Pat here!
After this week's release of Captivating the Countess, the sixth book in my School of Magic series, I’d like to say I’m now kicking back and taking a much-deserved break, but I’d be lying. I probably started writing Countess in spring of last year, and except for promotion, I haven’t worked on it in months. Right now, I’m deep into the first three books of a new series that won’t be out until 2022. Authors may look as if we’re “churning out” books, but the actuality is much grittier.
And when it comes to the last book in a series like Countess—it can be excruciatingly gritty. I may have mentioned this struggle before, because ending a series is not a cathartic experience by any means. By book six I have an entire world populated with familiar characters whose HEAs we want a glimpse into. I’ve built up a background story and future plot arcs for the final couple, the setting is set in stone, and my normal fly-into-the-mist story writing hits a mountain of detail. At this point, I want nothing more than to dive into a vast unknown ocean in another time and place and forget I ever visited Victorian England. (which is why I tend to switch between historical and contemporary settings, forgive me!)