Meredith Hart

So, I had this idea.

Actually, it was someone else’s idea (check it out here) based on a writing prompt: What if the oceans were replaced by forests, and the deeper you went in the forest, the bigger and stranger the plants and animals got?

Cool, huh? I added deep-sea vents to this idea, but instead of hot water, they leak pure magic into the Deep Forest. And then I needed a person in this Deep Forest. Someone who had to run away, so they went to the most dangerous place imaginable.

Ever since I finished Heart’s Escape, I’ve wanted to go back to the Towers of the Silver City. It’s a creepy place. It’s certainly a place someone would want to run away from.

There was just one problem. (Actually, there were several, but let’s start with one.) There is no Deep Forest in the Deceptions and Dragons series or the Fallen Hearts series, and I want to keep writing in this world.

I solved this by setting my Deep Forest story on another continent – thanks for the idea, Wings of Fire! And I started writing.

30,000-ish words later, I started to reconsider.

I love the Deep Forest. I love Aveus, the man running from the Towers, and Inira, the woman hunting him. But, I realized about halfway through the book, if I want to connect the Deep Forest to the worlds of Deceptions and Dragons and Fallen Hearts, I shouldn’t open that series on a totally new continent.

No problem. I had another idea.

I’ve been kicking around the idea of a second-chance romance for ages – the tension between two former lovers, the conflict that drove them apart, the decisions they would have to make or undo to finally be together again. Ugh, so good!

So, I wrote a second-chance romance set at the Towers of the Silver City. It’s got romance. It’s got adventure. It’s got characters confronting the things they always accepted to be true and deciding what to do when they realize the institutions they’ve served aren’t at all what they pretend to be.

But. Is a story set fully within the Towers really the best introduction to a new series?

No. No, it’s not.

At least, that’s what I decided, and it’s too late to debate it. (My husband has tried, trust me.)

So, now I’m writing the official Book One: Monster of the Dagger Mountains. It will be the first book in my new series: Killers of the Towers.

This is a villain romance filled with morally gray characters, traumatic backstories, magic that comes at a terrible cost, I don’t deserve you, and how do you live with the things you’ve done to survive?

Monster of the Dagger Mountains, the official book number one, will come out this fall, probably in November. It will be quickly followed by Monster of the Silver City, the second-chance romance between Syrus and Veloria, which is already written, and then by Monster of the Deep Forest, which is about 30% finished.

Basically…I started with book three, jumped to book two, finished it, and am now writing book one.

Yes. This is insane.

But hey, I’m a pantser. These things just kind of… happen?

And eventually, some fine day, I’ll have an entire series of snarky, steamy, romantasy adventures for you! Until then, I’ll post updates, sneak peeks, and mood boards right here for you to enjoy.

(Side note: If you hate waiting and you don’t mind reading books out of order, drop me a line at meredith_hart@sammacleod.net. I’ll offer Monster of the Silver City to my ARC Team soon, and I can add you to that list.)