Progress. I have a beginning (written) and a sort of plot, but being a pantser, I will await to see how it unfolds. In the meantime, here is an excerpt from the beginning of the story. ALBERTO GABARDI, FOR as long as he could remember, had always felt in awe of his father, Salvatore. It surprised him that he still did. For a start, he had surpassed his father’s six foot two by the time he’d turned seventeen although to be fair, so had his brothers, Angelo and Alexi. His father has always been a bear-like man, enhanced by thick hair that as a child had been black, but was now silvery white, but still, incredibly, seemed to have not thinned as much as Salvatore’s contemporaries. Even his beard, at times shaggy and seemingly unkempt and at others, neatly trimmed, just added to the prestige of Salvatore Gabardi. Added to that aura around him that said he didn’t suffer fools. Although that wasn’t true. Salvatore had lived long enough to know that if you were in in a room filled...

 I have begun thinking about my next book, which will be the third in the Gabardi series. If you've read them, you'll know that this means... Alberto. The enigmatic Alberto.. I don't know all that much about Alberto. A lot of discovery is needed, pen and paper discovery, jotting down notes, and reading books on hero archetypes.  Maybe with a coffee at a cafe. Or more likely taking notes on the bus to work to figure this man out, because while Angelo had a story written for him in the first book, even though he didn't make an appearance, Alberto remains a bit of a mystery to me. As for the heroine, I have no idea, yet, who she will be. That's all part of the fun, especially writing 'into the dark' as the term goes, when you don't know anything much about the story but  make it up as you go along. Having said that, I do know who the couple will be in the next Bluebell Road series, so there's a lot to ponder.   ~ Maddie.