Setbacks

Bad news: Book 6 is going to be later than I thought.
Good news: it will be better than if you'd gotten it sooner.

I guess you could stop reading there, but if you're still with me, here's what happened: as I was going through draft two of Book 6, my instincts kept nagging at me, telling me something wasn't right. This is my eighth(!) book, so it wasn't a simple crisis of confidence, I knew there was something wrong with the story I was telling. The problem was that it took ages before I figured out what.

Now I know, and it's going to take major surgery to fix.

But that's okay! Because the story will be way better and more satisfying. Going into detail would be full of spoilers, so I won't, but now that I've identified the problem, I can fix it and make everything better. A few weeks ago I talked about how editing was a series of choices and a string of problem-solving. This is what that process looks like.

You know what, though? I don't think I've ever been this excited to have to re-do so much work before. It doesn't feel like I thought it would. I want to fix it. I'm excited to, because it will make the story better. It needs to be better, because I wasn't happy with it. Now I have that chance, and I'm grateful for it. It's weirdly re-invigorating, to be honest. I trusted my storytelling instincts, now the mystery weight is gone and I have a firm path forward.

I'm still processing how I got here in the first place, but I think I know. Let's just say I fell into one of many possible pitfalls that open up when writing a sequel. This being my fifth one, I forgot some of the basics. "I know what I'm doing, I've got this" might be true, but only until you don't got this. Always keep learning and refreshing what you think you understand. Complacency can be a killer.

To you, my readers, I must apologize, though. Popping back up in blogging and social media might have led to the idea that the book's release was imminent. I didn't mean it that way, I was just excited about finishing the first draft. I didn't notice the problem until the second.

But I will only get a chance to end the series once, and it needs to be what it deserves to be, and what you, who have invested so much time and energy into this world and these characters, deserve it to be. I'm not just going to punch it out and be done with it, I'm going to do it right.

I think it's sometimes important to show the warts in the process, even if it's kind of a bummer, but the creative process is messy (cliche but true), and this series is deeply important to me. The emotional roller coaster it's put me on has been intense, I won't lie.

So I must ask for your patience. I hope, and believe, that what I share with you in the end will be worth it.