Dear Reader,
I love watching dust devils. I find it fascinating how they twirl and twist, playing out in the open desert like little kids, spinning and spinning, growing dizzy, making a mess in their wake.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with dust devils, Wikipedia describes them as “strong, well-formed, and relatively short-lived whirlwinds” that “form as a swirling updraft under sunny conditions during fair weather.” Some dust devils are skinny and bendy, a piece of licorice reaching for the sky. Others grow big and fat, eating up everything in their way and tossing debris high into the sky in their wake. No matter the size, they are visible examples of chaos, following a twisting path, carrying the potential to create mayhem—much like the Morgan sisters.
In this story, I tried my hand at weaving together five different character plots. This turned out to be a handful, especially with Kate misfiring and twitching along the way. I felt like each of the five plots were out in the desert, spinning here and there. Some were thin and tall, bending to and fro as they danced across the pages; others grew massive as the story spiraled higher and faster.
By the end of the book (which took longer than I’d planned due to life repeatedly smacking me with a flyswatter during the writing process), each of the dust devils had finished spinning out their tales. Bits of chaos floated through the air around me as I read back through the tussles and spun along with the characters, weaving frayed plot threads and double-checking crisscrossed timelines. Finally, the story was ready for my editor and beta team—and eventually fun-loving and wonderful readers like you.
Now it’s your turn to twist with the dust devils and enjoy the tussles on the pages. I hope this installment of the Morgan sisters’ adventures give you some smiles, laughs, and a few shared cringes!
“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend.
Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.”
~Groucho Marx
Ann Charles