Post-release Release
The release of every book feels different. Sometimes it's cathartic, and you want to run out into the street and dance. Sometimes it's just a huge relief that it's done and over with. I think the pregnancy metaphor can get a little overwrought, but oftentimes it does feel appropriate. When the book comes out, you're tired but happy after carrying this thing around inside you for months and once it's out, you can look at this entirely new piece of the world that didn't exist before with pride.
The Raven and the Firebird is somewhere in between, if I'm honest. The very first thing I wrote for it was almost three years ago, and not only was it originally for book 4 instead of 5, that bit didn't even make the published book. The event did (I mention which one in the Afterword but won't here, since it's a gigantic spoiler), though, and went through multiple iterations before reaching your eyeballs in the final version of The Raven and the Firebird. There was a ton of overlap in the writing of books 4 and 5 (so much so it doesn't feel like I wrote two standalone fantasy romances since I started), and that makes it feel like I've been working on this one chunk of the story forever. So, in short, I'm very glad it's out, and I can now move on to something entirely new with these characters and this world.
One thing that happens to me post-release with every book is a weird sense of clarity about the story I just finished. Like all authors, I immediately find a thousand things I would change and a comma I forgot or whatever, but I do genuinely get this feeling of fresh eyes once the 'publish' button is hit. I can more easily see it through the perspective of those I know are reading it, trying to perceive things the way they do. So I often find myself re-reading parts of the book despite the fact that only days earlier I was ready to fire it into the sun for how sick of it I was. I dunno, it's weird. I don't think it means anything, but for a series, it does kind of help me to pick out things I may not have set up (or the opposite, telegraphed) for subsequent books.
Subsequent book, I should say. There's only one more left in the From the Ashes of Victory series, and I'm very much of two minds about that. On one hand, I will probably feel enough completion to put me in a coma, but on the other... it'll be done. Over. These characters, this world, will all be behind me, when they've been so much a part of me for so long.
I think that's one big reason the release of TRatF felt so different. It was like coming around the final corner to see that all that lies ahead is the finish line. Years and years of blood, tears toil and sweat will come to an end. I'm not an Olympic athlete, but I find myself trying to imagine what it's like to be one on the way home. Do you just stare out the window like a zombie? Do you sleep for a month? 'Hollow but accomplished' is how I picture it feeling, but I won't know until I get on the plane. All I know is that I already plan to empty the drinks cart when I do (and it won't be those little tiny bottles, either).
But I'm getting ahead of myself. I have an entire novel to write, and only one chance to get it right. Is Book 6* next on the docket? Maybe. I don't know yet. I want to savor the release of 5 first, take stock, and then decide. This journey has been unlike any other I've ever taken in my life, and sometimes I just need a minute.
If you're reading Raven, I hope you're enjoying it. If you're just discovering me now, welcome. Perhaps in time my characters will come to feel like family to you, or you may just move on. Either way, thank you for giving me a chance. And to those who have stuck with me and this series so far: an extra-special thank you. Two of them if you've ever left a review or told me what these books mean to you. It's so rare, and precious, for authors to get direct feedback, it means more than you know. I will do my best to give you, and the witches of EVE, the send-off they deserve.
Just going to enjoy this moment first.
*I do, and have always, known the title of the final book, the only question was if it was going to be for 6 or 7. Telling you means it's real, and oh, who spilled all these onions?
The Raven and the Firebird is somewhere in between, if I'm honest. The very first thing I wrote for it was almost three years ago, and not only was it originally for book 4 instead of 5, that bit didn't even make the published book. The event did (I mention which one in the Afterword but won't here, since it's a gigantic spoiler), though, and went through multiple iterations before reaching your eyeballs in the final version of The Raven and the Firebird. There was a ton of overlap in the writing of books 4 and 5 (so much so it doesn't feel like I wrote two standalone fantasy romances since I started), and that makes it feel like I've been working on this one chunk of the story forever. So, in short, I'm very glad it's out, and I can now move on to something entirely new with these characters and this world.
One thing that happens to me post-release with every book is a weird sense of clarity about the story I just finished. Like all authors, I immediately find a thousand things I would change and a comma I forgot or whatever, but I do genuinely get this feeling of fresh eyes once the 'publish' button is hit. I can more easily see it through the perspective of those I know are reading it, trying to perceive things the way they do. So I often find myself re-reading parts of the book despite the fact that only days earlier I was ready to fire it into the sun for how sick of it I was. I dunno, it's weird. I don't think it means anything, but for a series, it does kind of help me to pick out things I may not have set up (or the opposite, telegraphed) for subsequent books.
Subsequent book, I should say. There's only one more left in the From the Ashes of Victory series, and I'm very much of two minds about that. On one hand, I will probably feel enough completion to put me in a coma, but on the other... it'll be done. Over. These characters, this world, will all be behind me, when they've been so much a part of me for so long.
I think that's one big reason the release of TRatF felt so different. It was like coming around the final corner to see that all that lies ahead is the finish line. Years and years of blood, tears toil and sweat will come to an end. I'm not an Olympic athlete, but I find myself trying to imagine what it's like to be one on the way home. Do you just stare out the window like a zombie? Do you sleep for a month? 'Hollow but accomplished' is how I picture it feeling, but I won't know until I get on the plane. All I know is that I already plan to empty the drinks cart when I do (and it won't be those little tiny bottles, either).
But I'm getting ahead of myself. I have an entire novel to write, and only one chance to get it right. Is Book 6* next on the docket? Maybe. I don't know yet. I want to savor the release of 5 first, take stock, and then decide. This journey has been unlike any other I've ever taken in my life, and sometimes I just need a minute.
If you're reading Raven, I hope you're enjoying it. If you're just discovering me now, welcome. Perhaps in time my characters will come to feel like family to you, or you may just move on. Either way, thank you for giving me a chance. And to those who have stuck with me and this series so far: an extra-special thank you. Two of them if you've ever left a review or told me what these books mean to you. It's so rare, and precious, for authors to get direct feedback, it means more than you know. I will do my best to give you, and the witches of EVE, the send-off they deserve.
Just going to enjoy this moment first.
*I do, and have always, known the title of the final book, the only question was if it was going to be for 6 or 7. Telling you means it's real, and oh, who spilled all these onions?
No comments have been added yet.
