and it is a welcome change. I was at my favorite coffee shop yesterday for the first iced chocolate marshmallow since they closed in March. They re-opened on Monday to the delight of the community. Everyone that came in was wearing a mask and keeping their distance, but the smiles at the semblance of normalcy, were deeply satisfying.

My days are full with editing, blurb writing, putting together an acknowledgment and a “to my readers” page for June first, when the completed manuscript of Once There Was A Tree will go to my formatter. All while I continue to write, Can’t Be Tamed. I’ve had to take breaks along the way to fully flesh out the characters that have found a home there. Cerridwen will come after Lilith and I’ve had to introduce her more fully into the story line, along with her nemesis, the male lead. Zain Bishara was absent when I began to develop the series, but he popped up out of nowhere as a new medical examiner. It screamed conflict and I’ve been having fun creating a man who will enflame Cerri in more ways than one. He was, after all, the man who Cerri claims caused the cave-in that almost buried her alive. New characters are coming alive on the page again and I am happily engaged in the process. 

I can’t believe I’m already on book four of the eight part series and as my mind wanders farther down the road, I can envision another four or five women entering the sacred circle that has been formed by the women of Eden. They did once talk about increasing their numbers to thirteen, the number of moon cycles in a year. Miko was an addition I didn’t anticipate, which means a story of her own, and Zain’s mother Kimani, is an anthropology professor who will bump up the median age of the group, and add a crone to the mix, if they let her in. The juices are flowing, and I am squeezing them for all they’re worth. 

I do love this writing life of mine.