Again — I forgot to write this update post that actually emails you guys on time, but I’m only ten minutes late so that’s not so bad.

Update link: Mad World – Chapter 32

I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for their lovely feedback to the last few chapters. If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I got stuck back in late May/early June and it was during this period of the story. These first 12-13 chapters of Book 2 were the hardest to write because I had to write Brooke’s trauma, and honestly, I was undecided right up until Chapter 29 whether or not I was going to go through with the turn her story took. But not doing it would have changed the trajectory of the rest of the book, so in that respect, I’m glad I went through with it.

I’ve seen some feedback regarding my story beat about the processing of rape kits. Some readers were wondering if that was a story clue to the bad guy, and it’s actually not. As I’ve said before, I did a LOT of a reading before I sat down to write this story. I read a lot of rape survivor testimony, researched rape statutes, and what were some of the most common investigation obstacles. Over and over again, the backlog in processing rape kits lept out at me. All around this country, even today, it is not standard practice in many jurisdictions to automatically run a rape kit. So just imagine what it was like in 2003, before Me, Too, a movement that also very much inspired my writing in this project.

A great site to look at this in more detail is End the Backlog, which also has some options if you want to help stop this terrible injustice.

Thanks again for the amazing feedback and for joining me on this emotional journey. We have 18 chapters left to go, and I’m really excited for you to see where this story goes.