Recently I have faced many ups and downs with my writing, mostly with the Hemlock books. I have had far too many plots and characters for the series and, after much work and arguing – which included death threats and dagger pulling, making me long all the more for my sword – I have come to terms with everyone and we have settled on many things.
Hemlock is now a six book series. I completely took out Trisli's plot and am using it for another series I am planning – which just had a cool title and a character with a cool name. Trisli is still in the books but I do not go into the story of – oh wait, that would give away a plot. Moving on.
Also, I am pleased to announce that, as I have finally finished the final version of Despair and Hope, it is now being edited. I am in the hopes of completing editing by May at the latest and seeking out a publisher soon. Among changes in this book is the change in title which now appears as:
The Tales of Hemlock
The Stranger
A Story of Despair and Hope.
Another quirk I am trying to work out is Theobald's hood. I have been debating changing it to a mask but have yet to find one that suits him, me, and the plot. It is terribly hard to de-mask a guy, ten times easier to de-hood him. Not to mention I have been having interesting dreams about the Lone Ranger since then.
Book two has also changed in that it is now book three and there is a new book two. In this book Reid returns out of the blue. Need I say more?
Then there is that death scene I wrote for Maddock but which was strongly voted against by many of his adoring fans. I still determined to use it on someone and made a character for it, only when I wrote it it was lacking in something. Roderick could not pull it off. So, Roderick lives – and Quentin has offered to take the scene. Rather he was voted in to it being I would not be killing off one of the main heroes while at the same time making it sad – yes, that was an interesting debate.
While book one is coming along very well book two is struggling. I am uncertain about the plot and am therefore going at it more slowly then I normally do. However, I have not stopped writing all together and am reviving a story that was about to be sent to the black hole. The character in it gave me some major problems – kidnapping the muse I share with my best friends and holding her hostage for a whole night. However, I think everything is better now – at least I hope it is. I shall keep everyone updated on that but for now I have to be off as the character is calling | 
