So the Aunty Ida sequel, Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) is out and live in the world. It’s an interesting thing, it’s my first sequel, and my first clear continuation of a world I’ve created.

I couch it like that because my short story collection definitely has Ida’s hand in it. Or more like Ida’s brain in it, so there were glimpses of her beyond her adventure with Margaret, but this book is a solid visit with her, as opposed to a quick, flash-fictiony peek.

(As an aside, it is warmer here than it’s been in days, and yet my place feels colder. I am currently typing this in an awkwardly clunky fashion, because my fingers are cold, while the rest of me is draped under an electric blanket. I am like a new dish at some chic, overly-cutesy gastronomy restaurant, the Warm-n-Cold).

Back to business. I wasn’t, when I first wrote Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only) thinking about a sequel. But at some point, the story just needed to be told. I’m not sure that Ida wasn’t the one who forced me to write it, and I’m pretty sure she’s going to do it again.

I actually enjoyed the feeling of a sequel. You know your world by then, you know the essence of the people who inhabit it. It allows you depth into character you don’t get the first time around, because your readers are already acquainted. They’ve already made the small talk.

Check out  my full-length novels,  Her Cousin Much Removed,  The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management and Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only), and the sequel, Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) which is now available!

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