Is it just me or does March always feel like the busiest month of the year?
Between grueling revisions, my company’s acquisition, a best friend’s wedding, my birthday weekend and building a dining room table, my head is spinning. And April shows no sign of slowing down.
But they are all wonderful things – including the books I was able to read – so I can’t complain!
What I Read
GRAND TOTAL: 4
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
A Curse So Dark and Lovely by Brigid Kemmerer
It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover
Kingdom of Exiles by Maxym Martineau
What I Wrote
March was a month chock full of revisions for The Blood Between Us, and while there have been up’s and down’s, I am really happy with how it’s shaping up. I think I finally got the romance subplot where it needed to be – which was arguably my biggest worry. And my main character’s internal arc is falling into place nicely.
I’ve worked through chapter 30, so I have fifteen more to revise before my deadline of April 12. Then it’s off to beta readers, my coach and my agent.
But first, I’m excited to share a little sneak peek with you guys – a new scene I’ve added. Yes, I realize I should be cutting words not adding more… Shh. Enjoy!
I shuffled to a stop and bent over at the waist to catch my breath. “What are we doing here?”
Dax brought his arms over his head, stretching from side to side and exposing a strip of toned muscle beneath the edge of his shirt. “I need to pick something up.”
“We’re on an errand? So now I know why you really wanted to go on a run.”
He ignored me and pushed through the door to the voodoo shop.
At first glance, it looked just like Siggy’s. Walls of jars, shelves and bins selling various voodoo supplies. Wildly colorful and cramped.
But upon closer inspection, it couldn’t have been more different. This was real where Siggy’s had just been a cheap counterfeit.
There were no fake coins, no plastic statues of saints, no t-shirts for sale. I could smell that the herbs were real and fresh, and bundles of them and strings of garlic hung in the doorways. All of the products – soaps, bath salts, lotions, oils – looked handmade and local.
Show globes – glass vases of various sizes and shapes – sat in the front window, marking the store as an apothecary as well. Each vase was filled with a different colored liquid, said to show the skill of the pharmacist in mixing such perfect colors. But the majority of the globes were tinged red which unnerved me. The color to warn newcomers of plague or danger.
An elderly black woman stood behind the counter, hunched over, extracting venom from a scorpion with a long needle. I cringed and stepped a safe distance away.
“What exactly are you picking up?”
Dax ignored me again. The woman didn’t.
She looked up at us as if she’d just noticed we were there. “Ah, you’re back.” Then she turned and passed through a curtain of beads to the back of the shop.
“Weird,” I muttered under my breath and began to wander through the shop. When I made it to a wall of essential – and magical oils – something caught my eye.
I picked up a bottle and read the label. “The Seven Sisters of New Orleans.” I turned to Dax and held it up for him to see. “Who are the seven sisters?”
He walked toward me and took the bottle from my hand to look closer. “I don’t know.”
I gasped. “There’s something you don’t know?”
He shot me a dirty look. “The sass is unnecessary, Dubray.”
I grabbed the bottle back from him, squinted at the label, and read aloud. “The seven sisters of New Orleans were daughters of the infamous Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau and have passed their knowledge down through generations – straight into your hands.” I cocked my head. “Marie Laveau had seven daughters? I thought – “
The clinking of beads drew my attention to the shop owner who had returned. “Marketing mumbo jumbo,” she spat, her voice a harsh croak. “Everyone who’s anyone knows Marie Laveau only had the one… Only one direct descendant. One true Queen.”
Coming Up
Like I said above, I will be finishing up revisions in the first two weeks of April and then taking a nice break for the rest of the month while I figure out my next project. Will it be The Blood Between Us‘s sequel? State of Grace rewrite? Something totally new?
Who knows!
I am also hoping to get some reading done – I have so many books waiting on my shelves that I am extremely excited about!
- One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus
- Enchantee by Gita Trelease
- Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
- Moonlight and Whiskey by Tricia Lynne
- The Night Villa by Carol Goodman
I also have some fun blog posts planned this month, so stay tuned and let me know if there’s any topics you’d like me to cover!
Happy Spring!
Tauri Cox 