A Pinch of Distrust is now out! It’s available in print or eBook format from Amazon, as well as eBook format from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google Play books and a variety of other sellers. Purchase links can be found in the About the Books section.

I think I’ve said this before, but I’ve often found that ‘writer’s block’ is really my imagination saying that the story wasn’t meant to be happening this way.  This time around, it was chapter 10 of Flames of Doubt, which is what I’ve tentatively titled book 2 in the series.

It’s the stage where Yaetherim thinks he’s figured out who did it, and now he’s seeking to prove it.  Originally, he was going to set a trap to flush them out, and this was going to be justified in a scene where he explains this to two other characters.  It felt a bit forced, as though it was happening purely for the plot to reach the point I wanted it to reach.

After sitting back and considering it, I was able to adjust the plot so that it flows a bit better.  Now, while trying to gather evidence, Yaetherim realises that he’s seeing another murder attempt play out.  So he quickly improvises a plan to intervene and entrap the killer.  This works a lot better, and still leads into the finale I’m after.

Everything is finally in place for A Pinch of Distrust. The final draft of the final draft (no, that’s not a typo) has been uploaded to the various sites. It’s now available for pre-order on a variety of services. I’ve listed all the purchase links on the books section of this website, at https://rychilla.com/about-the-books/.

I have also started posting character profiles of my core cast on social media, to introduce them. I’ve also diversified my social media, given what’s going on with Twitter at the moment. I’m now on Mastodon as well as Tumblr and Facebook. So the business side of things is settled, for now.

Writing-wise, there’s been a couple of developments for book 2. I’ve drafted up to the start of the third act, where everything starts to fall into place. As part of this, he consults a character named Taesonith, who was originally going to be a one-off character in A Pinch of Distrust. In fact, her appearance in that story is what leads to her showing up here.

While writing the scene, I realised that her story wasn’t done yet. So I did some character development on her, and she’s now another of my core characters. But not in the usual sense. She’s developed into Yaetherim’s rival. The Quark to his Odo, if you’re familiar with Deep Space Nine. Something like that, at least.

I don’t want to give away too much, but her development and path forward are very much of Yaetherim’s own doing. Sometimes she’s an ally, sometimes not. Perhaps I will give her a story or two of her own. Guess I’ll just have to see what develops. For me, that’s one of the fun parts of writing, anyway. Pulling on the strings of these ideas and seeing where they go.