may fall short.

Plus, I’m still figuring out this self-marketing thing.

Especially when the market is saturated with younger female leads, and mine is older. In fact – all of my characters are older.

They’ve moved on, and away from high school and college life. They’re established in adulthood.

And although there is romance in the books, it’s not the central focus. Because my characters are, to be blunt, juggling some serious shit. Not just “dastardly plots” against witchkind, but things in their personal lives, their mental health, their platonic relationships.

Róisín is faced at first with what we, the reader feels is “the reluctant hero” trope. However, we find out there’s a lot of buried secrets in her family. Her grandmother Aoife and her mother Brenna made choices, did things, set events into motion that uncover something far bigger than what she can even fathom at times.

Caid steps into the mix and before he can even grasp his new reality, is hit with a massive plot twist of his own which knocks him off balance and leaves him treading water.

Shasta has been carrying secrets of her own for decades, partly out of fear, and partly out of love.

There’s a huge theme around growth, healing, and generational trauma throughout the series, but it is central to Daughters of Legianne.

There is bisexual, lesbian and non-binary representation.

And magic. A different way of looking at powers, the inheritance of them, and their use.

I’ll hope you’ll keep following along on this wild journey of mine as I step into the world of publishing and share this story with the world.