Where did January go? I have been firmly ensconced in my writing cave banging out a first draft of book 5 (while doing some copy edits for We’ll Always Have Venice on the side). I want to get this one down in plenty of time to get some feedback before the April deadline and because I have so many things I want to work on.
Another reason I’m deep in my cave is because I’m deep in the characters and the setting and all the background details (a few hours spent researching mistranslated classical Persian poetry anyone???). I just wrote a big reveal for the female main character that really changes the reader’s perceptions of her and I will have to reverse-engineer that one a bit because it didn’t fully form until partway through the draft, but that’s the way it works.
It is a bit of an (accidental) Aladdin retelling, which I love so much. Did you know the Aladdin story actually doesn’t originally come from the 1001 Nights? It was added by a French writer in the eighteenth century and later back-translated into Arabic editions! Anyway, too much information that will never make it into the book!!
I am also at the obsessive stage with my lovely love interest, who is deliciously serious (but slowly learning to smile). Here’s the aesthetic I made for it in a spare moment where I couldn’t sit at my computer, but I still wanted to think about the story. You may recognise the setting in there, too…
Leonie Mack 