...according to Tom, my proofreader.
Me, sending Tom the next 4 chapters of The Memory Collector: Here’s the next big chunk of insanity. I wonder where you think I’m going to take this story 😃
Tom: I have no idea, but I think REDACTED will get his comeuppance. 🤔
Me: Aha! But wouldn't that be too easy? (insert evil cackle)
Tom: Okay, okay, the locksmith takes a liking to the REDACTED, freeing up our heroine to find a starring role on stage. The brother, meanwhile, trying to lock up our heroine accidentally locks himself up instead. In a freezing cellar. The unscrupulous bar owner buys the brother’s frozen carcass and opens a high-end restaurant with it. The carcass eventually runs out and the bartender/restaurant owner tries to substitute frozen members of the lower class, but alas winter turns to summer and nobody is freezing anymore. The bar owner’s switch to rat meat infuriates the rat-loving locksmith who recruits our heroine to drive him nuts, which she does without even really trying. The locksmith opens a show with performing rat babies, and it merges with the stage production of our heroine, and they don’t live happily ever after.
I can't say it ends as Tom wrote, but one thing is certain: The Memory Collector is now finished!
Tom is working on the last handful of chapters, eradicating all typos and weirdly twisted sentences.
Meanwhile, I'm polishing the cinematic edition and the illustrated edition. All will be available by the 28th (yup, next week).
I also changed the blurb because it might have misled people into thinking this is a mystery with supernatural elements. Here's the new version:
Beatrice Wren is mad.
Or so her neighbours believe. An unmarried woman, living alone in Victorian London, and whispering to old trinkets she finds at the shore of the Thames.
When a box of porcelain figurines reveals evidence of a brutal murder, her carefully maintained isolation begins to crumble. Each new clue threatens both her sanctuary and her tenuous grip on reality.
Her investigation leads to Grim, locksmith by day, criminal by night, with a talent for breaking more than just locks. He offers help while hiding his true motives that are as dark as the vengeance he seeks. Together, they hunt a killer who might exist only in Beatrice's fractured mind.
As the evidence mounts, so too do the signs of Beatrice's madness. But if she is truly insane, why does the trail to the murderer point to an even darker truth about her past?
Gawd, I can't wait to hear what you think about this story!
And guess what? I'm already outlining the next book in this series. The planned release is in May/June. Yup, this year.
