Hi Everyone,
I’m a bit late with the newsletter this month. Part of it was hard to write, so I did the mature, sensible thing, and put it off for as long as I could, lol.
Easy bits first:
I’ve reclaimed the rights to several of my titles which were previously published by Pride or Resplendence Publishing. These titles will be unavailable until such time as I manage to release indi versions.
The MM ones are mostly short stories, except for With a Kiss.
With a Kiss was the last novel I had left with a publisher. I’m hoping to bring out a new version later this year. It will be re-edited and possibly slightly extended.
The short stories will probably be compiled into an anthology and re-released in that format. Not sure on the time line for that.
I’ve also reclaimed the last of my stories that involve women. Since I haven’t brought any of those titles back out yet, at this point the only stories I have available are MM. Not sure what to do with the non-MM stories right now, but I’ll try to work something out.
Next topic – Current Work in Progress:
I said last month that I was going to work on one of two projects. I ended up working on a completely different one!
What Happens at the Hotel is a 20k word novella. It’s MM, BDSM. I’ve already got it drafted and partially edited. I’m hoping it will be able to come out quite soon – hopefully in May 🙂
When it comes out, it will be the first completely new work I’ve published in quite a while.
Which brings me to the part of the blog post I’ve been putting off. It’s become increasingly obvious that I need to offer everyone some sort of more complete explanation for why new work has been so slow appearing.
(I’ve mentioned some of this before, but I’ll recap some basics for those who haven’t read previous posts on the topic.)
I’ve had ME (sometimes referred to as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) and fybromyalgia for over two decades now. As a result of dealing with those conditions for so long, I also have issues with anxiety.
A little over two years ago, just as I was coming to the end of my work on Axel’s Pup, I tried a new medication that is supposed to help with the pain associated with fybromyalgia, as well as help with anxiety. I was in a pretty bad place health wise, so it seemed worth a try.
It did help in some ways. It also came with some pretty horrible side effects. I won’t bore you with the rest of them, but one of those side effects was that I found it very difficult to access that part of my brain where writing happens. The longer I was on the tablets the harder it was to write and it reached a point where it felt like that part of my brain was completely walled off – I’m not sure how else to describe it.
Although the medication helped a lot with pain and anxiety, not being able to write caused me to become severely depression. For quite a while I was in a very dark place. It became dangerous.
I ended up stopping the tablets last August. Gradually, as the medication left my system, I’ve been able to re-access the writing part of my brain. At first it was an intermittent process – the stories would come back for a day or two, then disappear. But, since last month it’s become a lot more consistent, which I why I’ve finally been able to write something new.
My brain is finally starting to work the way it should, or at least the way it does when not on medication. I’m not working as quickly as I would like, but I am hoping that I’ll have a few new stories published this year. They will probably be shorter works to start with, and I’ll build up to being able to produce full length novels again.
Unfortunately, it might still be a while before I’m able to work on big projects, like the next story in the Werewolves and Dragons series. But please trust that I am working my way towards being able to do that.
I understand that a lot of people are impatient to find out what comes next for Axel and Bayden, and that a lot of readers feel that there has already been far too long a delay between titles.
I love that people enjoyed their first book so much and that they are so invested in Axel and Bayden’s future. But, I promise you, that if I could have, I’d have published their next book months ago. I’m not refusing to publish the next part of their story because I don’t care about the characters or because I’m being bloody minded about it! The only reason it hasn’t been published is because I’ve been physically incapable of writing it.
As I said at the top of this post, I don’t find it easy to talk about some things. Explaining things about my health means I have to face facts myself about how bad my health (physical and mental) has been over the last few years. It also means facing the fact there will probably be people who won’t react well to what I have to say.
But, anyway, that part of the post is finally written now.
Have a fantastic March everyone!
*Hugs*
Kim Dare.
Kim Dare 