Death of Secrets took either seven months or thirteen years to write, depending on how you look at it.
I first wrote the book in 2001. I wrote it in about seven months. And I had no success in finding an agent or a publisher for it. None. So it sat on my hard drive, and every so often I would open the file and tweak the manuscript.
Then, in 2014, I was really feeling like it was a good idea to return to my writing. I opened Death of Secrets and started updating it for the modern age.
For a sequel, I’ve done the same thing. I opened back up a manuscript I had from the old days, and started updating it for the modern age.
The main thing I notice, looking back on my writing from those days, is how much more profane I was. The original manuscripts were laced with language to make a sailor blush. Cleaning that up has been one of the main jobs.
In Death of Secrets, cleaning up some of Kathy’s ethical choices had to be done as well. I remember one particular location in Death of Secrets, where my editing note was simply, “Kathy shouldn’t lie.” Back in the old days, telling a “little white lie” about where she had been was the simplest way for her to solve a problem, so she did it. The new Kathy would invest in the harder way, rather than lie.