Well, things went a bit longer than I expected. I was waiting a long time to work on this book. I started it in 2022! Auggie and Cal took a few detours I hadn’t expected—some books just do that—and it ended up way longer than anticipated. I try to keep all the books similar lengths in each series, but sometimes different stories want to be told. Auggie and Cal were characters who evolved (like they all do) in ways not intended. This book is totally different than I imagined it would be when I first wrote that opening chapter. (And about 70 pages longer, lol).
For one thing, it originally started off as being set in the summer! Now, it takes place less than a month after Dylan’s book. (Dylan’s book was way down the list, too. She wasn’t supposed to get a book until after all of her sisters. But…Dylan just demanded a hot Tyler boy of her own way before I anticipated she would).
I have been intrigued by Jasper Grady’s children from the moment I first created them. How do you build a successful life in a small town like Masterson when your father was the murderous (almost) mayor? What happens when one of the people he nearly killed was your best friend in the world? How does your relationships with your siblings evolve? Friendships? Who stands by you? That is how Cal was revealed over the book. And Auggie—she woke up in a hospital to learn she had six baby sisters and only she could keep them together. How was she going to make that work, and help them deal with the traumas? But first…she had to recover from a gunshot wound, and start walking again.
I first envisioned that this book took place long after that happened, but it was only a handful of months past the events in Feeling like Forever (Sage’s book). But the uncertainty of life mixed with the certainty that she could trust this man really made for great conflict.
On the home front, things are finally slowing down a bit here. Kid’s softball fall season has ended. Talk about a time of DRAMA, including the first team she made’s “owner” being arrested for theft! Now, instead of practice 3-4 nights a week, we are down to one (and she is on a much, much better team, with coaches who care about every girl). She absolutely loves it. That is a big relief! It’ll pick back up again in March. I am hoping to get a lot of serious work done between now and then. (Although I do spend most of her practice times working, so there is that. I love being “mobile”, lol).
Helios the Wonder Puppy is 9 months old and in his “skinny phase”. He is the most mischievous dog I have ever had (other than Libby!). The kitten we found in a grocery store parking lot on the way to a tournament—Selene ‘Deon Gomez’—is now 3.5 months old and is finally fully healthy. Had a few weeks there that were a bit scary. Including one late night where I had to sit up all night, holding her and feeding her drops of sugar water every ten minutes to get her through!
Thanksgiving was quiet, uneventful, and at home. It’s so peaceful when we stay home. Christmas is usually the holiday where things get a bit crazy, since kiddo’s b-day is also that week.
BOOK NEWS:
Next in line is Finley Creek #15! (Wow. Fifteen. I still remember sitting cross-legged in a recliner ten years ago, watching Arrow on the television, back when shows released once a week on actual TV—and creating Gabby! Brynna and Melody already existed, thanks to Wanting, Carrie’s book). I do not know the release date yet. I am hoping somewhere between mid-January and the end of February. Finleys are my most complicated books to write. They are longer than Mastersons, they are more externally plot driven while deeply emotional, and they aren’t police procedurals like the PAVADs. The only things more complicated are Small-Town Sheriffs—those are much longer than any of the other series’ but are very Finley Creek-y in nature.
Book 15 is Madison and Dom’s book. It will take place starting around the end of Powell’s book.
After Madison’s book there are two possibilities that come next. Either I’ll roll right into Charlotte and Daniel’s (conclusion to the Finley Creek: Enemies Within quadrilogy), or it will be something very PAVAD-y. Or…it will be something very PAVAD-y right after Madison, followed by Charlotte’s book. It just depends on which one takes off in my head the most.
(There are a few more books planned for 2026, as well. But since I can’t always physically type as fast as I want b/c of shoulder/neck issues, I never set any date in stone. There are PAVADs, Finleys, one Masterson title—Marin in Warning for Weatherby—and a Small-Town Sheriff in line. I am super-excited!)
I want to write as many books as I can in 2026. Why? Because I love, love, love rereading and visiting the worlds I’ve created. Just last week I reread four of the Mastersons. Kiddo’s dad is taking her to something fun tonight—I plan to grab some Chinese food, and reread some Finley Creeks, and reread the Finley Creek Christmas stories I put out last Christmas.
And if I can, I will be working on this year’s Christmas stories. (Watch the blog for details of when it’ll be ready!)
The Hillers of Barratt County series is now complete. All eight books. They were fun to write, to explore something a bit different than my regular series’. And to play with side-characters from other series’, too. Book 1 features Charlotte’s aunt Chantal, book 2 features Charlotte’s uncle Chad—and the little nurse from Barratt County that seems to always be around Caine when a nurse is needed. Book 3 was Caine’s assistant’s story. Book 4 went way back in time. It featured Mayor George Hiller and Cam/Murdoch/Anthony’s younger sister Ronnie. I had been wanting to write Ronnie’s story since I first intro’d her in Hiding. Book 5 featured one of the hot identical twins that had a cameo in Dylan’s book. Book 6 was about Micah Hanan’s cousin Hudson (Mac Barratt’s bestie!). Book 7 featured another of Micah’s cousins. Her hero was the other hot identical twin from Dylan’s time in Finley Creek. (Micah is with PAVAD, intro’d in Hiding and a part of Searching. He will be the hero of the next PAVAD book with Nat Saving). The 8th and final Hiller book featured Kurtland Chase, Bailey’s “date” in Holding the Truth. These were all characters I had “known” about earlier, and wanted to do something with. The Hillers was my answer to that. They are very Masterson County-ish in structure and tone, but are set in the Finley Creek area.
But for now:
Masterson #13 Seeing the Scars:
He was her best friend’s incredibly annoying older brother—so what was he doing in her driveway, unconscious, during a fast-approaching icy winter storm?
There was no way she could leave him behind.
Calloway Grady woke up…in hell. Tyler hell. The kind filled with redheaded she-devil Tylers of every age. Nine of them, each one more feral than the next. Including the ring-leader, Augusta Dawn. Auggie had once accused him of coming after her land, and his little sister’s bestie hadn’t exactly liked him much before that. Now, thanks to the storm, he was stuck right where he was. He could handle that—because he’d just realized Auggie was the most fascinating, the hottest, most maddening woman in all of Masterson County. Somehow, Cal wanted little Auggie Tyler like he had never wanted a woman before—so how was he going to get her now? She didn’t exactly like him much—and until that moment, the feeling had been entirely mutual!
Just her luck. Calloway Grady was camping on her couch.
Auggie Tyler was hyper-focused on helping her traumatized little sisters heal from their father’s abuse and cruelty. She’d only had the girls for five months. Life was just too much chaos right now to add in a man like Calloway. She’d pushed hard to get where she was now—for her baby sisters, those precious little girls she would do anything to protect. To help them not be so afraid now. Even if Auggie was holding on by a thread no one knew about. Then Cal was just there. Right there whenever she’d need him most.
Auggie watched him with her little girls and remembered the boy he had been before. Remembered how much he had loved his family before his mother’s death—and before his own father had gone off the deep end and nearly killed three people. So what was she going to do with Calloway now? The one man who looked past her scars to who the real Augusta Tyler was beneath? The man who had real scars of his own, too?
Auggie and Cal weren’t the only ones in Masterson County who had scars from the past. Sometimes the scars weren’t scars at all. Sometimes they were open wounds…
And Cal might just get pulled into the middle of a fight he never saw coming. One that could take from him, or Auggie, exactly what matters most.
Nook (I’ll update when live)
Apple (I’ll update when live)
Google (I’ll update when live)
Read More from Calle J. Brookes 