The Crusader’s Vow is a BIG Book!

It’s been a while since I’ve written a book that was as much of a fighter as The Crusader’s Vow has proven to be. I went back to the drawing board three times with this book. Each time I looked at it (even when I thought it was done), it needed at least one more scene. I finally sent it off to edits a couple of weeks ago, then spent this weekend adding another 15,000 words to it in the process of doing revisions.

There are good reasons for this, of course, It’s the last book of the Champions of St. Euphemia series (or the last one of the series for me to write, since I wrote book #5 before book #4) which meant lots and LOTS of loose ends to tie in. I had many timelines to incorporate and events mentioned in the other books to keep in order. (My editor may want to kill me after the writing of this series!)

Fergus and Leila’s was also a challenging story to write in itself—how could I make it plausible for a woman raised in Palestine as a Muslim to be happy in Scotland in 1188? Love wasn’t going to be enough for me to believe in Fergus and Leila’s happily-ever-after, which meant I had to dig deeper. Plus they both had to be offered what each believed the other wanted most, and at the worst possible moment. I ended up exploring the notion of ‘home’ and what it meant to both of them—I had to do that to be sure they both got what they desired most in order to be happy forevermore. Phew.

I knew the concluding scene of this story before I even began to write the book, and it was very satisfying to commit it to the page. It’s the perfect resolution, in my opinion, and I hope you enjoy it.

The book is not quite 110,000 words long. Big. Book.

We are doing the last proofreading today and I should have the final file tomorrow or Thursday. Look for the book to be listed at B&N for pre-order by the end of the week. I’ll share the link with you when it’s live. I’ll also be setting up the print edition for publication this week and will share those links with you once they’re live.

The book will be published March 23, bringing this series to its completion.

Remember that you can download a free sample of The Crusader’s Vow from my online store.