Most days I am afraid to open my email or look at the
Ancients page because I know someone will ask me that question.
Just kidding – I love you guys and your love of the series.
I really do… and I really want to get Mistaken in your hands.
I have mentioned frequently on the Ancients Facebook page
that Mistaken is epicly epic… meaning that it has turned into a ginormous
writing endeavor. When I began Alia’s story, it was not my intent to write a
book over 250,000 words. Thus far Broken
was the longest in the series, at @130k words (435 pages in print), but by the
time all is said and done, Mistaken looks to eclipse that by well over
100k.
(Qualifier – I am still in editing and rewrites on Mistaken,
so it may end up being 300,000 words, or it may be 225,000, the final count is
still pending)
GINORMOUS.
Fans have been patiently awaiting an ‘official’ release date
for the book. Spring 2014 was
deliberately vague, because as I saw the story evolving, I knew it would take
longer than I had wanted to get the book into publication. There are a couple of reasons for that – and
I am going to explain.
From August 2012 to August 2013, I released the first 3 books
in the Ancients series. Forsaken and
Broken were finished in that span of a year.
Written, edited, rewritten, edited…beta read, edited… The process of writing and all of the editing
and rewrites involved in a book that is over 100,000 words is no small
undertaking. Doing this while
maintaining a demanding career, two young children and a reasonably sane
household is nearly impossible.
There was no reason to publish 3 books in the first 12 months
of my writing career – other than I sometimes set unreasonable, arbitrary goals
for myself. I learned a big lesson and
promised myself and my family that unreasonable, arbitrary goals were a thing
of the past – after 6 months where almost every waking hour that was not
devoted to work was spent sitting at my desk, ignoring my kids, my family, my
life…basically my world consisted for my work-life and my Realm-life.
After Broken was released, I did make a promise to my
husband and my children, and a commitment to myself, that I would not go AWOL
again.
The Realm and the stories I am telling are incredibly
important to me. Writing is my
relaxation, the part of me where I find happiness and a sense of worth that we
often time do not find in our ‘real’ careers.
When I set unreasonable expectations and allow the goodness that comes
to me from my writing to be warped into a huge life-stressor, I am not doing
myself or my readers any favors.
I intended to give myself 8 months to write/edit/publish
Mistaken. By that timeframe, it should
be on your Kindles today. That was before I realized that Mistaken would evolve
into a hugely involved tale, the length of TWO full-length novels. So, I made a mistake yet again and committed
myself to a timeline that made Mistaken into another bundle of stress. This time, instead of
writing/publishing/editing 2 separate novels over the period of twelve months,
I am writing 1 book, that is fully the length of 2 novels, in 10 months. Uh oh. I accidentally set an even higher bar
to reach this time… it was soooo unintentional.
That is one of the things that happens when you are new to
the writing/publishing world and trying to learn it all. ACK!!
So, what do I do now?
I believe in commitments, but I have conflicting ones
here. I have promised my readers Spring,
and I have promised my family I will not neglect them again. I am attempting to honor both.
Luckily, the rewrites on Mistaken are proceeding incredibly
well. Will I make the Spring date? My current intention is to publish Mistaken
on the last day of Spring – June 20, 2013.
I ask for your continued patience, understanding that, like
all Indie authors – I do not have the luxury to write full-time. My job pays my bills and feeds my
family. My fun comes from writing these
books and interacting with all you awesome people. I need time to play with my kids and have
family movie night. I need to be able to
continue to love these stories and these characters as much as I currently
do. In order to do that, I have to have
balance… and I am still learning this balancing act.
I continue to learn, so my writing is getting better. I am learning to seek the help I need. I have a fantastic editor now, and you have
probably all met the various members of my Street Team who help promote the
series. I have the awesome Angel and
fabulous Rebecca keeping things interesting on the Ancients Facebook page. These things have all helped tremendously and
allowed me to focus much more on working on Mistaken these past few weeks.
At this time, I am very certain I will meet the June 20th
publication deadline. If it looks like
the book will not be in its best form by then – if there is some crazy issue –
I will absolutely push the date, but I will let you know well in advance. I promise you that I will not release crap
for the sake of making a deadline. My readers
deserve better… and so does Kat and crew.
Thank you so much for continuing along with me on this
journey.
XOXO
Heather
