Dina: Welcome, everyone. Please help yourself to the tea and cookies.

Curran: Question – why are these cookies shaped like little beer barrels?

Dina: Our chef watched a documentary on St. Bernard dogs who rescue people from avalanches. Apparently there is an urban legend of them carrying small kegs of brandy to warm up people they dig out of the snow.

Rogan: Explains the bone shaped cookies and the paw prints as well.

Sean: Yeah, he got a theme and just kind of ran with it.

Nevada: Well, it’s not off far off the mark. They are snowed in.

Kate: Look, I know that you are losing your cool here, but just because they are working on something else doesn’t mean you are abandoned.

Curran: Magic Triumphs came out in 2018 and they came back to the series in 2022. Look at the Kinsmen Universe. They had to wait 10 years for the next in the series.

Catalina: To be fair, it’s a very episodic series. Separate protagonists for each book.

Alessandro: Exactly. And they switched publisher for the last one.

Sean: Curran’s point stands: they’ve been only working on this one for about a year.

Arabella: Two years, technically, on and off. It’s not the duration of absence. It’s the intensity. Let’s review: they normally have a side project going along with their main one. There is no side project. There is nothing on the blog. When do they take time from the blog?

Catalina: Never.

Arabella: Exactly. It’s their main marketing tool. They’re so on the ball with it that when they don’t post for a few days, people start emailing and asking if they are divorcing or some horrible emergency occurred. They’ve blogged through the surgery recovery, for goodness sake.

Kate: You are catastrophizing. You do that a lot.

Arabella: Please provide me with detailed examples of when I catastrophized something?

Nevada: You are doing it right now.

Arabella: I don’t think you’re understanding the severity of the situation. You, Kate, of all people, should be upset. They promised your next novella. They haven’t written it. They promised Hugh and Elara’s next book. They are not writing it either. All they do is edit that… whatever it is. Mod R said she has 6 versions of this book. 6. And why is it twice as long as anything they’ve written before?

Sean: Where is Hugh and Elara, by the way?

Curran: Something came up. Some dark druid something or other. They’ve got about a chapter in and so they are waiting to see if anything else gets written. Right now everything is bad and the herbs are dying.

Catalina: Wait, does this mean your panacea supply is in danger?

Kate: We stockpiled both on our side and the Pack’s but yeah, basically. You know how they are. If there is a chance to ratchet the stakes up a notch, they always go for it.

Dina: Yes, it’s never like if you don’t do this, it’s a minor setback. If they were writing a story about baking a pie, the world would be in danger of blowing up if the crust burned.

Kate: To be fair, people expect that from them.

Dina: I’m not disagreeing. It’s just tiring, that’s all.

Catalina: Some of that is due to the editorial feedback. Maggie started out as a slice of life adventure. First, their agent told them to make it more intense and now the editor has asked for even more tension. I have seen the editorial notes. Every time someone has a lighthearted moment, there is a note asking if it’s worth to add one more beat of earnest tension to it.

Arabella: I don’t care. This is beside the point.

Dina: What is the point?

Arabella: Why are they working on that mess when they could be writing something more important? Do they not understand what the people want?

Sean: What do they want?

Arabella: Me! They want me! My trilogy is a pile of money waiting to be scooped up!

Alessandro: Figuriamoci.

Nevada: Oh, here we go.

Arabella: This person they’re writing about doesn’t even have any magic powers. She doesn’t transform, she doesn’t fight with a sword, she is not good at any of the hero things. Who would want to read about her?

Kate: Respect the creativity of people who made you. They have never written a weak protagonist.

Curran: Some dangers aren’t obvious.

Rogan: Good things come to those who wait.

Arabella: I have waited enough! I…

Dina: Welcome to Gertrude Hunt. This is a private meeting, but I will be glad to show to a room.

Maggie: Thank you. But that won’t be necessary. I’m just here for Orro’s cookies.

Alessandro: Awkward.

Dina: Of course. Please help yourself.

Maggie: Is it okay if I take a few? Some for the kids and one for Reynald?

Dina: Please.

Maggie: Thank you.

Arabella: I just want to know one thing.

Maggie: What is it?

Arabella: What’s so special about you? What is your power?

Maggie: Oh. I’m a fan.

Catalina: I’m sorry.

Maggie: I am a fan. I read books over and over. I obsess over the details, like which region the armor came from, how far can a magic horse run in a day, and what are the medieval bras made out of. I know everything about all of you. I have read your books over and over. I know your motivations, your secrets, and your hidden thoughts. Those private doubts you kept to yourself during your woe-is-me moments? The unkind things you sometimes thought about your loved ones? I can quote them from memory.

Arabella: …

Maggie: Thank you for the cookies.

Dina: You are welcome to visit any time. …. Okay, she’s gone.

Sean: Well, that was eerily disturbing.

Alessandro: How did she even know how to get here… Oh.

Kate: I told you.

Rogan: Next time, we need to invite her.

Dina: Oh, don’t you worry. I’ll be sending an invitation with a platter of cookies.