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What I'm writing in YEAR OF THE DOG

I just finished writing Year of the Dog ! It had a massive plot hole that I had to fix which turned out to be more work than I expected. Here’s a snippet: “Hey, Auntie Nell.” He wrapped his arms around her, bussing her on the cheek and breathing in pikake flowers and shortbread cookies. And suddenly he was nine years old again, and her solid presence had made his chaotic world stable once more. “What are you doing here?” He usually took her to dinner on Wednesday nights, but today was Tuesday. The edges of her smile faltered a little before brightening right back up again. “What, I can’t visit my nephew?” She angled around him to enter his home. “Is this your new house? Looks lovely.” Which was a blatant lie, because the fixer-upper was barely livable, much less acceptable to a neat-freak like his aunt. She also left four matching pink and purple floral suitcases on the stoop behind her. Only then did Ashwin notice the cab driver standing slightly to the side of the walkway. “Can ...
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Dorsetshire, England
December 23rd, 1810

“I am heartily sick of your complaining and moaning, you old woman,” Lady Wynwood told her companion lounging on the seat across from her in her travelling coach.

The “old woman” was in actuality a fit man in his fourth decade, a rugged face and easy smile hovering on the edges of his mouth. His jaw might not be as firm as twenty years ago, but he was still the handsome buck Laura had first met when she had her debut in London, and he knew it, too. “Reduced to name-calling, Laura?” Solomon Drydale drawled.

“Would you rather I simply open this coach door and boot you out of it?”

—From The Spinster's Christmas
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