I Promised You A Trilogy, Science Had Other Plans
Dear Readers,
My kitchen-adjacent workspace at The Modern Schoolhouse retreat
The truth is that I have been at war with my story. I have a clear memory of standing in the bright kitchen of a renovated schoolhouse and telling the other women I was on retreat with that my plan was to have the draft of Book 2 complete by the time I was launching Book 1. That was last January. My launch was April 1. Guess how close to complete my Book 2 draft was by that point?
Hahahahaha!
And I was so confident too. (Insert facepalm emoji here.)
Please let me assure you, this was not for lack of trying. I have done a good job of keeping my committment to write daily. Adopting the Pomodoro technique, I would set a timer for half an hour, and allow myself to do nothing else until I’d first worked on my book.
But here’s the thing: sometimes, writing time is just staring-at-the-screen time. Sometimes it’s re-reading chapters because you think it will finally tell you where it’s going. (It doesn’t.) Sometimes it’s wading through a block that’s so heavy you’re convinced it’s made of lead when, in truth, it’s actually just your mindset. Sometimes, it’s arguing with yourself about how it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if you just let book one be a stand-alone and scrap the whole idea of a series. (It would be the worst thing. What are you even saying?)
So… it’s been a bit of time…
Just look at that focused and cocky writer, being all productive on retreat last year, celebrating that she’d be done writing book 2 in just three short months… God bless her and her sweet short-sighted naivety.
It took almost giving up to find the source of the block: I’d built myself a box and I needed to tear down its walls.
I thought I had a handle on the whole thing. I thought I was creating a trilogy. I had three titles and three covers and it all made a lovely little package. (Can apocalyptic be lovely?) Then science arrived like an unwelcome plot twist and demolished my careful plans—much like I demolished the world in Book 1. My plan didn’t work because science demanded more time. The important beats I needed to hit were spread across a timeline that did not adhere to three books. To maintain believability, I needed more space between important moments.
And so, my friends, I’ve come to a decision that felt heavy—but once it was made, felt very, very freeing. The Path That Takes Us Home, the series that began with When The Trees All Burned and was supposed to be a trilogy—has expanded into (at least) four books. This will allow me to pay more attention to the tender days immediately following the end of Book 1 without the rush or timejump my original plan demanded.
So, my current structure is as follows:
When The Trees All Burned. (The Prologue) Released April 1, 2025. If you haven’t already read it, go do that now so you can be another one of the people knocking on my door and begging me for Book 2.
Where The Ashes Find Their Grave. (The End of the Beginning) The draft will be ready for beta readers by April (God willing) and for release by Labour Day, 2026 - for reasons you will definitely understand if you’ve read Book 1. A new cover was required for this book - and that will be revealed at an exclusive Book 2 sneak peek in Owen Sound on April 14.
Title to be Released at a later date TDB. (The Reckoning) I already know what it is, but I need to keep some mystery… Release date unknown.
How We Taught The Earth To Breathe (The Future) Release date unknown.
A few things are surprising me about this book: scenes in space (lots of research into the International Space Station), a partial script for the one-man play Ark! Please that Aiya attends in Book 1, and the reapperance of a character we thought we lost coming at you in a very unique way.
I am very close to finishing it. And only one year behind schedule!
I think this book was telling me what it needed all along and I was too stuck to my original THIS IS A TRILOGY message to listen. That stubborness has cost me MONTHS of progress. I resisted the truth because it was “easier” than reworking my plan.
At the back of Book 1, I included the covers of the second and third book in the series. I included them as if they were truth. That’s kind of embarrassing. I had big posters made that I take with me to every signing event that touts the trilogy message—those are useless now. I am eager to a fault, and I often get ahead of myself, but this time feels bigger and more consequential than most.
I allowed resistence to take control, rather than addressing the block and tearing down the box I’d put myself in. It was more comfortable to stay stagnant than it was to take a true step forward. And that’s not even true. That’s just the lie I told myself to justify my lack of progress.
On that retreat last January, I took along Steven Pressfield’s book The War of Art: Break Through Your Blocks and Win Your Creative Inner Battles which is ironic considering everything I’ve just shared. And what is even more ironic is the passage I highlighted for myself 13 months ago that I found among my retreat photos today. I’ll post it below. I can’t even…
All this is to say the Where The Ashes Find Their Grave is so very close, I am so very unblocked, and I am so eager to share the continuation of this story with you.
I anticipate needing ARC readers this spring. If you’ve read When The Trees All Burned and you’re interested in participating in that and providing a review, I would be so grateful. Please go HERE to sign up. If you have not yet read WTTAB, you can grab an instant download from Chicken House Press for just $1.99 right now. Get caught up on the story and then come back to sign up for the team. I’d be pleased to have you join.
If this happens to be the very first thing from me you’ve ever read, let me assure you that my actual writing is much more palatable than this chaos and I hope you come to enjoy the yin and yang of flawed human and polished author. 🧡
Thank you for sticking with me. I promise* it will be worth the wait.
*promise in no way guarantees that you will love this book or the rest of the books in the series, it’s simply a coloqial way to tap you on the shoulder and offer my condolences for making you wait. I will not be held responsible for your feelings about my work - you are welcome to hold those in any way you feel fit without hurting my feelings****by feelings I mean my overly sensitive heart that wants nothing more than to satisfy your need for a good story, that takes critism personally, but is also enough of a pragmatist to know that I am not for everyone and that is okay******by okay I mean you’re allowed to feel the way you feel and I’m allowed to feel the way I feel and as long as we promise* to respect each other, we’ll get through this dark and uncertain time