When I started work on MacLennan, it was intended to be a standalone story, but once underway, I recalled how many times readers had mentioned their favourite characters from my Beyond The Law (BTL) trilogy and spinoff tales, Codename: Nightshade, and Codename: Foxglove. I introduced one person to spice up a few scenes, and as these things do, it led to bringing in someone else from the vigilante team, and the new retribution story took on a life of its own.

As I do with all my work, when the initial tale was told, I saved it and left it aside for three weeks before printing it to revise as a hard copy. Armed with a trusty red pen, fuelled with copious amounts of coffee, and with classical music in the background, I deleted, inserted, and amended from the first page to the last. It took four days, which was no surprise, and then I saved it and left it alone again. During the ‘rest’ periods for a manuscript, to avoid being drawn into the story, if an idea comes to mind, I make a brief note at the end of my story info file.

Like many authors, I also edit as I write, and might occasionally spend an entire day on three or four chapters, chopping and changing imagery, dialogue and narrative until the flow feels right. Editing, ‘on the hoof’ isn’t the way to produce the best work, but it goes some way to creating a good foundation.

Due to always having more than one Work in Progress, I find it easy, rather than frustrating, to leave a manuscript aside. During the year I spent on the initial draft, I took a short break from MacLennan more than once and worked on something else.

It was only after sending the story to beta readers that I revisited the cover and decided to rename the tale Codename: MacLennan. I felt that there was so much involvement by my original vigilante team that it was appropriate to make this story another spinoff from the BTL trilogy.

Codename: MacLennan is scheduled to be published by the end of March 2026.

A by-product of this new story is yet another spinoff in the form of Codename: Larkspur, which I will start work on in April of this year.

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