Quick Lil Update

Whoops! Here comes a VERY late blog post. I usually like to get them written on a Sunday morning, but here it is, Sunday evening . . . ah, well, it is what it is. I'm here now!

Yesterday, I had a GORGEOUS day walking out in the sunshine and exploring our area of the city. I got a sunburn 🥵 but I also bought a vintage sweatshirt, drank a delicious smoothie, and enjoyed a delightful vegan lunch, so I can't possibly complain. (Well, the wildfire smoke came to town shortly after that, but at least we got to enjoy the sunshine before that happened.)

Classic millennial behaviour, taking photos of their delicious vegan sushi bowls.

The reason I didn't post this update earlier today is that we went out to see the new David Attenborough documentary, Ocean. It was moving and I cried a lot. But it was excellent.

Publishing Update, sort of

Okay, I literally JUST finished drafting my newsletter update where I'm sharing the cover of The Mark of Thieves, so that's a huge thing! (The cover will appear on Instagram on Wednesday so the newsletter subscribers get to bask in their early access for a few days.) How exciting is that?

Anyway, since this blog post is going up before the newsletter with the cover gets sent out, I'll drop a teaser below instead.

ID: a graphic featuring an obscured version of the TMOT cover. White text reads: COVER REVEAL 11.06.2025

TMOT is also still with the proofreader, so there's been limited movement on that front. However, my husband continues to give solid feedback as he reads through the physical copy. Yesterday's commentary made me giggle.

Him: I kept expecting him to be looking at her boobs in that chapter.

Me: No! He's a good boy!

Him: Then I reminded that he was written for the women. By a woman.

Me: 😂

Writing Update

Since I'm largely hands off TMOT at the moment, I've been powering through TPSOS as best I can. Subway writing has really been my friend lately. I just finished Chapter 28 and am working on Chapter 29.

As it stands right now, TPSOS is longer than TMOT and has a greater number of chapters. However, TMOT was, in fact, longer than the current WC at the beginning of the editing process. TPSOS also definitely has some shorter chapters, so that difference makes sense.

At my last Pacemaker update, I was at 68,798 words (see below).

ID: a Pacemaker screenshot showing the above word count.

I ran out of time and had to start a new one, though, so my current "words edited so far" total is 75,138. I'm aiming for my initial completed edits to be around 104,000 (and edit down from there).

Interestingly, I did a bit of chapter rearranging this week! No chapters have changed POV like in my last update, but I did decided to switch the places of two chapters, for two reasons: one, to break up two chapters of the same POV and two, to build suspense more effectively. I think it'll work better (once the current chapter has been finessed).

Snippet

Have I ever mentioned how much I love writing Dr. Allan Armstrong Dale?

Whirling on Armstrong, she flips her knife into the air and catches it easily, folding her arms after the wordless, not-so-subtle threat. “You. Keep him alive. Got it?” This poor, unwitting doctor. Like he ever had any chance against her. Cloying sweetness and biting command mingle in her voice; her fingers drum against her arms. It always makes me smile, seeing Spider come out, all sharp and clever and coy, the one who’s been dulled and buried since Will disappeared. Her prickling tone sends a flare of hope burning through me, hope that things might soon go back to normal after all. “I took the Hippocratic oath, you know,” he says, somewhat helplessly. If Colette knows what that means, it just makes her smile.

That's all for this week, folks. Thanks for reading. Send lots of love and happiness you're way. (It's my last full week of teaching, so I'm flying high over here.) Have a wonderful week!