I’ve recently followed a series on finding readers who will most enjoy my books. That premise touches me for more than a quantitative approach. Listening to the speaker, I got blasts of inspiration. I’ve tried to develop and send emails out—”newsletters”—in the past but that hasn’t really come together for me. This time the invitation to consider what I could send out for free for joining my email list—something not available anywhere else, that my readers would love—got me thinking in a new way.

What came to my mind is the back story of the Bard of Ainseley, a main character of my Braided Dimensions series. No one knows how he came to be orphaned, raised by Travelers and learned magic. In each book, I’ve considered including the story of Baird’s early years, but instead let it incubate in the back of my mind.

Since then, I’ve started imagining the fun of finally foraging for all the details of the bard’s history. It will entail research on the Tuatha Dè Danann. “The Tuatha Dè were believed to have garnered their skills and knowledge of magic and the occult in four different mythical cities: Falias, Gorias, Murias and Finias … For many years [they] lived peacefully, practicing their art and magic on the Emerald Isle.”

I’ve been toying with the idea of illustrating the booklet with bards and Traveler camps. April has begun, the month I’ve designated for said pursuit. It interests me, what can coax these ideas out, accompanied by more a feeling of delight than task. A confluence of happenstances, no doubt.