Happy belated release!
First, huge thanks to S.C. for stepping in as the last minute copyeditor, since our scheduled CE had an emergency.
Second, thank you to Mod R, who had read and edited the manuscript several times and handled things when a technical glitch on Amazon ate the cover. Much appreciation to Natanya W. of Nancy Yost Literary, who liaised with Amazon and got it eventually fixed. If the cover is not showing up on your Kindle, please delete the file and redownload.
Beast Business Questions
There are some mild spoilers below. Read at your own risk.
Matilda’s First Bond?
“You must be Matilda.” I smiled at the little girl.
She nodded.
“Is that your dog?”
She nodded again.
“What’s his name?”
“Bunny,” she said in a small voice.
Bunny looked at me with the kind of suspicion usually reserved for rattlesnakes. Cornelius was an animal mage, a rare brand of magic, which meant Bunny wasn’t a dog. He was the equivalent of a loaded assault rifle pointed in my direction.
“He can smile,” Matilda offered. “Smile, Bunny.”
Bunny showed me a forest of gleaming white fangs. I fought an urge to step back.
Andrews, Ilona. White Hot: A Hidden Legacy Novel (p. 10). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
Animal mages do take on the traits of their first bond, but they also tend to bond to the animals who are most compatible with them. Like Bunny, Matilda is disciplined, serious, efficient, and believes that things must be just so.
Konstantin reappeared. Rooster fell silent and panted at him.
“Rooster barks at 112 decibels,” Matilda informed him. “She can continue to bark for hours without straining herself. If you change shape, she will bark. If you attempt to escape, she will bark. If you try to separate from her in any way . . .”
“She will bark?” Konstantin asked.
“Yes. If she barks for longer than one minute, the electronic sensor in her collar will send an alert. Cutting the collar or removing it will also trigger an alert.” Matilda stared at him. “If anything happens to Rooster or her collar, I will know. I will come. I will bring friends. I hope we understand each other.”
“Crystal clear,” he told her.
Andrews, Ilona. Ruby Fever: A Hidden Legacy Novel: Romance and Supernatural Suspense in Texas (p. 206). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
(A Hidden Legacy Novel: Romance and Supernatural Suspense in Texas? That’s new. I didn’t know Avon added that.)
Where was Kitty during Ruby Fever?
With her mother. Kitty is still a baby.
If Diana was almost overcome with the animals in the menagerie, how did Matilda survive?
Matilda is special.
How deadly is Augustine really?
Extremely. Augustine is an assassin by training. If he wants you dead, it doesn’t matter how protected you are, he will kill you.
How bad was adolescence for Augustine? There are hints that he and his family were traumatized and not just by the family murders. How did he get that scar on his cheek?
Augustine’s father was a difficult person. While he wasn’t physically or emotionally abusive, he wasn’t what you would call a warm parent. Of all the Houses we have shown so far, Montgomery is the most likely to be targeted because you don’t hire them unless there is a crisis. They know a lot of potentially damaging information and a lot of shady people view them as enemies.
Augustine’s father was very focused on security and survival, and when Augustine was growing up, he was idealistic, in a somewhat similar way that Connor was. His father wanted him to assume the responsibility for the House and the firm and tried to train and mold him in his own image.
Both Connor and Augustine were well educated and encouraged to think for themselves at an early age, and both of them rejected what they saw as the rigid thinking of their fathers and the inherent imbalance of power within the society. Unfortunately, for the two of them, that “rigid” thinking was the result of bitter experience, and both Connor and Augustine ended up with emotional and physical scars.
The society portrayed in Hidden Legacy is not aspirational. None of us would want to live in a system like that. It’s a cautionary tale about what happens when some have a great deal of power and others have none. Everyone is damaged by this, even the most powerful.
Does Cornelius know about panthercakes?
Yes.
Will Arabella and Tia become friends?
Yes.
Why does Arabella say she needs a friend because she doesn’t have one, isn’t she friends with Augustine’s sister and her own sisters?
I have more than one friend, and I talk to them about different things. I’m sure you do as well. Verena is a school friend, and Runa is basically family. But neither of them fully understands how Arabella feels about her magic. Tia can relate to it on an completely different level.
Do Augustine and Diana end up together?
I looked to the left where Cornelius sat at the table with his daughter, sister, brother, and surprisingly Augustine Montgomery. I was hoping Cornelius would bring a date as well, but he hadn’t. I wanted him to meet someone, but there was nobody like Nari. An animal menagerie, including Sgt. Teddy, Zeus, a small pack of attack dogs, a few birds, and three cats napped behind them.
Andrews, Ilona. Ruby Fever: A Hidden Legacy Novel: Romance and Supernatural Suspense in Texas (p. 369). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
Will there be a sequel? Arabella trilogy? More…
We are so glad that you like it enough to want a sequel.
The novella was written, because we left hints about Augustine and Diana and never followed through. And we received persistent questions about how Arabella came to be mentored by Augustine. It felt like the world had a missing piece and it was bothersome. That piece is now in place.
While it would be fun to do Augustine and Diana sequel, we are done for now. It is demonstrated that they get together in the main series, but how exactly that happens for now will have to remain a mystery. If we return to it, it will likely be a duology only.
As far as Arabella trilogy: Hidden Legacy is complete for now. That trilogy would have to take place several years in the HL future, when Arabella is not only an adult but is established. It would be a major project. We would probably want to seek partnership with a traditional publishing house because the first 2 trilogies were traditionally published. We are not in the position to start a new project of this scope.
HL, KD, and Edge have complete main arcs. People bring up Hugh and Blood Heir, but those are side stories.
The Innkeeper and This Kingdom have unfinished main arcs. Those are our priority. We are going to be concentrating on that, because we need to complete those storylines. We have got to see if Maggie survives. And if Dina and Maud find their parents – the Innkeeper part of the BDH should get to see it happen.
Why is there a difference between the content in snippets and published books? The preview of Augustine had different stuff in it…
You know what, good point. We should stop snippeting things until the final file is ready. It’s a bad habit. Until we go to publication, the story elements are fluid, and some people really have a hard time with it.
Why are posts and free snippets archived?
People have asked if this is a resource issue. It’s not.
We get a lot of traffic spikes. The culprit is the free serials. When a serial is running, people are reading each chapter multiple times, and they comment and then come back to check responses to their comments, which causes an increase. New releases and giveaways also result in sharp increases in traffic. The graph of the site’s sessions looks like a hysterical hedgehog.
Over the years, we moved from generic hosting to a virtual server, to dedicated hosting, then to a better dedicated host, and we hung on there as long as we could until we were basically kind of fired as a client, because we outgrew it, so now we are here. Each move had to be made. We are with WP-Engine right now.
(Yes, I know about the Mullenweg/WP-Engine drama, we were not affected. We’re using the WP-Engine because it can handle the traffic, the up time is great, and the customer support allows me to immediately jump on the issues.)
The matter is complicated because we cannot cache the blog. If you are unfamiliar with caching, the short simple explanation is that your browser takes a screenshot of the page and then serves that stored page to you when you access the site. So instead of loading fresh images, etc., it loads a slightly older version, which significantly speeds up the loading.
We’re caching everything else, but when the blog is cached, people don’t see their comments pop up right away. They attempt to repost the comments numerous times and then email us in a panic and sometimes in outrage. So, we’ve elected to keep the blog un-cached.
(The reluctance to cache has recently bit us in butt, because we had crawlers causing 504 timeouts. Sogou web spider was the bane of my existence for a bit, but the latest block finally took. There was a suggestion to go to P6, but it’s a patch, and eventually, probably sooner rather than later, we may end up either caching the blog or disabling the comments. That will go over like a lead balloon with BDH. I don’t know what the hell to do about that. Maybe we will go to a dedicated site for serials only, but again, the problem would just reoccur. I guess, no serials? I don’t know. Eh. Sorry about tech issue vomit.)
We could move away from WordPress as the hosting platform, which would buy us a bit more speed and breathing room, but majority of people are comfortable with it. If we move to a new model, people will have to learn how to use it and I will have to learn a new UI, and I don’t have the time for that.
Back to archiving: it happens because posts get outdated. Publishing landscape changes and what was true a couple of years ago isn’t true now. Plans change as well. And personal life moves on. Nobody wants to read my two-year-old surgery trauma posts, heh.
When short stories or deleted scenes get archived, it is usually for one of two reasons.
One, they were multicategorized. Each post has a category and sometimes there is more than one. We archive by age of post and category, so if a post is tagged Pets and Free Fiction, and we archived Pets for that year, it hides the post. We’ve been trying to move all of the free fiction to its own pages, but time is in short supply, and I get to it when I get to it.
Two, some free stuff gets taken down for editing. We are trying to put together an anthology of freebies that can be downloaded from the store and hopefully would provide a good introduction to each series. Unfortunately, that is on top of everything else. And right now, we are 105K into Maggie 2, it is not done, and there are thousands of pages to sign still. ::shudder::
Mod R informed me that Questing Beast was caught up in the archiving. I fished it out. Here it is. I will add it to free fiction section at some point. But, I mean, just because something was posted as a freebie doesn’t mean it will always stay that way. There is some weird entitlement happening here. Last I checked, it is our IP and we can do whatever we want with it.
Upcoming blog stuff: you will see a lot less of me in the next couple of months. I need to write and this post took 2 hours. Books must be a priority, because you are not here to read my ramblings. You are here for the books.
I wish you a calm and happy week.
I loved Beast Business and am excited about Maggie but I really, really hope you do come back and finish Hugh 2. I can’t be the only one!
I just want to say…. I love you guys. Anything you post, Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I save all your emails. When I want to reread your stuff, I just search my emails. Voila. As readers we are not entitled to your stuff, we appreciate every single freebie…. Y’all are so gracious with your freebies…. Thank you again!
“Augustine closed his eyes. He needed to take this time to heal while he could. He needed to be in top shape when he went looking for Diana Harrison, and he wasn’t sure how long he could stay away.”
House IA… I know you want to manage Maggie 2. I know you want to finish Innkeeper.
But you do not get to drop an end like that and not follow up.
I’m team Metal Rose. But this is more urgent and once you get Maggie 2 and Maud and Arland married this needs to happen.
Also… Beast Business is really awesome, in case that wasn’t clear.
I enjoyed Beast Business and will read it again because….well…you wrote it, it was very good and ….well… you wrote it. I’ve reread (and listened to) just about everything you’ve ever written and if I haven’t read it, it’s because I didn’t know it was out there.
Thank you for being the fantastic people you are! (This includes Mod R)
Ooh, I hadn’t seen the Questing Beast before! Loved it! Thanks for the repost(?) new link(?).
I’m with the people who kind of enjoy seeing the changes between snippet and final version. It’s interesting!
I want an Arabella trilogy, or single, or duology–but then I want *all* the trilogies, and sequels, and new stories so….
Thank you for Beast Business!
I appreciate that Innkeeper and Maggie take priority and also look forward to whenever we get more Hugh, Aurelia, and Ada.
Jessie’s book, which is awesome, is helping to fill in the time until Maggie 1. 😊
Oops! Typo on Jessie’s name – sorry!
Fixed 🙂
thanks for beast business! I really enjoy whatever you publish and that the snippets are sometimes different are kind of fun, tho as you say, also a bit of a surprise when they don’t follow thru.
I do have a question about a snippet of a meet between Arabella and Michael. It fed into the scene where Linus removes his objections to something with the recordkeeper, and it implied something between Michael and Arabella (Ruby Fever). What happened to that snippet? I saw it once then it disappeared…. intriguing. 🙂
To my knowledge, and I was already working as moderator at the time and seeing all the snippets, there has not been an Arabella vs Record Keeper Michael, beyond what is still in Ruby Fever.
He stares at her, she is unperturbed:
“The elevator door whispered open, and Michael stepped out. His gaze slid over Linus and me and stopped on Arabella. She stared back at him, unperturbed.
A moment passed. Michael stood aside and indicated the elevator with his hand. Linus and I boarded, he followed, and we rode the elevator up to the fifth floor.”
Andrews, Ilona. Ruby Fever, Hidden Legacy 6. Avon HarperCollins 2022. Page 340, Kindle edition
There is a scene with Arabella and Prince Mihail, the Bear, which is much richer – and is still the epilogue of RF.
Of course Maggie will survive. She is Undying. The question is HOW she will survive; as she mentioned herself, there are things worse than dying.
THANK YOU HOUSE ANDREWS!! The book was amazing and so are the both of you (And Mod R too!). Every little bit that you do for the BDH is very much appreciated.
Putting it out there that hopefully Beast Business will become a duology some day.❤️
thank you for the blog and the free snippets and the books.
I just love the idea of us creating or looking like a hysterical hedgehog 🤣🦔
Thank you for this little HL gem. As fans it’s easy to forget just how many projects you’re juggling and demand too much. Good luck with both Maggie and Innkeeper, and stay safe.
Good morning to HA and the ravenous Horde from South Africa
First: Dear Ilona, Gorden and ModR. I know that you are doing the best you can by your loyal BDH, and yes! the books are important, but I personally also do love your ramblings. Not enough to go reread them, necessarily, but the insights we get into your challenges also give us (hopefully) the clarity to appreciate what we get and all the work you put in. I can see that being an author is about more than churning out new books – there is also the social aspect and more to it. Keep on keeping on; you are doing an excellent job!
Second: I will say again that I did absolutely love-love-love Beast Business, and suspect that that Arabella POV will especially become a favourite reread!
Third: I had such a hard time getting my hands on the Extended Preview of This Kingdom – Amazon would not “sell” it to me in my country, nor would GoogleBooks. But I eventually registered with Bookshop.org and was able to “purchase” it there and subsequently devoured it. Now will proceed to count sleeps until 2 April, which is when my Amazon pre-order says I can expect the full book! So, if you are struggling to get your hands on the Extended Preview note that there are resources other than Amazon for it.
Much love to you all! (So happy – Maggie ROCKED my world!)
South Africa is among the countries served by the UK edition, along with Australia, India and unsurprisingly, the UK.
The free preview is a promo by the US edition and publisher, that’s why it is not available for us.
There will soon be a way for us to access the same content too 🙂
No. 1: Thank you so much for everything you do for your Fans!
No. 2: I’m not a very active member of the BDH so I catch onto trends belatedly. I just read the ship name “panthercakes” for the first time and it is absolute GOLD!!! I laughed myself silly for a solid 3 Minutes. I love it! Whoever came up with it, I applaud you!
No. 3: I was wondering about ship names and the like and realized I don’t know something about the BDH – was the fandom named after the Hope Crushing Horde or was the name of the Ottokar inspired by the fandom?
If it is the former – did the fandom have a different name before Innkeeper 2?
We named ourselves after the Hope Crushing Horde, sometime over a decade ago in the comments of the Sweep in Peace serial 🤗
Have to say that I love the ramblings and spicy/salty/sassy comments thrown in between. We, the BDH, are here for anything and everything that you write and decide to share with us…even the free that may be changed at a future date. it’s the best part of having to re-read
As a long standing member of the BDH, I am going nowhere! I preorder with delight and try to wait patiently for the new adventure to be available. I loved Beast Business, children and animals get me every time. I prefer animal companions more so than human ones most times. (I am married, 2 adult offspring and a grandbaby so I do socialize.) Please write at your pace, we will wait and devour as offered. Then raise our collective chorus of delight!,then bow our heads in gratitude.
Thank you for creating and continuing so many fascinating worlds and characters. I love returning to them whenever you have the time and inspiration to return to any of them. I’m looking forward to Maggie and another new world. Please keep doing what you’re inspired to do whenever and however you choose. It’s all appreciated.
Hope the book goes well. I enjoyed Beast Business, and I’m really looking forward to Maggie. That’s going to be fascinating. Haven’t read portal fiction, so this will be a new thing for me.
“we may end up either caching the blog or disabling the comments. That will go over like a lead balloon with BDH”
As someone who’s worked in IT for over 30 years I have a suggestion. You could have an online (community) forum where BDH (yes, I’m one of the many) could meet and have discussions, ask questions of each other and yourselves.
I’ve spent much time on many forums over the decades. They have a straightforward setup and are geared towards doing allowing people to meet and discuss. I’m willing to bet, if you have a hobby, you’ve been on a forum relating to that hobby looking for help and/or information so have a pretty good idea what I’m referring to.
Just a thought………
Who remembers that this used to be a thing? 😊 I still have screenshots from the old IA forum days. I feel like an Ancient Elder all of a sudden ::caresses long, long white beard::
There was an Ilona Andrews forum hosted on the website. Then social media platforms evolved, and readers naturally gravitated toward their already existing accounts and activity spread and multiplied.
These days, the Horde gathers in a lot of different spaces: the Ilona Andrews Facebook group, where we try desperately to stay on topic, Discord servers, Threads topics etc.
The blog serves double duty in all of this: it’s a central hub for official news, announcements, and promo, and a moderated point of contact where readers can ask questions and get reliable information in safety.
But from everything House Andrews said across the years, they very much encourage fan spaces remaining fan spaces— readers talking to each other freely without everything funneling through a single official platform, that’s what makes a community thrive!
My heart is breaking that there might not be an Arabella trilogy. HL won’t feel complete for me without her finding a partner.
Will we ever see more of the Iron Covenant series? I would like to see what happens with Hugh and Elara.
YES
I refuse to give up hope!
Omg now I feel like a real dummy, I read Beast Business and was fully convinced it was after Ruby Fever…but it takes place before?
Awww, not dummy! Between the prologue and chapter 1 🙂, so technically during!
I thought the same exact thing! I was sort of crushed but that’s just how wonderful the writing is!
Wait, does this mean the second Hugh book is on the back burner again????
It means the focus is on the main series that need a denouement 🙂
But what about Ada? I need more ADA!
Thanks for letting us know about Matilda’s first bond. I have been wondering for days 🙂
I just want to thank you both. I have finished reading everything! Words cannot express my happiness and joy. I reread most of your books ! At times I find my self thinking of your many characters and find myself laughing and wanting to revisit their different story lines. To say you both have a lot going on is an understatement, however, whenever you two do your thing, I can’t speak for your other readers, but for myself it is right on time. Happy New Year’s, Happy Valentines Day!
One of the many things I appreciate about the writing of Ilona Andrews is that they do NOT repeat themselves, they do NOT give us a book or series for every significant character we encounter in one of their worlds. There are far too many writers who create a successful world, then write the world to death, the quality of the stories drops and, for me at least, it can sour my feelings about the earlier books that I once adored. Knowing when an arc is finished is a real skill, and I am so glad that Ilona Andrews keep their writing fresh by making different worlds and doing different things in them. I’m not going to name names, but there are at least a dozen writers I either don’t read at all any more or have to space out because they repeat certain phrases in every book and I’ll throw the book across the room if I read them too often. These aren’t bad writers, but they’ve stopped challenging themselves, and it shows in the final product.
All of which is to say Thank You Ilona and Gordon for keeping your writing so fresh!
Also I enjoy snippets as much as the next member of the BDH, but I see them as unlooked for presents from incredibly generous authors, so again Thank You for previous snippets, and don’t worry about giving me future snippits, especially if putting them up makes the visit numbers go crazy.
Also, also I loved Beast Business, reading about the way illusion magic and animal magic worked was great, it was good to see Arabella get a friend of her own too.
+1
+1
I agree with you, but also that sometimes a break is all that’s needed.
Exhibit A: Kate Daniels! Magic Triumphs ended the series…and a couple years later we got The Wilmington Years! And now there’s prehistoric elves! Therefore, I can be p*tient and w*it.
I’ve now read BB twice, and the Arabella POV thrice. I didn’t know it was planned, let alone to be included, but it was so totally worth the extra wait time to release. Tia and Ray are great characters, and I’m so glad Arabella has a best bud now. I had already figured out Matilda is special, and why Kitty was not at the wedding from context. It was really fun to have those blanks filled in, though, and added a lot of depth to the story. Thanks to HA and ModR so much for all you do.
Caching\not is a definite issue. I’d “personally” consider a dedicated site for Blogs or a mini-forum so it isn’t too out of hand for moderation.
It is an interesting problem to have. Lots of fans, but cost for upkeep/moderation may be cost prohibitive. There is definitely a breaking point of when it makes sense financially or not.
All that said, I love to see the process (changes from snippet to posting) – but I also know you can barely please some of the people some of the time so…. I understand if you change that 🙂
Heh, I replied to the same suggestion earlier in the comments.
House Andrews already tried the dedicated forum before – but people overwhelmingly preferred interacting on the main site and other social media platforms, and the forum was shut down.
Thank you!
Reality – what a concept … errr, ahhhh, I mean, thanks for the look at the background. (Even if a lot of it is over my head. Chortle.)
I am amazed at how responsive you are to the BDH. Thank you.
I am really looking forward to This Kingdom and it’s sequel(s).
You are amazing people
girlfriend, I love hearing from you. you are fascinating when you “ramble”. take whatever time you need and write in whatever world you want, I will be grateful for the experience.
The Maggie preview was awesome and I eagerly await the full book.
LOVED Beast Business.
Loved Arabella/Tia/Matilda story.
Would happily see a sequel novella WHEN CONVENIENT, but no rush. If it includes another Arabella POV with Tia/Matilda, even better. I would be interested to see more of Matilda/Kitty (and would love to see what Matilda names Kitty) and whatever complications ensue from the “early” bond. Whatever you write, I am going to be buying. Maggie, Innkeeper (Hint, hint… Wedding! LOL), Hugh/Elara, Julie/Derek… anything at all.
I hope you won’t discontinue the snippets. I enjoy them so much and I’m fascinated by how they change. Totally unclear as to why anyone would question/complain about that but I suspect that’s just a vocal minority. Please continue to do snippets. /puppyeyes
Having seen video of European cheese makers tending to cheeses in caves, I see House Andrews as metaphorically tending to their stories, turning them over, rotating each story on the shelf, and ensuring that each story has reached its best level of ripeness so it can be released into the wider world…and I cannot see the walls of the cave of stories they care for……
That is such a great image 😀
Thank you Gordon and Ilona! I’m savoring my print copy of Beast Business, enjoying the rare opportunity to bundle up in cozy clothes and blankets. (West Central Florida) I’m sipping my current favorite tea, a Blackberry Jasmine by TeBella
I appreciate your generosity in sharing snippets of works in progress and I understand that they aren’t necessarily the final versions.
HL was my first adventure with HA, and I look forward to more installments whenever feasible. In the meantime I’ll enjoy your many other worlds and stories.
Thank you!
Is anyone else having problems with their download? I have it on my Nook and it downloaded fine, but when I went to read it is had problems with blank pages, skipping pages, freezing. I had to go out of the book and back in to get to the pages that were missing, etc. Had to turn it off and on a couple of times. Just wanted to see if it was the download or it was my Nook. Haven’t had problems with any other books on it, but it is pretty old.
Loved the story and Arabella’s. Thank you for that.
Hi Tara, this usually happens when there is a download issue or a device itself is having trouble. Please try deleting from device and redownloading.
Dear HA, I loved Beast Business; how fun to see Augustine in a more personal way. Also Diana as animal mage and her special strengths. Lots of great chemistry there and an engaging story. Arabella fits in so perfectly and her story is very entertaining, too.
I’m hoping you won’t give up on the blog & your writing about life and life as writers. These bits and pieces are cozy and interesting. And I greatly enjoy the serials – it’s such a pleasure to have a chapter to look forward to and then peruse BDH comments afterwards. I don’t mind at all any changes in the final work. That just seems natural and sometimes offers some insight. But of course you must do what’s best for you and your work. I can’t quite imagine how you manage everything now as it is. ♡
just grateful for all the books and info
Ultimately, please just do whatever you need to do to protect your productive time, and your personal time, and to keep them balanced. You can’t please everybody, so focus on doing what gives you joy, the writing that gives you joy, the vacations and time with friends and family that give you joy. Finding that life energy balance, and setting good boundaries around it, will keep you free to float on the river of your creativity and find delight in where it takes you. Finishing off projects lets your creative flow branch into new areas that you are hungry to explored. Good boundaries, good balance, happy peaceful creative lives.
Thank you for all the recent writing, and for taking the time to write this out! And feel free to sic the BDH on anyone who steps out of line! We appreciate the snippets, the call backs and anything you write! Good luck with the pages, the next book and getting some rest!
Wait, there are parts of the BDH that only read some of the things? I’m not an Inkeeper BDH or a KD BDH … I’m just BDH. lol
I did manage to make Beast Business last two days … very proud of myself. LOL.
A calm and happy week to you as well!
I would love to see a duology – Augustine and Diana’s perspectives were both so fun to read.
That being said, I do appreciate and respect your prioritizing the main story lines.
I would love to be able to apply a ‘got multiple novel series written and revised’ level of focus to aspects of my own life… I’m not quite there yet!! 🙈
As always, if you two write it, I will buy it! Please write what makes your Heart (and pocket book) sing!
Since reading it I also want a story about Diana and Cornelius’ other brother. (Plus innkeeper, Hugh and Elara, the Wilmington years, Julie, the Inheritance…)
And looking forward to Maggie of course.
Thank you soooo much for Beast Business! The raccoon! 😆 Anyone else envision Augustine to be older than Rogan (even though yes I know they went to school together)? Just something about his mannerisms and speech made him seem older. But now knowing his backstory – this makes sense. Also, I was soooo happy to be back in HL world, I just bought Arcane Society’s HL box set! It’s my comfort re-read.
Snippets are wonderful and it’s cool to see how things evolve. At least it would be if I was the kind of person who notices things like that, but I am not. That being said, Ami the only person heartbroken by the confirmation that the HL series is complete with no plans to return? I may have actually cried a little. Kudos to house Andrew’s that the created a world so rich and engaging that the idea of not having any more makes me sad enough to cry. No other author(s) have had that effect on me.
First thank you for Beast Business. I enjoyed it very much.
Second, as I was listening to the Graphic Audio of Wildfire, it occurred to me that the most fantasical, improbable, amazing parts of your worlds is that you show genuinely principled, generous, and considerate people who have millions and even billions of dollars of money, unlimited physical power, and acclaim. I am starting to feel that’s just a fairytale the rest of us tell ourselves. As much as I love magic and the little girl in me wishes it was real, the grown me… she wishes with all her heart that this was true most of all.
Third, thank you for creating all these “happy places” I can go to as the world feels increasingly dark around me.
Fourth, Innkeeper is my favorite of all the series (by a small margin) and I can’t wait for This Kingdom. Another world to go to just what I needed.
My head is spinning quite a bit from all your information regarding blogs, stories, and IPs. I am an old ICU/ER nurse and can most likely save your life, but that stuff you deal with only gives me a headache. All this to say, don’t take on too much stuff yourselves. You are no longer just starting out. The House and the Horde have become an Empire and some things may need to be let go or limited. Thank you for going the extra lengths to keep a personal relationship with your readers and all of your wonderful stories. Take care of yourselves.