Lily Writes

November has been an incredibly fertile month for creativity. While working on Sacrifice: Shadow Syndicate, I poured out 60,000 words in ten days—then spent the next stretch shaping, refining, and coaxing that raw draft into something solid. The manuscript is now printed and on its way to the proofreaders.

This is book eight in the Vanguardian series, and it helps that the world feels fully lived-in now. I know the rules, the landscapes, the histories, and the people who inhabit it. Matthew and Shayla have appeared in the background of several stories, quietly waiting for their turn. Finally giving them center stage was deeply satisfying.

And oh, how I adore Shayla Renn. Five-foot-nothing and fierce as a lightning strike, she’s Matthew Burt’s self-proclaimed Valkyrie—dreaming of “fighting justice during the day and breaking beds with Matthew at night.” But Matthew is entangled in the Shadow Syndicate, and their story becomes a dance of rescues, revelations, and relentless attraction. It’s action-packed, slow burn, and absolutely delivers. I love these two with my whole writer’s heart.

Now that Sacrifice is off to the proof team, I’m turning to the next book. Another character who’s been quietly tapping his foot in the corner of my mind: King Arenap Hatcher. Or, as he’s often teased, “King of what?” Arenap carries enough weight on his shoulders for ten men, and he carries most of it alone. Painfully alone.

It’s finally time for him to meet his fated mate.

Creating Tessa Bloom has been a challenge in the best possible way. She needs to be someone worthy of Arenap—and someone Arenap must prove himself worthy of. She’s not Vanguardian, which complicates things immediately. She’s also had her share of heartbreak, and she’s understandably confused by the mysterious man who always seems to be accompanied by the dignified older Ramos.
Surely those two are a couple… right?

Everyone in Brindlegong knows she’s Arenap’s fated mate.
Everyone except Tessa.

This is going to be such a fun book to write, and I can’t wait to dive deeper into their story.

Recently, my sisters and I gathered for a dessert night at my younger sister’s place in Pinckney. Thank goodness she turned on every porch light she owns—it was so dark I nearly drove past her house entirely. We shared vegan chocolate cake, conversation, and the kind of laughter that only happens with people who’ve known you your whole life.

At one point, my younger sister—who makes a cameo in Sacrifice, by the way—looked at me and said, “Painting is what you do for meditation, but writing is your joy.”

She nailed it.

I hadn’t realized it quite so clearly until she said it. Painting is where I go to quiet my mind and simply be. Writing is where I go to feel everything—flow, escape, joy, intensity. It’s my emotional home.

And maybe that’s why, no matter how dark the journey becomes, my stories always find their way to a happy ever after.

Because in the wreckage, I want readers to know one truth:

Breathe. The next chapter is already rising.