Now that Light of the Twin Moons has been launched, I’m concentrating my attention and effort on the next manuscript. This book is a bit of a departure from my usual stuff.

To clarify, I’m going back to a book published several years ago (2019). Triple Burn was never intended to be the first in a series, but it quickly led to two more books: Double Cut and Single Stroke. Both the second and third books in the series focus on the planet Ahn’hudin in the Triune Alliance of the Triune Alliance Brides series. Triple Burn takes place on the planet Uribern and is my first story with a reverse harem trope.

Readers expecting the typical HEA (happily ever after) quickly let me know they did not appreciate the story’s bittersweet ending. The criticism, although well-deserved, stung. I revised the book’s description to warn readers of the bittersweet ending. (A recent comment in my Facebook feed complained that the book isn’t a “true” romance. I replied that was correct and that I’d put a warning in the description to alert reader before they purchased the book.) Then I put the heroine’s story on the back burner and let it simmer.

Six years later, Ursula will get her unqualified HEA in a sequel titled Four Play. Yes, the title is a pun. And, yes, the story gets delightfully dirty. I considered using “quad” instead of “four,” but “Quad Play” doesn’t have the same naughty ring to it. Nor could I figure out how to use “quadruple” in a succint, snappy title.

That unqualified HEA the romance genre demands won’t come easily, of course. There will be political and cultural plot twists as well as some back-and-forth among the characters to integrate them into a cohesive partnership.

Like many science fiction and fantasy romances, Triple Burn’s fictional world places women at a political disadvantage. On Uribern, creative pursuits like art and music are the purview of women. Everything else falls under the domain of men. Like many cultures past and current, women have privileges, not rights; however, on Uribern, those males fortunate enough to have a wives treasure them and do whatever they must to keep their wives happy. It’s rather a domestic power play requiring a delicate balance of self-restraint and generosity and emotional intelligence to pull off successfully. It’s also fun to pit modern women from today’s USA against what we consider archaic, male chauvinist cultures.

So, I’ve not given you any spoilers. With a romance, as per the requirements of the romance genre, every reader knows the ending: it’s an HEA. The pleasure of reading romance is in the journey, not the destination.

Look for Four Play to be released at the end of this year.