72 St. Margaret’s Way Letter
(Warning: This post contains spoilers for 72 St. Margaret’s Way (NCPU #10) published on July 10, 2025!)
I planned the events in 72 St. Margaret’s Way approximately three years ago. So it’s actually kind of a strange feeling to have hit that milestone in the series and put it out for the world to read. And for everyone who has read it and shared their thoughts, thank you. I’m glad to know that it’s resonated with readers.
Everyone in the series will face their biggest fear at some point if they haven’t yet. And when I was asking myself early on what James’s biggest fear might be, mind control was the answer I kept coming back to. He’s someone who needs to be in control of himself at all times. And if he loses that control, he can’t protect everybody he feels obligated to protect. Here, not only did he lose that control, he was the danger that threatened his team as Adele primed him to kill them in order to keep her safe. And he had no idea.
Writing from the point of view of a compromised character was a real challenge, because I needed to find that balance between keeping him in character, not holding back on how bad the situation is, and avoiding it getting so bad that the reader puts the book down and never picks it back up. So I spent a lot of time experimenting with tension and considering how his interactions with everyone would go. How much of his weird behavior could be considered the result of work-related stress? After all, James wasn’t acting quite like himself at the beginning of Roses Manor, Weston either. And that had nothing to do with a love potion. The idea of large chunks of lost time came a little later in the drafting process, but I loved the way that added even more to the creeping horror of what is happening to this character.
I feel like the tension in that section worked out well for the horror level of the story. Even as the author, if I go back to reread those sections, it’s a relief when James hears that bathroom door lock behind Amelia and Bradley.
But worst fears, right? What is everyone’s worst fear? So that’s James’s. Mind control. Partially because it’s freaky as hell, partially because it makes him incapable of fulfilling his responsibilities – both real and self-inflicted – toward everyone else. Gabriella faced hers immediately in the first book when she put her trust in the wrong person and nearly died knowing she’d unfairly blamed James for everything. Graham lost a student to the paranormal, a worst fear he wasn’t fully aware of until it happened. Madelyn is slowly facing hers: the idea that she might lose her ability to keep working and living her life as her body gradually fails her.
So that leaves Amelia and Bradley, doesn’t it? Don’t worry.
Like I’ve mentioned before, 72 St. Margaret’s Way is the first part of a three part story-within-a-story. It continues with O’Toole House this autumn, then Lancaster Green after that. No spoilers here, but both books have been drafted and I’m working on edits for O’Toole House now. So here’s the part where I plug my Patreon, because you’ll hear the news first over there!
Free subscribers get occasional updates on Enfield Arts projects, including North County Paranormal Unit.
Paid subscribers get those too, but they also get weekly microfiction set in Enfield Arts stories (mostly NCPU right now, but there’s a solid back catalog of New Winslow in there) and early access to all of my books. And in later tiers, you can get things like access to an exclusive serial that is set in the world of North County Paranormal Unit and signed physical copies of books.
So go take a look and maybe stick around for those updates. They’ll be coming soon.
Visit My Patreon Page
72 St. Margaret’s Way marks the unofficial end of the unofficial first part of the series. I don’t have set seasons or anything like that here, but it is a turning point. I don’t have an end in mind yet. Honestly, I’ve written out about 5K words of what could feasibly be Book 33 in the series just for the fun of it. So we’re no longer in the beginning, but we’re far from the end.
And on that note, I’ll talk to you soon!
-Amanda
