From the desk.

Where Lilith Warbird Began

Before Lilith Warbird had a name, she was a little girl following me around while I worked on a car.

My daughter wanted to be wherever I was. If the job involved dirt, grease, or something worth investigating, all the better. She showed up with confidence, determination, and very little interest in backing down.

That was my little warrior princess.

Watching her, I could imagine her taking on just about anything. Then one day, a harder question crossed my mind: What would someone with that spirit become if she didn’t have her family beside her?

That question stayed. Eventually, it became Lilith.

Writing has always started that way for me. Something catches my attention, I ask “what if,” and my imagination wanders off before I’ve had a chance to pack it a lunch. Most of the time, I follow to see what it’s found.

With Lilith, that trail led into the frontier—and into Blood on the Prairie Rose. A bounty hunt, an uneasy alliance, and a past that refuses to stay politely in the past. Apparently, giving her a quiet afternoon was never going to happen.

But beneath the danger is the question that brought me here: what happens to that confidence, that determination, that willingness to face the world, when the people who helped nurture it are gone?

I’m still working through the answer.

As I revise the book, I want to give more space to Lilith’s Comanche and Mexican heritage and her ties to her family and community. Those connections deserve to be part of her life on the page. Readers should get to know what she carries with her, as well as what she has lost.

There’s research ahead, chapters to revisit, and plenty I expect to discover along the way. I’ll share some of that here as the story takes shape.

For now, you’ve met the little spark behind Lilith: a determined girl who was always right beside me, ready to see what we were getting into next.

Turns out, she gave me quite a story to follow.

— C.M. LastSinn