The Passage into Autumn

Autumn has finally returned here in the Southwest, and we can feel the passing of summer into winter. The harvest and roasting of green chile is almost over, and the leaves have begun to brown along their edges on the trees.

If all goes well, there will be one more burst of blooms from the trimmed rose bushes, and then they’ll go to sleep for the winter.

Some of you already know that the print edition of Cubicles, Blood, and Magic is a finalist in Science Fiction & Fantasy for the 2015 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards. (The lists are a great way to find authors and publishers located in the Southwest to take a closer look at.)

I’ve been offline almost completely these past two months as I wrestle with the last 1/3 of the sequel novel to Cubicles, Blood, and Magic. What makes it so awkward is that I feel as if I’m collaborating with an earlier version of myself. The novel was started and the first draft finished back in 2013, then got derailed in the editing process due to severe illness and other difficulties.

Health-wise I am finally whole again. So things should get moving rather quickly as autumn passes into winter. I’m excited by what is to come.

I am not the same writer I was back in 2013. I’ve changed. A lot. So most of the sequel got rewritten this year from the ground up … but stays true enough to the 2013 version to not be a complete break from the past.

Book three in the Dorelai Chronicles will be where I can start with a clean slate from the first page.

So now, as the seasons pass from one extreme to another, is a good moment to pause, look around, and enjoy the change in the flowers, grass, and trees. Some parts of the world are waking up, and some are going to sleep. Whichever way it is, may it be wondrous to watch.

Pleasant days, Lynn

P.S. The short story in the Dorelai Chronicles universe,  A Maze of Cubicles, is still available to download for free from various e-bookstores. You can click here to find a partial list of stores. (Please note you may have to notify the Amazon store that it needs to be set back to free. It tends to randomly go off of free.)