Nine years ago today my first e-book was released!
It doesn’t feel like any time at all. Yet, I also can’t really remember a time before I was doing this.
I’m not going to go all the way back to 2008 in this post, but I am going to speak briefly about the last two years.
You haven’t seen me release any new work since 2015. There are reasons for this.
The short version is this: 2016 was the year my mind fell apart, and 2017 was the year I spent putting my mind back together.
I would have loved it if I’d managed to produce a great deal of new work alongside that, but it just wasn’t possible. Huge thanks go to the readers who supported the re-released titles that I issued during the last two years. It really meant a lot to me. The people who bought, read, reviewed those titles were a lifeline during a very difficult time.
During the last two years, alongside the couple of titles I managed to re-issue, I bounced back and forth between eight different projects – some re-writes of old titles, some entirely new projects. I didn’t finish seven of them, and the one I managed to complete was so poorly done it was unpublishable. Not ideal really.(Edited to clarifify – it was unpublishable in my own opinion, not because it was rejected by publishers – I intended to self-pub it.)
Moving forwards…
I’m aiming for 2018 to be the year where I go back to finishing what I start. That was one of the key things that made a difference for me when I first started writing seriously, which was about eleven years ago.
So, that means, from here on in, I can’t move on to a different writing project until I finish the one I’m on. No more hopping between different stories. I know that works for some writers, but it really doesn’t work for me.
Now, while my mental health is much better going into 2018, my physical health still sucks. This has led to a few decisions, some of which I know won’t be popular.
I’m not doing deadlines or posting dates when new books will come out way in advance. I really don’t know what I’ll be able to do from one day to the next, so planning ahead is kind of out of the question. I’ll say what I’m working on, but probably won’t be able to give you a release date for anything until I’ve finished my part of it and it’s gone off to my editors.
I’ve also decided to start back to work with some shorter, less complex stories before I tackle the big guys. Bayden’s Alpha and Albatross (which were both included among those eight stories I bounced between during the last two years), as well as other full length novels, will happen. However, I need to get my feet back under me and prove to myself that I’m still capable of writing something readable before I’m ready to tackle them.
I’m hoping that the readers who are waiting for Bayden’s Alpha and Albatross will consider looking at the shorter works I put out in the meantime.
Now that all that has been said…
The project I’m working on at the moment is called Sticks and Stones, which will be part three of the Kinky Cupid series. It follows on from Once a Brat and Base Over Apex, and features Dan who works behind the bar at The Spread Eagle. I expect it to be about 25k words and I have the first draft half written 🙂
And that’s it.
Nine years in and, despite a few wobbles along the way, I’m still here and not planning to quit any time soon.
I’ve met so many amazing people during the last nine years and I can’t wait to see what 2018 has in store for us all.
Hope everyone is enjoying whatever holidays they are celebrating this time of year!
*Hugs*
Kim Dare.
Kim Dare 