Since the last post, I’ve swung back around to “Yeah, I probably fractured something”. If I had to guess, I’d say metatarsal. This has led to two weeks in bed where I cannot get comfortable and have struggled to work on a laptop that is literally falling apart.

So that’s what’s new here.

Blood Ties releases in just over a week, so next Sunday I’ll do the full soundtrack for that book. For today, we’ll visit the one thing I both started and finished during the pandemic…that no one gets to read.

I did a little thread on Twitter at the time but, to explain: although there are no official dates on the events of Livi’s books to keep things a little more fluid depending on when you pick them up, I did keep the dates in Tiger’s Memory so you can deduce that Solomon’s Seal takes place September 2016. Odin’s Spear is October 2016, Emperor’s Tomb February 2017, Shiva’s Bow August 2017. This means that, eventually in the timeline, I will have to contend with how COVID-19 would change the story of a globe-trotting adventurer who flies here and there without worrying about anything beyond the cost of the plane ticket.

I do know where the series is going, and there is a time jump coming up a few books from now around 2018 in the ‘verse, then pick up again in 2021. This means they can carry on as-is until that point, and when I pick up there’ll be a change in how the frequent travel is approached.

So I wrote something that takes place during that gap. For the longest time it was called WEST DURING THE PANDEMIC, though I settled on My Heart With You, which is the song I had on repeat during a few scenes including the last one.

Waited a hundred years to see your face,
And I would wait a hundred more

There is no book cover I can post, due to the dearth of stock photos of hot twentysomething Korean men in suits, so I’ll just sprinkle the post with Daniel Henney gifs (who I see as West).

YOU’RE WELCOME.

Because it’s set so far down the road, I can’t share the story with anyone, which is probably why it was so easy to write. It’s 12K words, beginning with West flying back to New Bristol from Montreal during the start of the pandemic, and ending fifteen months later when he gets a very unexpected phone call. He’s in a very different place from where he has been in the rest of the series, even though so much stays the same, so it’s been very interesting to spend that time with him.

What makes him my favourite character is how, although all of us are who we are to survive, he is that concept to the logical extreme. He survived things as a child very few people live through by becoming the only person who COULD survive that, and now he has to navigate the world as an adult where those survival skills don’t always serve him–and often even inhibit him. Which I get. And that Livi is very much a survivor in her own right–an emotionally distant father, sexual assault as a teen and an abusive boyfriend as an adult, abandoned by her mother–is something that originally attracted him to her, even if he didn’t fully grasp it at the time.

Admittedly, these are the lines that popped this one onto the series originally playlist, as it can be applied to many characters and many circumstances, even though this particular story is West’s:

I sailed a thousand ships in search of you.
Traveled to distant land.
I dove for sunken gold.
I took what I could hold,
But you're still the greatest treasure I've held in my hands.

At one point in the story, he says, “How Olivia felt about me never changed how I felt about her.” Which I think, sort of sadly, sums up so much of them.

The end of the story, over a year after the pandemic’s start, brings him to an old safehouse in a rural area of Yanbian prefecture, where the last thing he ever expected to find is waiting for him. It’s very hard to surprise someone like West, but that is the moment that undoes him completely–as the chorus music swells and a door opens.

My love, the reason I survive,
Trust we'll be together soon.
Should our fire turn to dark,
Take my heart with you.

So anyway, that’s a little something about a thing you don’t get to read (yet!), and my way of checking in to say hi, I’m still here, just a little broken yet, slowly getting better, here’s an earworm.

So, obviously, I have a lot of playlists.

Series have playlists. Individual books within them have playlists. Characters have playlists. Couples have playlists. Scenes have playlists (usually 1-5 songs on repeat). Chapters have playlists (you’ll notice most of the Livi books have Epilogue titles that are also song titles; same with Demons of Oblivion. Those were the songs playing on repeat when I wrote the ends of those books). Playlists will also have “moods” that I repeat throughout the book.

Several weeks ago I was working on Blood Ties–finally, finally, I figured out how to fix the middle, and did so without throwing it at my long-suffering beta and running away screaming–and one of the songs on it twigged something, which is what led to me figuring out what the book needed.

The song in question was this cover of “Wonderwall”:

(This book has a whole host of epic covers.)

The book wanted kissing.

IT’S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE A KISSING BOOK. Plus I don’t like writing first book kissing–I like slow-burn! (Exhibit A through E: Livi and West.) But Elis is not that sort of character. She is not the sort of character who doesn’t act on sexual tension, and she doesn’t care about me wanting her to get back together with her ex-girlfriend–she wants kissing in the middle of the book.

Our conversation went like this:

Me: Okay you have to leave the bar now and kill this dude.

Elis: But FIRST…kissing.

Me: No, murder.

Elis: Right but also kissing.

Me: …

Elis: K-I-S-S-I-N-G

Me:

Elis:

Me: Seriously–

Elis: Kiss. KISS.

I did manage to avoid the kissing, but she was VERY loud about it. She settled for some dancing. If Elis and Melinoe end up striking up a relationship later, the epic version of “Wonderwall” would probably be their theme song, however it obviously would not be playing on the bar’s jukebox in the story. I found two others that work instead.

It’s new love, and longing, and desire, and an edge of hope. It’s slow-dancing in a roomful of strangers but not seeing anyone else in the room but your partner.

I don't believe that anybody
Feels the way I do, about you now 
And all the roads that lead you there are winding
And all the lights that light the way are blinding
There are many things that I
Would like to say to you but I don't know how
Because maybe, you're gonna be the one that saves me 

Blood Ties is currently serializing at Patreon for all patrons and will be available everywhere June 2. There is minimum kissing, though, because I am the author and I’m driving this car. For now.

Haven’t done one of these in a while–work has turned my brain to porridge and I’m this close to running screaming into the woods. But I remembered it was Sunday, so here we are with another soundtrack song!

Every book has an epic trailer theme song–the track that plays over the highlights like it was advertising a movie.

Yampellec’s Idol has “In the End”, the cover by 2WEI.

A cover of the Lincoln Park original, of course it’s hella angsty with the lyrics, and the epic arrangement works for Livi’s epic stories.

Picture the dark jungle of Peru, a jaguar through the trees. A boat drifting down a narrow quiet river while an anaconda slithers past.

I had to fall
To lose it all
But in the end
It doesn't even matter 

Livi falling on her knees in defeat in the dark muddy jungle.

I've put my trust in you
Pushed as far as I can go 

A screaming fight with West (that you know is coming).

An old Spanish mission falling apart, the floor collapsing. Leaping over traps underground. Chasing a mysterious figure through the jungle. Discovering the ruins of a Sicán temple and stepping down into the dark underground chambers with a sense of foreboding. Facing a moment of sacrifice and confronting what one is truly capable of.

Tell me you can’t see it all when hearing that song?

Well, I’m going to take the plunge at the end of the month and serialize Blood Ties on Patreon, so here’s one of the theme songs from her soundtrack.

There’s a lot of Bishop Briggs on Elis’s playlists. This is the one I most think of with her.

Welcome to my darkness, I been here awhile 

Elis is a witch and serial killer–of garbage men. I nearly gave the book the tagline “Elis has never met a man she didn’t want to kill” but that’s not entirely true–she’s got a great relationship with her father, for example. But you know the type who come up to you and mansplain your own job to you? Who hit on you and don’t take no for an answer? Who emotionally manipulate and abuse women? Who give you that chill of uncertainty and fear as you try to find a way to safely get away from them?

Yeah, she kills those men.

Acting like I'm heartless, I do it all the time
That don't mean I'm scarless, that don't mean I'm fine
But you'll see, when someone else makes you this way 

She’s a very easy, enjoyable character for me to write (surprising no one). A little too reckless at times–killing is a compulsion for her, which can get her into trouble, but ultimately she’s a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to sharing her misandristic adventures.

Oh, I'll drain your life 'til there's
Nothing left but your blood shot eyes
Oh, I'll take my time 'til I show you how I feel inside 

The first draft will start posting twice a week at Patreon starting January 29 for all patrons if you’d like to follow along. Those at $5+ will get a copy of the finalized ebook before it releases this summer (the book still has to go for content and copy edits).