The fourth chapter of The Gold in the Dark drops today! If you need to catch up with the last few chapters, you can do that right here. New chapters post every other Sunday at 11 AM EST, and each one is accompanied by a beautiful, custom illustration drawn by a mysterious illustrator. I especially love Chapter Four’s illustration this week, so I just had to put it down below—isn’t it just gorgeous?

You know, it’s really funny reading back through these old chapters—gives me a sort of a “high school reunion” feeling, if I’m being honest. I absolutely love The Gold in the Dark, don’t get me wrong, but some of the phrasing and sentence-craft is just a bit different than my current voice. I’m drafting a blog post right now about how to write close POV, and I’m finding that as I do final edits on The Gold in the Dark chapters that I’m stopping every so often to make use of some of the techniques in that post.

This week I’ve gotten back into drafting, at long last! The book I’ve been working on has a lot of sad details requiring research in the opening few chapters, and it’s been hard to find the motivation to do the research to make sure all the details are accurately and sensitively portrayed. But I’m pushing through, and even though there’s been a long gap from when I started drafting the book, I really do like what I wrote originally. The voice is pretty different for me… but in a good way, I think.

As for Specter, I’m still mired in formatting hell. As I comb the web for the absolute perfect fonts, sometimes I wonder if I’m too particular about the little things, but I do think these tiny details add up to a world of difference in terms of making the final book look professional. Like I said a few weeks ago, Specter is tentatively slated for release in late May or early June, so if anyone wants to be part of my ARC team, drop me a line.

I also wanted to mention a couple cool things that are happening on the blog right now. You may have noticed that I’ve started a new blog series called Short Tuesday, where I review short fiction and link to the piece if at all possible. The first couple posts have been some really eerie short stories by Kelly Link, so if you’re a magical realism or weird fiction fan, check them out!

There’s also a Saint Patrick’s Day themed post coming up, as well as bookcase spring cleaning and the introduction of #TSOOSI. What’s that mean? you may ask. You’ll just have to wait and see. 😉

So those are all my updates; exciting stuff is in the works! Have a great rest of your weekend, and enjoy Chapter Four! ❤