“So I definitely plotted out the beats of it and the really key important moments,” she continued. “And there are points at the genesis of this story that are very fundamental to how the book is going to end. So yes, for the first time in my life, I was organized.”

Plus, in addition to wanting to make sure her world building was thorough and immersive, the 41-year-old was aware of what she called the potential “pitfalls” of drafting the second book in a trilogy—especially when readers have fallen so deeply in love with the characters in the first. In this case, the enemies-to-lovers relationship between human Saeris and Fae Kingfisher.

“They’re notoriously hard to write,” Callie said of sequels. “It’s hard to maintain a level of chemistry between the characters and also momentum in a storyline, because it’s the middle book, and it’s a weird place to find yourself in. In book one, you have the big hits—the first kiss, when they’re first intimate with each other, and that first ‘I love you’ exchange. Then in book two, sometimes it can feel a little flat. It’s like, ‘Are we dating now? What are we? What are we doing?’”