Not Long Ago
Sleep was elusive last night. After working on Chapter One of my WIP for most of the evening, I couldn’t get it out of my head. Ideas kept swirling round and round. I tossed and turned for over an hour before I got up to play FreeCell in the hopes it might make me drowsy. I checked my email and was thrilled to find a contract from MuseItUp for From Now On, sequel to my time travel adventure/romance, Not Long Ago.
When Not Long Ago was finished, I began submitting it for publication, with no plans to make it into a series. A total newbie, I figured one step at a time. Tiny baby steps. Fast forward a couple of years, a lot of rejections and a lot of revisions. After I signed with MuseItUp, my daughter, Carrie, read the manuscript to get a feel for the book trailer she was creating.
She read the last page and called me immediately. “That’s not the end, is it?”
I felt as though I’d resolved all the major questions and ended the story in a good place. “Didn’t you like it?”
“Yeah, but…you can’t stop there.”
“What do you mean?”
“Erin and Griffin’s story isn’t finished. I want to know what happens next!”
And that’s how it became a series. In Not Long Ago, I pictured a young woman in her twenties hurrying down a busy city sidewalk. One her way past a coffee shop, she notices a handsome stranger through the window. Their eyes meet and what she sees leaves her reeling. Not only does she recognize him, she knows things about the man…but how? Who is he?
From there, the story could have gone anywhere. Turns out it did. The idea of time travel has always fascinated me. Imagine getting up close and personal with history. Experiencing what life is really like in another time. My main characters, Erin and Griffin, meet and fall in love in a medieval world.
From Now On takes up where it leaves off. Some of my favorite characters from the first book are back. Arvo: the tall gangly young man with a disreputable shock of red hair who becomes Erin’s good friend and confidant. Sir Edevane: Griffin’s fellow knight and friend. Kat: Griffin’s fiesty little sister.
Sir Griffin travels across centuries to find Erin, the woman he loves. Before they can begin their new life together, he’s sent on a mission to a strange island. When he doesn’t return as planned, Erin assembles a group of his friends to search for him. Followed by his strong-willed sister, Kateryn, they travel to Swansea and secure passage with the notorious Captain Akin.
Erin discovers firsthand how the island has earned its dark reputation when she battles freakish weather, encounters a race of little people known as “Prowlies” and experiences ghosts of the long departed. Even worse, she discovers there are “ley lines” crossing the island’s mountain peak, creating all sorts of strange phenomena, such as time travel.
Yet these obstacles pale in comparison to the secrets Erin uncovers while trying to rescue the man she loves.
If you love a time travel adventure with a twist (and a love story) and haven’t read Not Long Ago, please do. You can continue Erin and Griffin’s story with From Now On, coming out in spring/summer 2014. As for what happens after that? It’s too soon to tell, but I can promise you it will be an adventure.
Until then, I’ll keep you posted. Please stop back by for a peek at From Now On.
Susan A. Royal 