![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.iantm.com\/books\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/raquelandfinnbg-crop.2024-12-04-10_28_12.gif?resize=300%2C220&ssl=1\")
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Raquel raccoon was born different. <\/strong>Forbidden to leave the den, she sneaks out during the day to learn all she can about the world of tall-walkers and bark-beasts, until her curiosity lands her in an unfamiliar world. <\/em>
\nFinn and his Boy <\/strong>live a quiet life together out in the countryside, until a tragedy tears their bond apart. Raquel and Finn form an unexpected bond that leads them to uncover secrets of Raquel’s existence she never knew.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\nI have been mulling over a new book for the past four years, ever since Where All the Little Things Live<\/a> was finished.<\/p>\n
Recently, I decided to jump into more formal plotting using Aeon Timeline<\/a> which jumpstarted the whole process, and the narrative and characters started pouring out faster than I anticipated.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve spent the last month or so working through different characters arcs, exploring their motivations and personalities, and I\u2019m at the point now where I\u2019m writing small drafts in the form of scenes.<\/p>\n
This is a different way of writing for me. My other books felt more plot based, and I wove the characters within it \u2014 and that worked well, I think.<\/p>\n
But this time the plot seems almost secondary. A bunch of Macguiffins, sort of. What mattered more was who the characters are and what their motivations and desires are and how that navigates them through their situations and how they change. And there are far\u00a0more<\/em> characters involved that mean something than I\u2019ve used before. More than just minor characters with the singular purpose of advancing the plot.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m excited to dive into more drafting and writing and seeing where this takes things. I\u2019ve done enough\u00a0plotting<\/em> I think, and now I can go back to\u00a0pantsing<\/em> with intent. One of the most fun things I wrote was more or less putting two characters into a scene and letting them talk. I get to do a lot more of that here.<\/p>\n
I have no firm dates, but look forward to this new book somewhere in 2025 or 2026: a story of Raquel the raccoon and her unlikely bond with a wayward hunting Vizlas named Finn.<\/p>\n
I view this as a bit of manifest destiny\u2026 now that I\u2019ve said it \u201cout loud\u201d, well \u2014 I\u2019ve no choice but to make this come true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Raquel raccoon was born different. Forbidden to leave the den, she sneaks out during the day to learn all she can about the world of tall-walkers and bark-beasts, until her curiosity lands her in an unfamiliar world. Finn and his Boy live a quiet life together out in the countryside, until a tragedy tears their … Continue reading New book in the works\u2026<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paUyBu-6pc","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.iantm.com\/books\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/IMG_1773.png?fit=2752%2C2064&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iantm.com\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iantm.com\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iantm.com\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iantm.com\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iantm.com\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24626"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.iantm.com\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24654,"href":"https:\/\/www.iantm.com\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24626\/revisions\/24654"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iantm.com\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iantm.com\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iantm.com\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iantm.com\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}