I’m so excited to tell you a bit about my next series from Bethany House, which will begin in summer 2023. I know that sounds like a long way away, but in the publishing world, that’s how far ahead we plan, LOL. I just signed the contract a few weeks ago, and though I have three other books coming out in the meantime, I’ll start working on this one in just a few months. I’ve had a lot of people asking where I was going next, and the answer is finally here!

Here’s the idea for the series that I sent to my editor:

T H E   S E R I E S   C O N C E P T

The business cards can be found floating all around the most prestigious ballrooms and theaters, handed quietly from one gloved hand to the next. Whenever someone has a need to look into a fellow peer and doesn’t want to turn to the rabble of ordinary private investigators, the same name is whispered over and again: The Imposters, Ltd. Everyone assumes that this mysterious company of investigators must be talented actors who can, at least for a limited time, blend in among the ton while they find the sought-after secrets of the crème of society.

Little do they know that the Imposters are in fact two of their own—the esteemed brother and sister duo, Yates Fairfax, ninth Earl Fairfax, and his sister, Lady Marigold. Much like they don’t know that the Fairfaxes have turned to this work because of desperation—their father had squandered their wealth so completely with his constant seeking of diversions that they’re not only forced to earn money, but they’re even cooking their own food and dusting their own furniture. Only the four members of the Imposters know the truth—Yates, Marigold, and their friends Gemma and Graham. And no one else ever can.

Because knowing secrets can be just as dangerous as gathering them…especially when hearts become involved.

T H E   F I R S T   B O O K

Lady Marigold Fairfax is known throughout London for her audacious and seemingly endless collection of hats that grab the eye wherever she goes—the perfect cover for her clandestine work. She’s gained such a reputation that now only her hats have to appear somewhere, and everyone just assumes she’s with them; and “Lady M’s” whereabouts are reported in the gossip rags accordingly. Which means that her co-conspirator, Gemma, can make an appearance with a hat in one location while Marigold is in another, providing her with an alibi any time she does something risky. She’s completed countless jobs over the last five years, learning secrets about her peers that both sadden and enrage her. She and Yates are certainly not the only ones who wear a mask, and most are far more sinister than theirs. Then a new client hires them, and this time it’s personal. This time she and Yates have been tasked with digging into a good friend’s father.

She wants to believe that their client, Sir Merritt Livingstone, is only prying because he wants to make sure Livinia is a good match for him. But the more she learns, the more she wonders what the gentleman—himself rather mysterious—is really up to. Is he trying to join her friend’s father in his shady endeavors or stop them? And why does she begin to hope Sir Merritt has no interest in Livinia after all and that it’s Marigold he’s seeking out? But surely that’s a true fool’s errand. Because though she wears many hats—sister, friend, investigator, housekeeper, maid, and any disguise she has to don for her work—she knows better than to think wife will ever join the list, given their family’s fall from prosperity. But when the investigation takes a dangerous turn and her life is threatened, Sir Merritt proves why he was knighted with a streak of heroism that makes her believe once more that some well-kept secrets are noble. Will that be enough to bridge the gap between them?

The next books will follow her brother, Yates–Lord Fairfax–and then their friends Gemma and Graham. And they are going to be SO MUCH FUN. The means by which their father plunged them into debt–seeking entertainment and diversions–means that they grew up around actors and acrobats and circus performers, and of course these eager children picked up on the talents and skills of their constant guests. as well as their cast-off costumes and Edwardian era special effects. There will be hijinx and dering-do, acrobatics and theater gimmicks. There will be funny, clever excerpts from the dossiers they put together on their subjects and clients. And of course, there will be faith and romance.

This idea actually began years ago as a dream I had! I got up and wrote it down and have been letting it simmer for nearly three years now. I’m so excited to get to work on it in 2022, and I hope you’re excited to see what comes of it!

And because this is me, you’ll want to keep an eye out for some Easter eggs too…because you never know when some familiar faces and names may pop up among the society these new siblings are a part of! Who would you most like to see make a cameo appearance?

I’m apparently in a season of sharing book news instead of my usual Thursday musings. 😉 And today I wanted to take a few minutes to tell you about a book that will be coming out next May, called Shadowed Loyalty.

So, let’s rewind about, oh, 13 years. It was the summer when my son was 6 months old–and I had an idea for a mafia story. More specifically, I had an idea for the story of a mafioso’s daughter, the man everyone had assumed she would marry, who had pursued the law instead of the mob, and the Prohibition Bureau agent who tried to steal her heart…for a way to infiltrate her family. Back in the day, I’d called it Mafia Princess, and my critique partner, Stephanie, declared it the novel that would get me published. (Ahem. We’ve been known to be wrong in our predictions, LOL.) My agent was happy with it. We sent it out. It went to committee at a few places. And then…nothing.

Fast forward to last year. Bethany House took a look at several of my old manuscripts, purchased Dreams of Savannah, and told me I was free to do whatever I liked with the ones they passed on. Round about this time, WhiteFire was launching a new imprint–Chrism Press. And I joked to David, “Well, if all else fails, we’ll just see if Chrism wants my mafia story!” After all, Chrism is targeted to Catholic and Orthodox readers…and my mafia family, being Sicilian, are certainly Catholic. I didn’t do a very good job writing that element of it originally, but I can fix that.

Fast forward again to a couple months ago, when the committee at Chrism emailed to say, “We’d love it!” So here we are. Shadowed Loyalty (which my agent approved as a MUCH better title than my original, LOL) has found a home at Chrism and will be making its appearance next May, between the final two books in my Secrets of the Isles trilogy! I’m so excited to be not just an advisor to Chrism, but one of the authors, and to bring new life to this story I’ve had sitting around for such a long time. It needs a ton of work–that’s what I’ll be doing in September, LOL–but I know it’ll turn out to be just the story it was meant to be.

I’ll paste the working back cover copy below, but first I’ll just tell you a bit of the behind the scenes.

Anyone watch NCIS back in the day? Remember the story line that one season with Tony and the romantic interest with the lovely doctor who turned out to be the daughter of the international criminal they were tracking? That’s actually what inspired this book, in a way. Or rather, as I watched it play out, I thought, “So in this framework, the law endorcement officer is clearly the one we’re rooting for. But what if it wasn’t? What if he was the villain? Because come on, from her point of view, he is. He’s out to destroy her family and even if he did feel some affection for her, it doesn’t change facts.” So I starting thinking about other scenarios…and a love triangle involving this agent on the one hand and a hero on the other who was part of her world…and yet not. A stand-up guy.

I don’t recall exactly how I settled on 1920s Chicago and the Mafia, but I spent quite a long time reading several books, choosing the year of my setting, buying and studying a Sicilian dictionary, all that fun stuff. And while my son sat in his bouncy chair at my feet, I hammered out the story for Sabina and Lorenzo and Roman. I learned 20s slang (and decided how much to use or not). I looked up when pizza first arrived in Chicago. I wrote gun fights and speakeasies and corrupt Bureau agents. I included poetry and faith and looking at old friends through new eyes. And most of all, I wrote a heroine who really saw, for the first time, the cost of being part of a family who dwelt partially in the underworld. I examined what it meant to love them and be loyal to them when you came to hate what they were doing.

I have no idea what this book will look like when it’s finished, but I’m excited to dive in and really hone those themes!

Also exciting–I get to design the cover! I haven’t started yet, so the world is still wide open with possibilities for that. Do you have ideas for what you love to see in 1920s fiction? Or a trend you think I should explore? Please share them below! (I know, this is new for me, right? I’ve gotten your take on a couple options before, and I certainly always show you my covers as soon as I can, but I’ve never actually invited anyone into the brainstorming stage before!)

You can track the progress of the book at its page on Chrism Press’s site; as links and covers and all the other fun stuff become available, they’ll be added there. And of course, I’ll keep you updated here as always. =)

About Shadowed Loyalty

Sabina Mancari never questioned her life as the daughter of Chicago’s leading mob boss until bullets tear apart her world and the man she thought she loved turned out to be an undercover Prohibition agent. Now she sees how ugly the underworld can be. Ambushes, bribes, murder, prostitution—maybe Lorenzo, her straitlaced fiancé, had it right when he said it is better to stay far removed. And maybe, if she can understand him and his baffling faith, he will give her another chance.

But Lorenzo isn’t sure he’s ready for that. All his life he has loved Sabina, only to realize she had never felt the same about him. While he’s relieved to see her pursuing God, the Prohibition agent is pursuing her father just as intently, and it falls to Enzo—and his legal skills—to keep trouble at bay. He wants to believe that Sabina can change…assuming they can stay alive until their wedding day.

Shadowed Loyalty, set amid the glitz and scandal of the Roaring Twenties, examines what love really means and how we draw lines between family and our own convictions, especially when following the one could mean losing the other. 

I know, I know, book 1 in my new series just released. But in this industry, we’re always working years ahead of what you see to guarantee more fun reads in the future. =) And I’m so excited to announce that I’ve just signed a contract for a stand-alone that will come after my Secrets of the Isles series is complete, before a new series begins!

If you’ve read The Codebreakers, you may have been a bit curious about one of the other cryptographers I mention in the series–Remington Culbreth, who gets progressively more serious and somber as the books go on. Well, I planted him there on purpose, mwa ha ha ha, because I already had a story in mind for him. 😉 Let me tell you a little about it.

Way back in 2004, I’d just graduated college. It was summer, and for the first time in four years, I didn’t have a job. My husband was working in Baltimore and commuting from Annapolis, which meant he was out early in the morning and got home just in time for dinner. Our goal had always been that he would work and I’d write and raise the kids, so that summer was kind of our practice run.

One night I woke up with a story idea. Now, I have never in my life gotten out of bed to go write, but I did lie there awake for an hour or two as this story idea crashed over me. I got up when David did, grabbed my laptop, and started writing. It was a contemporary story about a young man from the DC area, whose family was wealthy and important, and a young woman of mixed race born and raised in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, whose grandmother was a cleaning woman and whose mother owned an inn. Louisa had big dreams but gave them up to help her family. She and Rem fell in love one summer, but then life happened and took them apart, and when he reenters the scene years later, nothing’s simple anymore. He wants to give Louisa back some of her dreams when he sees what a bad decision of his had cost her, but she’s afraid the dream itself is too costly now.

Sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean on Ocracoke Island, Outer Banks, North Carolina

In the course of three days, I wrote 150 pages of this book. It consumed me. A few years later, when I’d learned SO much about writing and publishing, I did a complete overhaul of the story, and yet again it consumed me. I rewrote the entire book in two weeks. I showed it to my agent, who loved it. I pitched to a few editors at a conference and it went to committee but didn’t get a contract.

Then I got contracts for historicals, and this contemporary got pushed into my file of finished stories that may or may not ever see the light of day.

But every single year, when my family goes to the Outer Banks on vacation, those characters come back to me. I imagine Louisa standing on the porch beside me. I see Rem jogging toward the waves. I couldn’t let them go.

Springer’s Point Beach on Ocracoke

Well, a couple years ago, my best friend Stephanie said, “Oo, oo! I know what you need to do! Set your OBX story in the 1920s!”

Cue Roseanna gasping in that “Why didn’t I think of that???” way. So over the last couple years, I’ve spent my vacations toying with how best to reset Louisa and Rem into the world of 100 years ago. In the contemporary version, Rem had been an analyst for the CIA…so naturally, in the historical version, he would have been a cryptographer. I mentioned to my editor at Bethany House that I had this idea for a stand-alone at the time when I pitched The Codebreakers, and he wisely said, “Sounds like a great story, but we wouldn’t want it to feel like a tagalong to this series, so let’s put some other books between them.” But I put Rem in Room 40, so he was already in the world. And I kept thinking. And thinking.

Last September as we were strolling the empty beaches, I was thinking how unfair it was that all the really interesting things in the Outer Banks happened not during the First World War, but rather during the Second. And I had this flash of inspiration. A timeslip! Louisa and Rem set during WW1, and then a second line with another character I’d already thought up, in WW2! YES!!!!!!

After I turned in the manuscript for my second Secrets of the Isles book in January of 2021, I sat down and hammered out how this would work. Yet again, the idea COMPLETELY consumed me. And it all came together more perfectly than I’d ever imagined it could. I was so excited. So. Very. Excited. My usual way to pitch a project to Bethany House is to write a synopsis, but instead I found myself planning out each scene and how the two timelines would interact. I ended up with a detailed 20-page outline of the book, plus a manageable synopsis for the team to review, LOL.

I fell in love with the gorgeous, sprawling live oaks in the maritime evergreen forests on the island.

To my utter delight, the pub board at BHP was excited about the idea too! So, 19 years after I came up with the idea, Yesterday’s Tides will be published! The title may change (though I LOVE this title, and it fits it perfectly, so hopefully not), and the story has so many new elements, but I’m more in love than ever. Because not only do we get Louisa and Rem and Ocracoke…we get Room 40. We get themes of how the First World War shook the world in ways that triggered the Second World War a generation later. I get to explore how Yesterday’s Tides really do affect today’s currents. All the things, y’all! ALL THE THINGS.

So last week, my family took a semi-spontaneous trip to Ocracoke for research. There’s a memorial service each year to commemmorate the sinking of a British ship off the coast during the early years of WW2, which will be where my book begins, so we wanted to catch it. And while we were there we did a lot of exploring and research, both general and specific.

I still have book 3 of the Secrets of the Isles to finish writing, which is fun and I’m enjoying it–but then I’ll get to dive into this one! I can’t wait! You can expect it to release around Jan-Feb of 2023.

 Are you a fan of timeslip stories with dual timelines?