July Update

It occurred to me I haven’t updated in about ten days so I figured I should jump in here and  let everyone know where we’re at.

So first thing’s first. Black Lily is running late. There are a combination of factors at fault here. First – I have rewritten complete sections of the book. Still writing! My editor was supposed to get chapters this weekend but that didn’t happen and I’ll explain why in a minute. Second – my calendar has been packed since May. Between graduations, weddings, a 5K, gatherings with friends, and family obligations – I have been a busy girl. My mom had surgery on her shoulder in May and I spent a few days helping her out. I had a nasty stomach flu in May that took me down for a little over a week as well. Here in June, my birthday, a garage sale that took a good two weeks planning and organizing, a horrifically busy workload at the p/t day job (which threw me into full time hours several times), the update of a bathroom (which still isn’t finished), a terribly sick husband who was down for two weeks with a nasty cold, which I subsequently caught and am currently battling, along with teaching classes every Sunday…. all of this has contributed to the delay of Black Lily.

This month, so far, I’ve had to contend with this cold (coughing that keeps me up all night, so no sleep) and, simultaneously, a very sick 17-year-old cat who has required multiple vet visits with more coming next week and the week after. This is the reason my editor didn’t get chapters this weekend. This month will also be treating me to extra work at the day job, teaching every weekend, running family back and forth to the airport, several lunch appointments, finishing the bathroom project, and at the end of the month — a vacation. This means that I either have to get Black Lily out by end of month, or it won’t be out until after August 9 unless I want to take the 17″ laptop on vacation (a real pain in the shoulder) and skip the vacation part, which I’m thinking my husband won’t go for.

So this has just been a crazy, hectic summer and it’s thrown my release schedule off terribly. For that I do apologize.

A lot of folks don’t realize how much writers often sacrifice to get books to print. I could have said no to all of the invitations I received, said forget the bathroom, not done the garage sale, and skipped the vacation and you’d likely have a book right now (though with all the illness, maybe not). At the same time, I sacrificed last summer to the release schedule. This year I wanted to do some things I’ve been putting off for several years. If I were with a big five publisher I would have sacrificed by necessity, but as an indie, I figured I could get away with shoving the release back.

I do have some really exciting news coming up. I will share once everything is finalized. So do expect some great things and I swear that  Black Lily will be out no later than the end of August. I really am hoping sooner, but with this cold, the way the summer schedule seems to be going, and the sick cat, I don’t want to make any promises for sooner.