The other day I realized that no one, with the exception of my editor, my beta readers, and my wife, know what TLM is actually about. It’s still a little early in the game for the official jacket synopsis. I usually save that for last, as it’s not my favorite thing to do.

So, what can I tell you about TLM that will entice you rather than spoil everything? A few things, I think:

• It’s one year after the events of ALT. Donovan is a licensed private investigator and works with his brother. He finished his novel, a noir-thriller titled Monochrome Dream. And his wife, Donna, is six months pregnant. Life is good.
• For the last several months, young adults have been vanishing from their homes, classes, jobs. Donovan has followed one case obsessively for the better part of a year: a high school student by the name of Shelly Hill. He has his theories about what happened to her, but is afraid to face them.
• The disappearance of Donovan’s nephew pulls him back into a nightmare he thought he’d left behind. To find his nephew, he will have to face a fear that’s been growing within, culminating with a difficult choice that will affect everyone he knows and loves.
• One more thing: Aleister Dullington is not the villain . . . but I’ve probably said that already.

That’s all I can tell you for now. I had a lengthy conversation with Amelia on Saturday evening regarding the “game plan,” her thoughts on the book’s new epilogue (she liked it), as well as ways to trim the prologue. Unlike ALT’s editing process, we’re aiming to work somewhat in tandem, one chapter a week. We may fall short of that, but for now, it’s something to shoot for. We’ll probably have these tandem edits finished sometime after Thanksgiving, with a final, thorough edit to follow by the end of February. It would be sooner, but we’re trying to account for those pesky holidays.

I discussed potential cover designs with Erica as well. We have a couple of things in mind, something abstract with vector imagery in the same styling as Hitchock’s Vertigo and the intro sequence for Mad Men. These are just ideas, of course. The end result could look entirely different, but for now, it’s a starting point.

I think that’s all for now. I’ll be doing some test recordings of ALT this week, and I may post some snippets. Stay tuned.

TK