AS: But I felt strongly the book had to come out this year because it felt like the story was peaking, and if you waited until ’24, some air might into out of the balloon. Selfishly, a tight deadline was good for my mental health because this book took over my life, and to have it bleed into another year – I could have worked on it every day for the next six months. But it was more about the story. Like the story just kept – it just kept going and going and it was getting juicier and more interesting.
The funny thing is I turned the manuscript on June 5. Then June 6 was when the framework agreement was announced. That was a tough day for me. But to Simon & Schuster’s everlasting credit, they let me take it down to the wire and really add in almost 15,000 words at the back of the book.
I’m happy the way it played out. The framework agreement had been announced when the book was already printed, I would have been devastated. This way we got to get the whole intrigue in, the earthquakes, all the revelations, the betrayals and really tell the whole complete story in one place.
It actually worked out great. You know how it is. There’s always a lag time from when you finish a book to when it comes out, but this was pretty much up to the minute as it possibly can be. I’m happy with it.
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