Years ago I worked on a little story that was part Cinderella retelling (yes, one of the many) and then it had this other comedy part in which Cinderella found the Prince was pretending to be crazy—at least, he said he was pretending—while he tried to uncover a plot at court. After all, nobody would suspect him of being an amateur sleuth while he was acting like such an idiot, would they? There was also a princess that Cinderella was substituted for—with the consent of this princess, who had a plot of her own—and that was how Cinderella ended up spending so much time in the palace.

I forgot about this little story for years while I worked on my other books, and in the rush of the last 18 months, touching up everything I’d published, I didn’t remember this story had been ALMOST published. It really almost made it to print round about 2016, but life got in the way. But a couple weeks ago I found a lovely DVD set of Cinderella at a resale shop. It had the disc of extras and the case of the old animated movie, but the actual movie disc inside was of the new 2015 movie. So it was kind of a hybrid and while it wasn’t what I expected when I bought it, I’ve grown to like it.

Watching Cinderella popped that story out of the woodwork again. And while Cinderella retellings never really go out of style, it’s true they might feel a little done-to-death, so I’m considering placing the story in a different setting. I considered the Palladia world at first, but after looking at the story I feel a historical setting might be the most appropriate, in somewhat the style of Victoria. I'm currently mulling over the possibility of Scotland . . .

And there will be more updates.

 
There are still a few loose ends that need to be tied up with my other books. But I’m starting to look ahead to working on Temmark Osteraith. I wanted to do that months ago, but things can get set back. It’s important to lay a solid foundation and getting all my books in order was an essential part of that. It’s actually building a house to last instead of throwing some sticks together because you need shelter in the moment.

The world of Temmark Osteraith used to be the “Milland” world and appeared in a couple of stories about a girl named “Alyce” who got into all kinds of trouble. So it feels long ago—but also moving forward in an important way. I finished most of the story of what will now be Temmark Osteraith fifteen years ago and I’m such a different person now, in a lot of ways, that I think the audience attitude to the book now will be quite different from the audience for Milland. Or even for some of my other books published more recently.
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Temmark Osteraith has maybe a bit of a wilder aspect, if you’d like to call it that, than the old world of Alyce’s Milland. It was this very off-beat, funny, kind of adventure in a period-historical type of world. Whereas in Temmark Osteraith we have a futuristic world, characters that aren’t even human, and a house that still a bit resembles an old mansion, but with an unpredictable personality of its own. A lot is different now from that original draft—setting, character names, some of the plot, you name it—but it still has things that are similar too. A bridge between the past and where my writing is today, to the extent I think it actually brings out the story that was always underlying Milland instead of replacing it.

And there will be more updates.