Quick update on Blood and Water: I’ve been sent back to the drawing board with some suggestions from agents to revise and resubmit. I also read through it again recently, after having shelved it for almost a year, and I flippin loved it. So the good news is I have a spark of hope reignited for Solvi and her story.
The thing is, to give myself a break, a bit of a palate cleanser, I started jotting down some of the ideas for one of the many story half-thoughts tumbling around my brain. The ideas turned into scenes, and then entire chapters, and next thing I knew I had a whole new book baby on my hands. Devil in the Daylight was born during the pandemic, so I’ll never know it’s exact birthday because basically all of 2020 is a mush pile of time in my head. All that matters is it’s here and it’s proof I could do it again. And with a completely different genre and setting.
DITD is an enemies-to-lovers slow burn of a romance set against the backdrop of the American Old West. COVID has kept me from visiting St Louis, so I poured my love for the Missouri prairie into this setting. It’s got incorrigible brothers, an ornery-but-annoyingly-attractive outlaw, and a girl hellbent on avenging her father’s death—while avoiding atonement for her own sins.
I’m sad I didn’t give it its due on here, whining about the sticky spots or gushing about the scenes that go *chef’s kiss* perfectly, because I really love it. Let’s blame the pandemic, it’s an easy scapegoat and better than admitting my own laziness played a part. Devil in the Daylight is making its first tentative steps into the world this week as I send out my first round of query letters. I’m nervous and excited and a little relieved, because if I’m honest, I’ve already got a new story cooking…
More to come!
Annie Atkin 