Summer Check-In!

My classes are over for the Spring 2019 semester; all that’s left now is final grading, and then summer is here!

Since I just published Carry the World, which was the last scheduled release I promised in my New Year’s post, I thought I’d update you about my plans for the balance of the year. The horrible writer’s block, or whatever it was, I experienced last fall seems to have left me well and truly alone, Lola is back at the wheel, and I’ve been writing well for months. Thus, I can commit to three more releases this year, because they’re done and in various stages of revision/editing.

So, here’s what coming up for the rest of 2019:

5 July: Book 3 of the Pagano Brothers. Cover and title reveal, etc. coming on 25 May. I know a lot of readers are waiting for Angie’s story, and his story is coming, but this isn’t it. Like many of my series, there’s an overarching narrative carrying through all the Pagano Brothers books, and I choose the leads of each book based on whose POV best suits that narrative at that time. Book 3 is Tony’s story. It’s Tony who (accidentally) killed the little boy in Hidden Worthiness. He has some things to work out. I love writing men who have some things to work out.

Angie will lead Book 4, which I’m about to start writing (as soon as I get grades done).

7 September: Book 3 of the Sawtooth Mountains Stories. Cover and title reveal, etc. in late July. This is Reese’s story. I think he’s my favorite lead in this series so far.

2 November: Mo and Delaney’s story, set in 1968-1976. It’s both a standalone novel and a prequel to the Brazen Bulls MC series. More details in September.

And that’ll be that for my 2019 releases. Though 6 releases isn’t an unusual year for me, this year it feels pretty damn amazing, considering that last October, I thought I was all dried up.

What a relief to know I’m not!

To keep Lola happy, I’ve made some decisions about what I’m writing next.

I think I mentioned a while back that I was planning to try a sequel to Aurora Terminus this summer, and that was indeed on my to-do list—in fact, I thought it would be the next thing I wrote—but I’m shelving that idea indefinitely. I know the story is ripe for more, and I have notes that would carry it into a trilogy, but I just did a read-through of AT to prepare to write the next book, and I was left with the feeling that I like where the story ends, right where it is. It ends in a place of hope and possibility, and anything I add to that will necessarily narrow the options and, of course, make things hard for the characters. At least right now, I want to leave them in a place of peace. So a new AT book is not currently in my plans. That might change when I’m in a different frame of mind. Never say never and all that.

Another idea that I’ve shelved is my epic fantasy trilogy. The first book is done, but the writing of that one was incredibly difficult. I took on a lot, trying to simultaneously pay homage to and also subvert the tropes and traditions of the genre, and I was overwhelmed with crippling anxiety the whole time. I bailed on it several times before I managed to get it done, and my months of bad writing mojo started there, so I’m, frankly, afraid to go back to it.

As is typical of epic fantasy series, the first book ends on a gigantic cliffhanger, and there’s no way I could put out Book 1 until Book 2 is done. I could never cope with the anxiety of having a cliffhanger out in the world, with people waiting for the rest of the story, and not being sure I could finish it. I don’t hold it against writers who can’t (or simply choose not to) finish their series, I don’t think writers owe readers anything but the book they paid for, but I am pathologically incapable of leaving things unfinished, so those two competing anxieties—afraid to write and afraid not to—would tear me apart.

I ended up loving the book, once I was out of my black place, and I will probably eventually finish the trilogy (because of said need to finish things), but I need some distance first. Like, a lot of distance. And possibly better meds. Or more tequila. Or both.

Anyway. It was a goal of mine to write an epic fantasy, my favorite genre to read, so I’m going to call that goal met. But romance is my writing happy place, and I write to be happy (and sane) above all else. So I’ll write romance. Starting with Angie’s story next, and then, I think, a couple new ideas I’ve been knocking around for awhile.

Okay! I need to get to grading so I can get back to writing! Let’s have a great summer!
xoxo
s–