One More Time With Feeling

Ok, this is not the first time that I have attempted a blog or a newsletter, but to be completely transparent I am really bad at this kind of thing. I struggle to produce content on any kind of timeline. Much to the chagrin of my lovely readers who have now been waiting five years for the second Anais book. It's coming folks I promise! All of that aside, though I am terrible with creative deadlines, and a notorious flake, I am also a hopeless optimist. So here I am trying again.

I wanted to maybe give some insight on where I am with my creative process. I needed to take a break after Tiny Dots on an Endless Timeline was published. That book was... is... my heartwood. There were so many people that I loved beyond measure in that book and between it's inception and it's completion a good number of them died, or passed out of my life. That made editing that book something of a horror show for me. Editing the perceived words of the dead is never an easy feat. It took 17 years from the first line of that book being scribbled in a notebook, to the publication.

In a lot of ways, the fact that the book means so much to me, made it incredibly difficult for me to market. Also, I made the monumental mistake of releasing it on my Father's birthday. My dad is all over that book, and having lost him several years ago, it seemed like a good idea when I thought of it. As soon as I did it, I realized how badly I had fucked up. The grief of being a half orphan, regardless of how old I am, mixed with putting out such a vulnerable piece of my soul into the universe... Well it turned out to be too much. So I barely said anything about it when it was released.

I am so grateful to everyone who has bought it, despite my whispered release. I am so grateful to everyone who has provided feedback to me directly. I do want to implore everyone to leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads, as that does help me immensely. I have never really made being a best selling author a goal. But if any of my books got widespread distribution, this would be the one I would want it to happen to.

In other news, I am still working steadily through the drafting process for Anais Ascendant. This sequel is a lot more involved than the first book, and while I am constantly amazed about how my stories grow, this one got a little big for it's britches. In short the first draft is complete, and I am working through rewrites and sorting out. I have left space for the third book, and I am generally happy with the story, but this part is the hardest part for me.

My first drafts tend to be a lot of impressions, snippets of conversation, some important details, but what can turn out to be a 1 million word novel's first draft is usually only about 20000 words. I then go through, and reorder everything, flesh out scenes, add better dialog. Think of it sort of like an interviewer taking short hand notes as someone is telling them how something happened, going home, and writing a full article based on those notes. That is kind of what it is like.

Where I am at now with Anais Ascendant, I have worked my way through most of the second draft, but I have reached a point where my ambition has exceeded my knowledge. So I have to take a break from writing, and dive into some research. Sorry! My hope is that it won't take too long to catch my brain up!

In the interim, I have started a loose idea of a new project. This one isn't going to be something I can publish under my own name. Too spicy! While in general I don't have a problem with people knowing that I write spicy things, I do not want a dark romance book to be the first thing that pops up with a prospective future employer googles me. Who knows if it will go anywhere, but it has been a nice distraction and a nice way for me to keep the creative juices flowing while I do research for Anais.

So that is what has been going on with me. I am going to try to do at least one of these monthly. Thanks for reading!