My seventeenth book, currently entitled The Hunted Angel‘is under way properly at last. I began writing it soon after the previous Rutter book, The Secret Angels, was published in 2018. I had to shelve it when I reached the 30,000 word mark because I discovered that I was not writing one story, but TWO. In order for Hunted to achieve its potential, another story needed to be slotted in between it and Secret. That story was Rutter, Reborn, which was published recently.
Reborn begins with the opening that I had originally penned for Hunted, but then moves in a new direction.
Hunted opens at the same time as Reborn, but with an unrelated scene involving new characters. Having done that, it moves on to events following those depicted in Reborn.
Now that Reborn is published, I can complete Hunted. As mentioned at the start of this post, I already had around 30,000 words mothballed. These have now been dusted off and updated. As of yesterday, I began adding to them. There is still a long way to go, of course. As things stand, I don’t know when it will go on sale, but I am keeping my fingers crossed for a target date of February next year – God, the Muse and Coronavirus willing, of course.
I tend to think of my ‘Rutter’ books in terms of cases. The canon, so far, runs as follows (in chronological order). The Trent Case (Chained in Time set in 1988 – and 1888), The Mallory Case (Rutter’s Reunion and Relapse, both set in 1998), the Radcliffe Case (Rutter’s Revolt and The Secret Angels, set in 1998/9) and the Most Case (Rutter, Reborn, set in 1999/2000). The one I am writing is also set in 1999/2000 (but almost all of it in 2000). There is a further tale, entitled Rutter’s Rescue, which occurs between Rutter’s Reunion and Relapse. It is a short story, published as part of my anthology , Stella and Rose and Other Stories. It is a stand-alone tale depicting an unrelated matter involving a disappeared girl.
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