Last week I got a wonderful birthday present: My blog readers, friends, and family helped push Darkness Rising: Book One of The Catmage Chronicles into triple digits. Thanks to everyone who purchased a copy by November 15th, it was my second-best birthday ever.
I spent the weekend plotting Book Two, which is a lot more complicated than I’d realized. Oh, yeah, I have the overarching plot of the series, but getting from Point A to Point Z is not as easy as reciting the alphabet. I realized a while back that I need to set up all of the major plot threads of the rest of the series in Book Two–at least, the ones that I started in Book One have to be continued and fleshed out, while the ones I have in mind for the rest of the series have to be started and pointed in the right direction. And then there are always the surprises. Like this conversation between a friend at work last week:
Jay: You know, you really should think of Biblical names for your Catmages. There are some pretty good names in there.
Me: Yes, but I don’t really want to use names like Jedediah.
Jay: Well, Methusaleh’s a pretty good name.
Me: Yes, it is, but I don’t want–hey, wait… Methusaleh… he’d have to be really old… hm…. [runs to desk to write notes]
Yep. Book Two now has a Catmage called Methusaleh (not his real name). He is crankier than Nafshi, and I like him almost as much as I like her.
Featured image for today: Miss Gracie, looking FABulous.