The second book in my Magical Recipes Series was recently released. It’s called A Secret Recipe.

When I wrote the first book, A Recipe for Disaster, it was too long, a lot longer than the finished book ended up. People said to break it up into several books, and a trilogy was proposed. I agreed that was a good idea. Then I started writing the second book.

A middle book isn’t easy to write, at least for me. I always had a very clear idea of the beginning and end of the story. I had to determine what the middle book would look like and where I would begin and end it. I didn’t want to give away too much of the third book, or rewrite too much of the first book while finding interesting content for book two. In the beginning I needed to fill people in on what happened in the first book, and at the end I needed to have a storyline where people would want to keep reading.

The other problem I had was tying together things from the first book and giving readers what they needed without giving away the third book. It sounds easy, but it wasn’t easy for me. I had continuity issues, gave away to much of the third book, and on and on.

Laurie Scheer, my developmental editor (and trusted advisor 😊) suggested I make Lillian the hero of book one, Daisy the hero of book two, and Willy the hero of book three, based on The Hero’s Journey by Joseph Campbell. I took a class with Laurie about the subject and finally saw a way forward for book two. It didn’t make writing it easy but I saw the direction I needed to take. I’m also grateful to Sarah Tilton at Scribe Hive for helping me get it in shape for publishing. 

Get A Secret Recipe on the Scribe Hive publishing website (preferred).

Or Amazon

Check it out and get ready for the third book, The Next Course, this fall.