Silver and Gold, by Laura Anne Gilman

If you’ve been waiting to read the last three books in Laura Anne Gilman‘s Retrievers series (Burning Bridges, Free Fall, and Blood from Stone), now’s your chance to pick them up in a new format! Laura Anna is here today to blog about her books, and what she has in store for readers next….

by Laura Anne Gilman, author of Burning Bridges, Free Fall, and Blood from Stone (now available in mass market paperback from Luna Books)

When I was a Brownie, lo these *cough* many years ago, there was a song that went like this:

“…make new friends, but keep the old

One is silver

And the other gold”

It’s been going around in my head a lot, these days (and my apologies to those of you whom I’ve just earwormed).

Why that song, in particular?

In February the last three “Retrievers” titles, BURNING BRIDGES, FREE FALL, and BLOOD FROM STONE became available in mass market format, rather than trade paperback. With that change, the entire Retrievers series moved into its next life – what the publishing industry refers to as “backlist,” meaning that they’ve all been out for more than a year (six years, in the case of STAYING DEAD! Wow, how time flies…)

That segment of my ‘brag shelf’ is sort of teary-eyed-making. Seven, almost eight years of my life has been spent with Wren and Sergei and PB, and I’ve loved (almost) every minute of it.

[almost, because let’s face it, not every moment of writing (or revising!) goes smoothly. In fact, sometimes hitting your head against a sharp spike would be less painful. But those moments pass, and the joy comes back again]

I’m not saying there will never be another Wren & Sergei story – in fact, there probably will be, in short form if nothing else. But they’re taking a break and I’m feeling kind of adrift, the way you did when your bestest friend and her family moved across country, because even e-mail/Skyping’s not the same as sitting together every day at lunch.

(pauses to blow hand into hanky, with an incredibly indelicate and unladylike *honk*)

At the same time, there is silver to be found, because Luna asked me to continue working in the world of the Cosa Nostradamus, starting a new, spin-off series. So in May, we will be bringing you HARD MAGIC, featuring Bonnie Torres, a paranormal scenes investigator (known to readers of the previous series as PUPIs, or Private, Unaffiliated Paranormal Investigators).

There are currently three books under contract, so I’m hoping that Bonnie and her crew will find as many followers as Wren, and that you’ll keep a special place in your hearts (and your shelves) for the entire Cosa Nostradamus crew, old and new.

New friends, to fill in the absence left by the old. Silver and gold.

Now. How many of you are going to be humming that song under your breath (or in your brain) all day?