North Star Trilogy
This week I’m finishing up a major restructure and edit of Spark. Yes, you read that correctly. I’m getting the rights back to the entire North Star Trilogy later this year and each book is going to be re-edited.
Spark is getting the most work. I’ve restructured how the book is laid out, moving scenes around, combining some, and cutting a lot of words. I’ve added scenes as well, reworked the climax of the book to make it stronger, and added a bit more to both Kevin and Hugo’s heroic journies.
While I don’t want to change the meat and bones of the story, I am cutting some of the fat and adding more muscle. In the end, I’m hoping Spark will be a much stronger start to the series.
North Star is a trilogy meant to be read in its entirety to get the whole story. Each book has it’s own plot twists and turns, but there is an overall arc that spans the series.
True love is worth fighting for, even if the world tries to tell you differently.
Spark is a story about the start of a relationship that burns so hot and fast that Hugo and Kevin are overwhelmed by it. Thankfully they meet again seventeen years later when they’re more mature, and they get a second chance at romance. Even after all those years, their passion never waned, but life got a lot more complicated. Kevin has kids and an ex-wife. Hugo has a hurt heart from past relationships.
Fusion is when reality comes crashing down on Hugo and Kevin. After they’ve decided to really give their relationship a go, complications are thrown at them that could completely derail their plans to build a life together. But rather than drift apart, they make the decision to fuse their lives and support each other through a very difficult time.
Flare is where the story has been headed this entire time. It’s obvious in Spark that Hugo and Kevin belong together. Fusion made that all the more clear, even showing what great parents they’ll be. And just when you think they’ll finally have a chance to live their happily ever after, people try to throw traps in their way that put Kevin’s kids at risk. But they don’t allow any of those obstacles to get in the way of building their future together.
I introduce elements in book one I don’t resolve until book three. People who read all three books have raved about the trilogy, but there was something that stopped a lot of readers after Spark. That’s what I’m truly trying to address here.
I also have new covers, which I can’t wait to share. I don’t know when I’ll do that. Maybe once dates are pinned down. There will be men on these covers. I finally found two models who came as close to representing Hugo and Kevin for me as any. That was the hardest part in 2013 when the original covers were first being considered. Rather than being disappointed by a thousand more stock photos of men, I decided to forego people entirely.
Over the years, I’ve met many readers who had no clue North Star was a romance. A few years back I tried to remedy that by asking my publisher to bundle the three books together and putting a couple of the cover. That sold better, but the couple didn’t quite depict Hugo and Kevin. So I’m hoping putting men on the cover will give a clearer first impression that these books are romances.
Some new images popped up recently that all worked together, so experiments happened. And then covers happened. They’ll be black and white, for the most part, with titles reminiscent of the original covers, as you can see above. Take a gander on the right sidebar to see the original covers. I wanted to stick with orange, blue-gray, and green.
Once I’m done with my edits on Spark and get those sent off to beta readers, I’ll be back to working on my editing work for other authors.
That’s what I’m working on this week. What are you up to?
I legit can’t wait to see what you do with Spark! I’m going to be doing a re-read so it’s fresh in my mind! ❤️ They are going to flip when you finally show off the new covers!!!