Oh, hi. Updates, Reality, and Publication

 You know what I haven't done in a while?

Write a blog post.

Crap, and I thought I'd be better this time.

Oh, well. The good thing is that the draft of Conduit of Fire is as DONE as it's going to be prior to a professional editor. It has gone through 5ish rounds of edits and beta readers, was originally 220,000 words (ish), and is now down to 143,000 (ish), and other than an occasional typo, is silky smooth, fast-paced, action-packed, and simply: good.

I've also been told it is a complete story, closes with a good arc, leaves the main issue still open for book two but doesn't leave the reader unsatisfied, which is reason to PAUSE AND CELEBRATE. PRAISE GOD, thank You JESUS. That is HARD to do, and it has been QUITE a journey making this final draft of COF as good as it is.

That said, I'm so eager to get it to you guys. But it looks like I'm not going to be picked up for any agents right now (I'll look into submitting to more, but first, I think I'm going to submit directly to DAW Books, an off-shoot of Penguin, which means I need to wait three months after I submit and get rejected by them before submitting to more). There is a strong chance I'll have to self-publish. And who knows; it might be better that way.

But life is good, and God is better, and He has been blessing us abundantly.

Since the last time we spoke, my eldest cat was diagnosed with immune-mediated hemolytic anemia (it's essentially killing him; his body is eating his red blood cells faster than he can make them), but while we thought he was going to die one weekend, he's still here! Currently, we have him somewhat stabilized on some meds. He goes up and down, and this is likely his new normal until we do lose him, be it sooner or later. I think he's happy. He was chasing a rabbit two days ago, but is now curled into a ball. As I said, up and down. He's in God's hands, and I trust Him.

Then, my granddad died. 90, almost 91, and would've been married to my grandmother for 71? years this fall.

I signed another 5 clients onto my schedule when I was already full, so I'm HOPPING at work. (But seriously; I can't take anymore. Can't even believe I found space for these guys.)

AND, my husband got a promotion with a SIGNIFICANT pay increase -- praise God; he deserves it; he works so hard, and it's wonderful he's finally getting compensated. I'm not even joyful about the money part yet, or don't really even care; our life is good, and we don't anticipate our lifestyle changing much at all.

All this to say: life is busy but life is good. It is also stressful right now until I can balance with the new workload (my husband says I look like a zombie), and I'll be working with him on a new budget, wherein I plan to allocate for SELF-PUBLISHING. That was the whole point of the above paragraphs. Self-publishing. Which I've discussed before, so let's not repeat ourselves too much, shall we?

This is assuming I'm not picked up by DAW.

And if I'm NOT, then either way, I'm WAITING on publication.

I know. It sucks. But it's EXPENSIVE to produce a quality book. AND, because it's a series (or at the very minimum, a duology [it won't be a duology; it's too complicated to be finished in two books without speed-demoning through the plot without giving the characters time for proper arcs or the plot time for proper, organic, realistic development]), I will be postponing publication for likely two years until I have BOOK TWO written AND edited.

WHY am I doing this?

Because you don't know who I am. I can't even believe you're still reading this. Who the heck am I, why do you care, and why are you willing to wait a year or two between books when you don't even know if you can rely on me as an author to deliver a good story?

You don't. You can't. And you won't be able to until I get my books out.

So, assuming I'm not picked up by DAW either, or any other agents while I write and finalize Book Two and save for publication for not one, but two, books, it will be 2-3 years before I publish anything.

Well that sucks.

Oh, well. Nothing I can do about it. I want quality products, I personally HATE waiting on the next book as a reader, and if I have to wait but then give you all two/three books in rapid-release, and have them be GOOD QUALITY, then that's what I'm doing. And hopefully, you'll thank me for it later.

So there you have it. I am actively and avidly tearing through Book Two. I'm making great progress. Since I've last written this blog, I've also plotted the ENTIRE rest of the story, so I know EXACTLY where it's going and who is doing what (just don't know the little details which make it a story versus an outline), so the going should be MUCH quicker than COF, and GOD WILLING, need much fewer rounds of edits to match the current quality -- or surpass; let's be real -- of COF.

Alrighty. There you have it. Sorry this post is so long, but hey; that's what I do. I write too much, get it down, then chop off half of the mess during an edit.

But I ain't editing this, other than to check for typos. No word-count reduction here. Take me or leave me; I'm a mess, but I promise my books won't be.

Huzzah!

THANK YOU for your patience; please remain so. I cannot wait to get my books to you.

All my love,

Jess