Now here's my plan...

A personal revelation has been growing on me now for several weeks. The big problem with Ben and Raven's nowhere-near finished fourth adventure is that it got way too complicated. Too many characters, too much going on for me to remember no matter what clever methods or programs I employed. Too much stuff! Someone in my Facebook fan group said... well, I don't remember exactly, but I have finally concluded that they were right. There are two books here trying to happen at once.

One of them is Titania's story: fantastical, mythical, musical! With the binding spells woven into a silken gown, the crystal spectacles, the pressure of the Unseelie Court.The relationship between Titania and Oberon, their own histories. All

the things I've shared with you this year, and lots more. That's the skein to which everything else must spin. This will be Island of Echoes, starring Ben Harper and the ever adorable Raven.

The other is London, 1939-40, which was meant to provide one of three earthy subplots and a couple of supporting characters: 14-year-old Nick Bell and his sister Minnie. But in the course of researching and creating them and their backstory and the people around them who also connect to the main thread, well, it kind of got

out of hand. So I'm pulling out all the Blitz scenes to rebuild, somehow, for The Face in the Wall, starring Nick and Minnie Bell and (wait for it) Dominic "Sparrow" Harper-Powell.

Ideally, the two novels will have cross-over, interconnecting threads and characters, songs and themes. Because I also envision a third and concluding novel to what will be an actual trilogy, provisionally called Queen's Champion.

So... There it is. Wish me luck!

And by the way...

You can find all of Ben and Raven's current adventures in both paper and e-versions, and a few other interesting things to read, at amazon.com and all your favorite online booksellers