It’s been cold today, and we have a major snowstorm forecast for tomorrow, but warmer weather’s coming; and when it gets here, I want to be in trim to write my next Bell Mountain book. All I need is a plot, a title, and about 70,000 words of story.

First, though, I’ve got to read The Temptation–because I don’t remember what’s in it! You work very intensely on a book, and when you finally finish it, you hear a loud “Whoooosh!” as it all rushes out of your head. A few months later, it’s like you never wrote it: speaking only for myself, of course. I did leave several story lines that will have to be picked up. That’s somewhere to start, until the Lord gives me more to work with.

Yes, I know The Silver Trumpet (No. 10 in the series) comes before The Temptation, but I’m still waiting to get it from the printers. So for the time being I’ll devote my full attention to The Temptation. Ever since I lost 18 members of Lord Reesh’s personal staff between The Thunder King (No. 3) and The Last Banquet, I have had a dread of making an even bigger error. We do have Cathy, our great copy editor, to catch the ones that get away from me; but I’d rather not muff it in the first place.

“Why,” I pretend I hear you ask, “have you illustrated this post with a picture of The Palace? That’s Book No. 6. It doesn’t fit in here.”

Well, it’s only because The Palace, for some unfathomable reason, continues to lag behind the rest of the series and I would love to drum up some readership for it. And some customer reviews on amazon.com. Trust me: you don’t want to miss King Ryons’ hunt for the white doe, or Coronation Day in Obann.

Anyhow, I’ve started reading The Temptation and have already assuaged my fear that it might not measure up. I think it does.

But first we gotta get The Silver Trumpet printed!