No, I’m not randomly counting, okay. This is book related, and I’ll get to it. But first…
Hi! Do you remember me? I’m the author who said she’d update her blog in March but didn’t post until July🫣
I know, I know. I’m the worst! In my defense, though, I HAVE been updating my group and my newsletter. I just keep forgetting that I have a website too
Honestly, between being sick (still! Although my floor-dwelling days are definitely dwindling) and writing, I barely have time to keep up with anything else. Since book 3 is my number 1 priority, I spend every day writing/editing/adding words to the huge-ass tome of a book.
I basically do that from I wake up until my brain melts.
Only when I have nothing else to give do I focus on everything else, and then it’s my FB group that gets my attention first. After that, I’m usually all out of time (and brain power), and hubs is throwing me over his shoulder and dragging me off to bed despite my protests of “but, but, but, I only need FIVE more minutes!” (said for the 10th time that night😆)
The Sneak Peak
Before I go back to counting, below is the chapter I sent out to my newsletter in the beginning of march. I think at one point I said you’d be getting the first scene in chapter 1, but I changed my mind (mercurial creature that I am) and you’re getting chapter 2 instead (if you knew the cliffhanger chapter 1 ended in, you’d thank me instead of cursing me for giving you a shorter scene, I promise!)
3... or 4?
Back in April, I dropped a bomb in my newsletter that read something like:
Unknown Entity: “Is this little author still adding words even though she’s already added more than 300 pages to the first draft of this monstrosity of a book?”
Erica: “Yes. Yes, she is.”
Unknown Entity: “Will all this content fit into a single book?”
Erica: “…”
Erica: “…”
Still Erica: “…Maybe?”
Basically, it is looking more and more likely that, to do this story justice (and to not piss off the characters who just won’t shut the fudge-cake up), there might be an extra book.
Not really a fourth book, but more like… book 3 part 1 and book 3 part 2?
It all depends on how much more the characters have to say before I can wrap it all up (and also depends on this one big section which I haven’t decided if should be included, shortened, or cut yet), but if it keeps growing like this, I might split it into two so that Amazon won’t refuse to print it (there’s a 800 page count limit) and so you can get part one before you all die of old age.
Don’t worry, though. I’ll only go through with the great divide if I can be sure there won’t be a big gap between the two parts. The moment you get your hands on part 1, part 2 will already be waiting on pre-order
(there will be 1-3 months between the two releases, but the goal is one).
Favorite Chapter
On the bright side, despite the extra time it’s taking me, all this adding and listening to the characters have resulted in one of my favorite chapters to date being included in book 3! And it never would have been happened if my amazing readers hadn’t been so patient with my sick, floor-dwelling self (and if my FB group hadn’t been very vocal in their “keep adding, we want ALL the scenes!” demands)
And so that you all can come back and decide for yourself if it was worth it after you’ve read the last book, here’s a super vague hint that won’t give anything away but will make sure you know what scene it is when you read it: Hope is sitting on a boulder, wearing Ruarc’s pants and Lucien’s shirt and no freakin shoes
(my actual favorite part is the thing right before this)
More sneak peaks?
Why yes, my newsletter got another chapter a couple months ago, so here it is, a mystery chapter!
(the “mystery” in the mystery chapter is just because I divide into chapters at the very end, and I’m also still not sure if the whole thing or just a part of it will end up making the cut for book 3, or where I will put it (there are two places it would fit really well, and I’m torn on where I want it to go)).
Also, if you’re on the fence about reading it, there are no “future spoilers” because it’s happening in the past (before the events in book 3). It’s sorta like that chapter that showed Matthew “dying” at the hands of the Hunters, only Matthew isn’t the person Hope is talking to here despite Hope’s little “I haven’t had anyone to talk to since Matthew.”
And that’s it for now! Sorry for the super long wait with the update, and if you want to be kept more in the loop, please consider signing up to my Newsletter or joining my Facebook Group
If not, I’ll see you when I post about book 3 releasing (or sooner, depending on how well these monthly phone reminders that scream “UPDATE YOUR BLOG, DAMMIT” will work from now on😆)
Big, virtual hugs to all my super patient readers (and all the impatient ones too).
(I never really know how to end these blog posts so I’m going to be all awkward and just cut off mid sentence like a—)