Seriously. I want these. Even if I didn’t have cats, I would want these.

It’s been two years since I started this blog in an attempt to shame myself into getting off my butt and actually doing something about that pesky “I want to be a published author when I grow up” dream.

So. Here we are. If you’ll cast your eyes to the right, you’ll see a new progress bar. It’s tiny, as of yet, but we have lift off. I have broken the seal on the first few scenes for the next book.

And this, to me, is crazy-pants. I honesty don’t remember much about writing the first two books. How can I already be on book three? How can I have contracts already on the first two books? They can’t possibly be finished.

Except, you know, the first one comes out next month, so I must have finished it.

I think the problem here is that my imagination is a little too strong. I spent such a huge chunk of my inner-life imagining all this, that when it really happened, I kept going along as if I’d made it up. At some point, I have to come out from my own head and look around. This happened. For realsies.

And so, book three begins with my poor, put-upon Zoey squatting on top of her house, trying to talk a harpy into giving back her car keys and coming down off the roof. Because I like to start in the middle of things, and the more preposterous the situation, the better.

Book three is not the end, as I’d supposed it would be. Okay, I’ll admit, I figured there might be more stories for Zoey down the line, but I didn’t have anything planned. But the big story–the story lurking within the pages of the first three books–hasn’t even happened yet. My super-awesome editor helped me chip it out and find the subtle foreshadowing I didn’t even realize I’d put in there. So, book three is not the end, as it turns out. It’s the halfway mark.

But. After this book, Fairies in My Fireplace, Zoey’s going to take a short break. Not too long, mind you, but I’ve been pushing back my djinn story for a year now, and she’s getting restless. If all goes well, I’ll be writing one Zoey book and one djinn book a year for the next two and a half years. Zoey gets the spring/summer shift, and the djinn gets the fall/winter one.

It’s good to have a plan, yes?

So, keep an eye on the progress bar. My starts are usually a little slow, but it’ll take off soon.

And then maybe I’ll remember writing the first two.