2020 Summer (?) Forecast (?)

Usually around this time, with my spring semester coming to a close, I do a little summer celebration and forecast post, full of excitement for all the writing I’m going to get to do in the next few months, while one full-time job is mostly on pause and I can focus completely on the other one.

But this year is a weird one, and the transition from spring to summer (hopefully  not also summer to fall) is unsettlingly featureless. I’m not sure what kind of writing I’ll be able to do this summer, or whether I’ll be able to do more of it than I have in the past few months.

I was really sick for a few weeks at the start of all this, and my focus hasn’t been great since. Starting every morning with a bolus of end-of-the-world anxiety in the form of my Twitter feed, with additional doses throughout the day, probably hasn’t helped, lol.

But anyway, here we are in the final days of the spring semester, and I do, at least, have an update to my publishing plans for the rest of 2020, so I’ll share that.

So, without further ado:

6 June: The Cleaved World, Book One: The Gathering published officially (and the installments will come down from the blog a couple weeks before then, so if you’re reading it for free, or want to, now’s the time). There won’t be a preorder for this one, but a reveal is coming soon. Since I wrote it a couple years ago and I’ve published it in installments on the blog, I’m wedging its official publication into my usual schedule.

4 July: Book 5 (the series conclusion) of The Pagano Brothers (reveal coming 23 May). Some readers have written to ask me if Angie’s story was the series conclusion, because they weren’t sure who else could lead a book in the series. No, Angie’s story was not the conclusion, and you’ll find out who else could lead a book in the series very soon. (You’ve already met both leads, btw.)

This one’s a little bit different from the others in the series in that it’s not merely dual POV. Someone else gets a POV in addition to the lead couple. Someone whose head you might have missed being in.

More soon!

Fall: The Golden Door Duet. This is a historical romance duet set in New York at the turn of the 20th century, featuring Italian immigrants in Little Italy. I’m still trying to decide how quickly I want to release Book 2 after Book 1, but Book 1 will go live on 5 September, and Book 2 some time fairly shortly thereafter.

And that’s my publishing plan to round out 2020. All those books are finished, so I can commit to their release.

As for my writing plans,  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Well, maybe not quite that uncertain. I’m about 80K words into the second (and much less heartbreaking) book of my Capital City MMA series (no, it’s not Rafe, but he’s getting the next book), so I hope that one will be my first 2021 release.

When I finish that, I intend to start Book 2 of The Cleaved World, with a plan to publish it next spring. This series is an epic fantasy trilogy, not a romance (though I’m not ruling out romance elements), and it follows the longstanding tradition in fantasy of books in a series ending on cliffhangers until the end of the series. I would not have published Book 1 in any way unless I felt as sure as possible that I will finish the trilogy and not leave readers hanging.

Since my focus on writing hasn’t been great lately, I’m trying to let myself be okay with a slower writing pace. I usually write at least two, often three, new novels in the summer, but this year, I’ll be happy if I finish my current WIP and Book 2 of The Cleaved World.

And for the many of you who’ve asked if/when I mean to return to the world of bikers, the answer is yes, and very soon. After I finish Book 2 of The Cleaved World, I plan to begin The Brazen Bulls Birthright series, featuring the next generation of the Bulls (and also Eight Ball–yes, he’s getting a story). This series will take place in present day, will overlap a bit, timeline-wise, with The Night Horde SoCal, and provide a bridge to the biker series I plan after it–and that one will take us all back to Signal Bend.

Those are the plans, in addition to other ideas I mean to pepper in amongst the bikers. At the moment, the plans feel pretty ambitious, but so far Lola hasn’t abandoned me, so fingers crossed.

I hope you’re safe and well through all this turmoil. ❤️

s–