For fans of The Books of Conjury, I’m pleased to announce a new book in the series: The Governor’s Witch, coming end of summer, 2020. 

Some characters linger in the writer’s mind, and that’s been the case with Katie Finch. 

My intention had been to move on to other stories, other books, after I finished up The Halls of Midnight at the end of 2018. The trilogy had been just that, a trilogy. Beginning, middle, end. I’d set out with that goal in mind. I did it. 

In early 2019, I wrote my horror novel Ghost at Dusk. Trading 18th century Boston for 21st century suburban Massachusetts (with a loving glace back at the early 1980s, read it and you’ll understand) was just what I needed. Change of scenery. Stretch my legs out after my lengthy journey with Finch, Swaine, Rush, and friends. 

Wrapping up with Tim Lane (ghost) and Groan (demon), I turned my creative energies to something new. And then another thing new. And so on. Feeling my way forward - but not getting any purchase. After wandering through three different manuscript openings, I’d found a voice, an idea, but no connection. 

And then came the spark, the idea that triggered a cascade of images. Which my experience tells me means I’ve hit a vein of story after digging through nothing but rock.

The idea: Take the voice and the premise I’d been fooling around with, and what if it became Finch’s voice and Finch’s premise?

Click. 

Everything fell into place. 

I recognized the reason I’d wandered through that wilderness of ideas was because I wasn’t done with Finch. Her friends. Her ambitions. Her growing mastery of the unseen arts. Her problems. The world she inhabits. 

The vision grew. I listened to the muse, and she delivered. So The Governor’s Witch is just the beginning. Second beginning? Whatever, you know what I’m saying. I’ve got the outlines of the next two novels roughed in, as well. 

No spoilers.

If all goes well, I’ll have the second of these new novels ready to go by the end of this year.

But until then, I’ll be posting sneak peeks of The Governor’s Witch. 

- The Governor’s Witch, coming end of summer

Next month, I’ll show you the cover. 

By the end of summer, the book will be released.

Stay well.

Kev