What’s your next project?
I’ve had several people ask me what I’m writing next after Arrivals and Departures. (A&D) Since A&D was published in October 2020, I’ve been writing a sequel. This new book is tentatively and probably indefinitely called For the Love of Block Island. As with the title Arrivals and Departures, this title works on many levels.
Unlike A&D, For the Love will follow one storyline. That story is Sean Wolf asking Heather Littlefield to marry him. For those who haven’t read A&D, Sean is based on my nephew and Heather is a created character who lives on Block Island. When I revealed this to my editor, he felt initially surprised because he knows my aversion to writing a novel is at the heart of why I haven’t attempted it. What is the reason for that?
Simple, it’s because I feel I don’t have the ability to carry one storyline straight through. After having some time to reflect, he came back and said this could be seen as a steppingstone. I think he’s right. In the first story of For the Love, Sean and Heather get engaged and the last story will see them married at the Spring House.
Each story in between will have separate plots but will also follow the wedding plans for Sean and Heather. The other connection to the title is that each story will have a romance at its center. Now I have three stories done in first draft form. I hope to complete seven or eight stories for this next book. My goal is see this published in October 2022, two years after A&D. And four years after my first two books.
Do you see a pattern here? I want to publish every two years.
All the characters from A&D will return in the sequel and a few new characters will turn up as well. I will post excerpts from For the Love of Block Island in an upcoming newsletter. In the meantime, For now, for those who haven't yet purchased A&D, here are some excerpts from Arrivals and Departures.
One more piece of A&D news:
I’ve had so many old high school friends and even friends from my childhood who I haven't heard from in years reach out and tell me how impressed they were with the book.
Hearing from old friends who found the book and tell me they can't wait for the next one is so motivating and heartwarming.
I understand that I've asked this consistently, but I'm hoping that people who have read A&D will post reviews at Amazon and GoodReads.
