Nine years. NINE YEARS. It’s been almost a decade since I published Trans-Continental: Mississippi Queen. Eleven years since I wrote Trans-Continental: Girl in the Gears. I’ve wanted to do this book all that time. I have made several outlines, had several brainstorming sessions, and even had a false start with a first chapter a few years ago. All ended up fizzling out, or being eclipsed by a newer, shinier idea.

To be fair, finishing the Tipsy Fairy Tales series got in the way first, and I was stuck on Mean Spirit for a couple of years. Then came The Multiverse Blues and Trans Witch: College of Secrets, as well as my collab with Kat Bradbury and Red Tash, SPI Girls Kick Ass!

I finished Born this Fae at the end of 2022 and haven’t written a word of fiction since.

Until now.

I’m excited to revisit Ida and Duffy’s adventures, and so I have an announcement: I am writing this one as a serial, just like I did with The Multiverse Blues and Born This Fae (on my podcast and on the late Kindle Vella, respectively). This is writing without a tightrope; no take backsies or Wyld Stallyns trashcans out of nowhere by retroactive writing. It’s kinda terrifying, and kinda thrilling. But behind the curtain, I don’t do much retroactive writing; roleplaying gaming is too much in my blood to feel right about changing things that I’ve already established. Let the dice fall where they may!

Anyway. This is gonna be fun. The two main things this is going to have in common with the previous ideas I’ve had for the third book in the series are 1) It’s going to be a race to the west coast of the fragmented steampunk North America where Ida and Duffy live and 2) it was always going to have an airship on the cover. The second is already fulfilled, as you can see from the header to this post, thanks to my wonderful cover artist Summer Willhite! The rest, well, it’s a promise I’ve made to myself, and I’m making to you now.

I’m going to post the chapters one at a time, every couple of weeks, on Royal Road, and I’ll post about them here. The first chapter is written, though it needs a little touching up before I’m ready to share it with you. For now, I hope you’ll join Ida and Duffy and me in this wild trip!