Winter is the easiest season to write about and the hardest one to write in.

The days still seem shorter, even here in South Carolina. The sun slips behind the trees earlier than I'd like, the mornings arrive with a chill, and the desk somehow always feels colder than the rest of the house. The work, however, still wants its hours.

I keep the same three things nearby each winter: a notebook I am not precious about, a map I keep redrawing, and a mug that rarely leaves my desk. Most days it's filled with coffee or tea, depending on what the chapter demands.

The drafts get slower in January. They also get truer.

There is something about writing about cold while feeling a little of it yourself that keeps you honest. Living in South Carolina doesn't provide the brutal winters of the Alps that inspired The Frozen Heart Saga, but the quiet gray mornings, bare trees, and occasional frost are enough to transport my imagination thousands of miles away.

Many of the scenes in The Frozen Heart of the Alps were written on mornings when the world outside was still and quiet. Those moments remind me why winter has always been the perfect backdrop for stories of hidden kingdoms, ancient dragons, and long-forgotten secrets buried beneath snow and ice.

Winter slows things down. Writing does the same. Both ask for patience.

And every year, somewhere between the first cold morning and the last, another piece of the story finds its way onto the page.

— Jimmy Sechler
Author of The Frozen Heart Saga