Enjoying the three-day-weekend, to begin with. The first half of February will be rather fraught because academic competitions are starting, and I’m assisting with two, plus supervising testing for a third and starting to coach for a fourth.
The fourth Shikari book, Woman’s Work, is in cover design, so I will begin a final check-over and formatting this week, if all goes well.
I am 40K words into Shikari #5, still no title, and know where the book is going, mostly, although I’m sure it will not get there via a straight line. This is Kor, Micah De Groet, Tomás and Co. we’re talking about, plus a toddler and a six-year-old.
After that will be polishing and preparing Miners and Empire for publication, and sending the last Colplatschki book to be edited and cover art et cetera.
People have been asking for more Familiars stories. I’m at a bit of an impasse, because I have some ideas where things could go, but I’m not certain I have the background knowledge to go there, and I don’t want to turn this into a “Tay the Lemur God Saves the World” escalation.
There might be some short stories in the Shikari world. For one thing, Micah De Groet has been up to something that no one can talk about. And just what is his relationship with the university, anyway, that he spends so much time unsupervised?
I hope, once I can get ahead of the needed work in my new-to-me class, I can start writing more. Perhaps. Maybe.
Cat Rotator's Quarterly 
Yikes, is Micah deGroet in the role of Cornelius exploring the Forbidden Zone, from ‘Planet of the Apes’? Scary thought.
For the Familiars, any thought to having Lelia marry, and let nature take its course? Husband and wife shadow mages could have adventures like the Stainless Steel Rat. A Goth-mage wedding? Now that’s a book in itself. The baby carriage would probably glow like a major Artifact, after all their friends finish adding protections and stain/ichor release to it. And cup holders …
More Familiars!!!!! 😆
I’m much in favor of more Familiar stories, though some could feature other mages. Also a long-distance relationship for Lelia … and maybe a story whose ending is not so sweet. And Rosie might prove she is growing more resilient.
Heck, a sorcerer or a witch/warlock mightwork, too.
Uncle Leopard is… interesting. I might end up doing another short-story batch. I think the muse is favoring Shikhari because I have a framework to work inside of. The Familiars take more creativity, something I am a bit shy on at the moment.
Yes, more Familiars, please. It would be dark, but more of Rosie’s backstory would be interesting, especially as background as she adapts to more “normal” (for Mage definitions of normal) life.
Looking forward to whatever you put out! 🙂 And yes, the muse is fickle at times…
All praise Tay the Lemur God!
Don’t give him ideas!
Indeed. I have visions of him leading the ferrets in a rendition of “I Like to Move it-Move it,” like King Julien XIII, Lord of the Lemurs, Master of Mammals, Etc., Etc., Etc. from the “Madagascar” animated movies. I’m taking bets on when Cinders puts some Nair in his grooming brush.
Dang, the characters really do grow on you.
Ferrets and Tay … a match made in catastrophe!
she is writing Familiars, not Journey to the West
Would like to see more of Rosie…perhaps she gets a promotion to be familiar to one of the children?
The Familiars milieu does seem to lend itself more to shorter stories. Personally, I’d like to know more about Morgana and Smiley. (I find the idea of a wolverine as a Familiar to be fascinating.) I’d also second the request for more about Rosie and her family. And a story or three centered on the thaumato-vet, Dr. Lewis, and some of his more “interesting” cases. Lelia could appear as a secondary character in any of those stories.
There’s always Shoshana’s backstory.
Have you considered,.instead of shorts, two or three character-centered novellas to a book?
It read to me as if you were working an arc about Shoshona that isn’t finished, although it isn’t exactly left hanging,either. i certainly enjoy the Familiars. They all read as linked shorter works, not novels. And that fits my reading better sometimes. I’m still tryiing to find time to sit down with your latest POWErs book.
Oh, and you more-or-less promised to get Lelia into some of Boris’s outfits 🙂 .
True. I’ve got a few ideas bubbling, but first I have to get through four weeks of the interactions and interrelations between the four branches of the federal government (the Constitutional three plus the executive branch agencies.)