Happiest of New Years to you all!
2022 was a heck of a year. (We’ll leave it at that, all right? I don’t want to harsh my or anyone else’s mellow.) But one thing that kept me plugging along was being able to work on the fourth Lovelace & Wick book, The Soul Proprietor.
We’ll have a cover reveal and a synopsis reveal soon, but in the meantime, I wanted to give a bit of a teaser for the book. So, today I wanted to share five things I’ve loved about writing The Soul Proprietor.
Spoiler alert!: While I will not be spoiling The Soul Proprietor, I may be spoiling earlier Lovelace & Wick books. Tread with care, gentle reader.
1. Writing Cozy, Settled Dante and Iago. I’ve just loved writing these two as an old married couple. (Let’s be honest, they’ve kind of always been an old married couple.) This book takes place twenty years after the end of The Army of Angels, and Messrs. Lovelace and Wick are quite comfortable. They’ve built a life together, one that’s a bit more mundane than their pedigrees might suggest. Of course, that cozy life is totally turned on its ear by…
2. The Return of Viola and Sofia Atchison. The Atchisons are some of my very favorite characters to write, and exploring their relationship as they’ve aged and changed has been interesting, as well. Iago has been rather haunted by his separation from Viola Atchison for decades at this point, and they have quite the cracking reunion.
3. A Better Look at Demon Society. There are some scenes that have allowed me to introduce several more Infernal characters, not to mention examine Hell’s operations. One of my favorite scenes to write involves what essentially amounts to Infernal court proceedings, and it’s been delightful not only to work with those characters but also to watch Iago squirm. (Sorry, Mr. Wick.)
4. The Roaring Twenties. I don’t like to be too precise with the dates in the Lovelace & Wick books, but I’ll allow that this one takes place in roughly 1925. I’ve loved researching the era and working details about that period into the book.
5. Virgil Alighieri. If you’ve read the other books, you know that for many years, Iago Wick has written smutty stories and penny dreadfuls under the pen name of Virgil Alighieri. The Soul Proprietor sees Alighieri having been reborn, we’ll say. Iago tells a different kind of tale now under the Alighieri name, and the character’s role in this book is very important indeed. Let’s just say that Alighieri really comes into his own in this book.
And there you have it: five things I’ve loved about writing The Soul Proprietor! Stay tuned for more sneak previews, including a character profile for our illustrious villain.
Until then!
Jenny
