Counios & Gane: Beginnings
We are starting something new.
Angie
June is the end of the school year for me, but I also think it’s the beginning of many great things: lax schedules, beaches, and my holiday season. It also brings the longest day of the year, days full of sunlight, warm evenings, and nature fully establishing her green everywhere. As you can tell, summer is my favourite season.
But this year, June is also the beginning of our fifth book in the Shepherd and Wolfe Mystery series. Yes, you read that right: the brainstorming and building of Wolfe’s Blood has begun!
David and I have started talking out the story structure and asking who, why, what, where, and how. We have been jotting down ideas and pondering the progress of our characters, Tony and Charlie. It is as exciting as it is nerve-wracking.
It’s been a while—almost two years—since we’ve returned to this process of story building. And at this point in the series, there is quite a lot to remember in terms of details—four books worth to be exact. It’s like going for a run after a very long hiatus and not having a clear map of where the jogging route is. And nothing like a little added pressure knowing that our committed readers will catch any of our continuity errors.
So, with full disclosure, I can say that I’m a little nervous, but I know we are heading in a direction that I feel good about. And, well, if the path isn’t quite right, there’s no reason we can’t redirect ourselves.
So, here’s to a productive summer with Charlie and Tony, and with David, and his excellent eye for details and questions. May this be the beginning of a solid start!
David
We’re not just beginning a new book; we’re beginning a new way of writing them.
Up to this point, we’ve always outlined our books ahead of time, planning a road map to help us get us to the end. But while we worked on our last two, Wolfe in Shepherd’s Clothing and Shepherd’s Call, the stories changed so drastically that we had to build new plans to make it to the end.
So this month, when we started working on Wolfe’s Blood, we knew things had to be done differently. Instead of a big plan initially, we only worked out the first quarter of the book. And instead of sending Angie off to write the first half of the book, she only needs 5000 words, which is only a 1/16 of the book. Once she’s made her way through that, then we’ll meet again, discuss what’s been written, and figure out where we’re going next.
Our ending hasn’t changed—it’s the same one we’ve known since we finished up Along Comes a Wolfe. But our journey to get there is presently unknown, and we’re as excited as you are to find out how we get there.