Finishing The Chronicles of Alice and Ivy

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This was a post I planned for just before the 12 Days of Christmas party, but I ended up doing other post and saving this one until later and whoosh! It’s January!

In this post I’ll be talking about my plans for finishing off the rather long and complicated series that The Chronicles of Alice and Ivy is … and how a small, over-achieving bit of me wants to do that this year.

(Also, before I forget, HAPPY NEW YEAR MA PEEPS. I hope 2018 is an amazing year for you! God bless!)

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As you know, I originally planned on making The Chronicles of Alice and Ivy a four -book series, then expanded to a six-book series, and now I have ideas for multiple spin-off stories.

Weeeell, I do eventually want to finish this series and move on, but at the same time I can’t just abandon all the little plot bunnies swirling around in my brain. (A book about Caleb? Ned? Mr. Knight as a young man? Ooh, Mr. Knight’s childhood best friend who never appeared or was mentioned in a book so far? It’s a sickness …)

At its basic level, I will be done with The Chronicles of Alice and Ivy this year. (Hopefully.) I didn’t say this before, but I’m really hoping I can finish Book 5 (Alice Unanswered) and Book 6 (currently titled Through the Maelstrom) before 2019. It’s a bit of a pipe dream, but I think I can do it.

But … the spin-offs? Well, here’s my current list:

Sail Away (novel)




All Made New (novel)




Let Heaven Wait (novel)




God Love a Yankee (novella-ish)


100 Facts About an Angel (novella/novelette)


The Casual Observer’s Guide to Matchmaking (novella-ish)

So … three full-length novels, a couple novellas, and a shorter novella? Yeah, it sounds pretty crazy.

(Of course, I wouldn’t necessarily call Let Heaven Wait a part of The Chronicles of Alice and Ivy, and the other two will be stand-alones.)

(Annnddddddd, if you want to get technical, Lilli Strauss’s series will be related to TCOAAI*, but … let’s not talk about that. My brain is exploding.)

*not typing that out again, sorry …

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My Year In Writing

This year, I came up with a (very loose) schedule for my year in writing … and I’m going to try to stick to it. However, I can’t guarantee that that will happen.

Here’s what I have in mind:

January

Editing At Her Fingertips.
Working on Alice Unanswered (outlining/pre-writing).
Developing That Plot Bunny.
(ALSO, publishing Flowers on the 13th is still happening!)



February

Editing At Her Fingertips s’more.
Developing That Plot Bunny.
Plan revisions of Beyond Her Calling.



March

At Her Fingertips goes off to the editor.
Concentrate fully on Beyond Her Calling.
That Plot Bunny.



April

Proof-read and publish At Her Fingertips.
More revisions of Beyond Her Calling.
A little more Alice Unanswered.
That Plot Bunny.



May

Beyond Her Calling goes to alpha-readers (and I keep working on it).
Still writing Alice Unanswered.
That Plot Bunny.



June

Finish writing the first draft of Once a Stratton.
Also keep working on Alice Unanswered.
That Plot Bunny.



July

Finish Alice Unanswered.
Still working on Beyond Her Calling. Hopefully beta-readers in here.
That Plot Bunny.



August

Finish with beta-readers for Beyond Her Calling.
Maybe editor for Beyond Her Calling in here. (It depends on me and my editor both.)
Hoping to finish with That Plot Bunny.



September

Planning Through the Maelstrom.
Might work on another project in here, but haven’t decided.



October

Planning Through the Maelstrom.
Considering publishing Beyond Her Calling.



November

NaNoWriMo – Through the Maelstrom.



December

Start polishing Alice Unanswered.

Note: I haven’t set most of this in stone and probably won’t. But that’s my general outlook for the year!

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So, in summary, The Chronicles of Alice and Ivy will never be finished because I am Star-Wars-ing it up over here.