Night Magic: Whys, Wherefores and Giveaway

Night MagicNight Magic is finally at bookstores today, completing the New Orleans Nights trilogy at last.

Today I’ll answer some of the questions I’ve received since announcing that Night Magic was coming. And at the end? A giveaway announcement.

Why did I write Night Magic?

Lady of the Night and Bayou Midnight were two of my first romantic suspense novels. When I received the rights to republish them, I did some editing and tweaking. While reading Lady of the Night, I remembered how much I loved Skeeter Harlow, one of three men who had survived the streets of New Orleans, largely because of their boyhood friendship.

My plan was to write three books, Skeeter’s as the final one, but my publisher nixed the idea. Skeeter was arrested on a drug charge, and they had a firm rule that we couldn’t write about drugs in any form in our novels. I explained what had happened–you have to read Night Magic to find out–but a rule was a rule. Sorry.

After some serious contemplation I realized I didn’t want to re-release this series without the final book. So I went looking through my files. I’d written two long synopses (a bare bones account of the story) with different endings, plus I’d written three chapters to show my publisher at the time. I’d also bought some interesting books about New Orleans voodoo, which features in this story. I still had everything,, which is a clear indication I loved the idea and hoped that someday my publisher would relent.

Enter independent publishing. Now that I had the rights to the first two books, I could finally write the book. But would it be worth it? Would I sell enough copies to make the time it took away from my next book for Mira worthwhile?

Novelists aren’t always practical. I realized I didn’t care. Skeeter and his new love Daffy (who plays a part in Bayou Midnight) had waited long enough.

I had such fun writing this. And in the end, that’s why I wrote Night Magic.

Does Night Magic take place in the present?

Night Magic takes place before Hurricane Katrina. The other two books were updated to include some technology we didn’t have access to when I wrote them, but since the city changed so much after Katrina, I didn’t feel equipped to update them any further or to write Night Magic in present day. All three books take place at the same time.

Will Night Magic be published as a paperback?

I get enough mail from my readers to know that not all of you enjoy reading eBooks. I can appreciate that, and I want you to have choices. So Night Magic is out as a paperback, too, but only at Amazon, who helped produce it. Even though this book is completely original, I only slightly raised the price from the preceding books. There’s no business model that suggests this is a good idea, but I wrote this book for you to enjoy.

Do I have plans for more books in this series?

As I was revising and editing the first two books I came across two sequel-worthy characters. Want to guess who they might be? I dare you. Will I ever get around to writing those books? Unfortunately it’s unlikely. Right now any free time I have away from my (as yet untitled) book for Mira will probably be spent on reissuing more of my backlist and finishing an anthology I’m writing featuring characters from my Shenandoah Album series.

Where can I buy Night Magic?

Next week a special giveaway to thank you for your interest in this series and your encouragement. Come back then for details on how to enter. A hint: While I usually give books as prizes, this one will be a bit different.

3 Comments

  1. Joni on August 15, 2018 at 5:41 am

    So glad you did this series! Excellent books

  2. Kim B. on August 15, 2018 at 3:45 pm

    I’m so glad you released in paperback. I realize that I’m in a minority by not liking to read on a Kindle/Tablet…. but I really like holding an actual book in my hand.

    Love everything you do. Whatever it is, just keep writing!

  3. Nancy Lepri on August 15, 2018 at 5:49 pm

    Love this!!!!!

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