Do I need to have read The Hunter’s Tale? No. Having read The Hunter’s Tale may enrich your enjoyment of LWMHL, but it’s not necessary. Advance readers have not had any issue picking up with LWMHL having read THT several years ago. That said, I may post a brief synopsis here in case anyone feels they’re missing something.

What about your other books? Should I read them first? No. But, for fans of Yours Truly there is an Easter Egg in LWMHL that answers the big question everyone had at the end. (So far, all my books take place in the same universe and the characters are actually related. Anders – a secondary character in THT and LWMHL – has a brief cameo in Other People’s Pain).

Is this book appropriate for young readers? Your last book had a sex scene and you always have so much swearing. There is not an explicit sex scene in this book (you’re welcome?/I’m sorry?) though there are some sexual references. The swearing is there but is not – in my opinion – gratuitous. This book deals with some very heavy themes that might be upsetting to younger readers. Overall, a mature teen would be perfectly fine, but I’d steer a younger reader (12-15) away from it unless you read it “with” them and talk about it as you go.

Is this book political? It sounds like it’s going to be political. It depends on what you mean by that. Politics looms large on the events of LWMHL, but the book is not about the politics or the politicians themselves so much as it is in the way “politics” are understood by the people and how they respond to them. For instance, this book is NOT about the current president, but it is about some of the disturbing ways in which people have responded to his ascension. Similarly, while one of the characters does pursue politics, the book is concerned less with their particular political positions and more with their motivations for entering the arena.

It’s not exactly a secret where I stand politically, and readers might be able to guess, but I think this book will really surprise some people who might be expecting leftist propaganda. LWMHL is not a vehicle for my political views, and readers of diverse beliefs will be able to enjoy it without being put off.

Wait, in your book a young Asian American woman runs for Wisconsin State Assembly? Her last name is Huang?? You just straight up put Francesca Hong in your book??? Lily Huang has been walking the trails of my mind for damn near a decade, and she decided to run for office long before I’d ever heard of Francesca. Believe it or not, but Lily Huang is not in any way shape or form inspired by Francesca Hong.

It says on Amazon that this is “The Hunter’s Tale Book 2.” Is this a series now? I don’t know. I view The Hunter’s Tale and Lives We Might Have Lived as parts one and two of a complete story more than two parts of a longer series – even a trilogy. I do not think there will be a Book 3 that continues chronologically from LWMHL, but there might be another book that is related in some meaningful way and makes this a true series. But, who knows? I didn’t ever think I’d write a sequel to THT, so maybe I’m not done with this story and these characters yet.

What I am quite sure of is that future books will be more similar to LWMHL than they will be to Other People’s Pain and will be very different from Yours Truly. I’m finding my voice and my lane as a novelist. It wasn’t until recently that I finally realized what kind of writer I want to be. All this is to say: if you like LWMHL, there will be more like it down the road.