With one adventure in the bag and a second adventure dropping in one week on February 1, 2023, what's next for Allison Lee and her plucky friends? In the near term, her second adventure—The Blood of Faeries!
Before we get to where Allison is going, let's revisit where she's been. It all started two short years ago with Dragons Walk Among Us.
"An inspirational and socially relevant fantasy."-Kirkus Reviews
Blurb
Shutterbug Allison Lee is trying to survive high school while suffering the popular girl's abuse. Her life is often abysmal, but at least her green hair is savage. Her talent for photography is recognized by the school paper and the judges of a photo contest.
While visiting her friend Joe, a homeless vet, Allison's life irrevocably changes after an attack leaves her blind. All her dreams as a photojournalist are dashed as she realizes she'll never see again. Despair sets in until she is offered an experimental procedure to restore her vision. But there are side effects, or are they hallucinations? She now sees dragons accompanying some of the people she meets. Can she trust her eyes, or has the procedure affected her more than she can see?
And coming in one week!
"Fans of supernatural fiction will find this novel to be a wild, riveting ride." - Kirkus Reviews
Blurb
Allison Lee wilts under the bright light of celebrity after being exposed as a shape-shifting monster. She'd rather be behind the camera than in front of it. Being under the tooth and claw of her monstrous mother is even less enjoyable. All she desires is for everything to go back to the way things were before she discovered her true nature. But, after she accidentally kills a mysterious man sent to kidnap her, she realizes piecing her old life back together is one gnarly jigsaw puzzle.
When Allison's sometimes boyfriend Haji goes missing, Allison and her squad suspect his unhealthy interest in magic led to his disappearance. Their quest to find Haji brings them face-to-face with beings thought long ago extinct whose agenda remains an enigma.
Life after The Blood of Faeries
Allison and her squad will be back in book 3, currently known only as TWOM. Yes, TWOM is an acronym—put your guesses in the comments if you dare!
Right now, I'm still drafting book 3. I reckon I’m 85% of the way through the draft. If fortune smiles upon me, I'll have the draft knocked out by the end of February, fingers and toes firmly crossed.
After that, the draft will visit the editorial butcher block to have all the fat cut away. Honestly, pounds of fat will be cut and scads of chapters consolidated. Here’s why:
38 chapters in, my word count is clocking in at about 2,433 words/chapter.
I reckon the complete draft will have roughly 45 chapters.
That will put the word count for the complete draft just shy of 110,000 words.
The bottom line is that it's waaaay too long.
I don't mind, though. Having too many words is a far better problem than having too few. Too few means you don't have enough story. Too many means you have to refine the story, breathe life into it, which is the purpose of the editorial process.
Ideally, I'll hack the draft down to somewhere in the ballpark of 87,000 words. I'm confident I can do this. Check out the image of the first two books. Talk about consistency—LOL.
With any luck, TWOM will be released sometime next winter, so stay tuned!
Is The Allison Lee Chronicles a trilogy
NO! There will be at least one more book after TWOM, maybe two. Writing a series has taught me the truth of Tolkien’s words: the tale grew in the telling. The only question. By how much?
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