Cursed Project Forces Schedule Change

This is not how I planned it.

The schedule for this year was supposed to be The Sword and the Sorcerer in March/April, Beauty & the Beast: A Modern Fairy Tale in July, and Roses Are White in November/December. It’s August, and I haven’t published a damned thing.

It’s been amazing how things have gone wrong. “Sword” would not get written. It fought me over and over again, draft after draft. Life issues also conspired to slow down both the writing and the editing processes. And then last week, a computer crash stole another week’s worth of work time.

Meanwhile, B&B was supposed to be a short story. It grew into a novella.

I’ve been writing and writing and editing and editing, and I still don’t have a finished book.

And now timing is an issue. Beauty & the Beast is set during football season. It’s set at a real high school and the annual game with its cross-town rival figures heavily in the climax. The book needs to release during football season — which is next month — to best capitalize on its themes.

But The Sword and the Sorcerer isn’t going to be ready before the end of this month, and that would mean I’d risk missing the window for B&B. So there’s really only one solution. I’m going to have switch up the publishing schedule.

I’m moving Beauty & the Beast ahead of The Sword and the Sorcerer on my timetable. If I don’t, I’ll miss an opportunity.

I hate that. It means delaying “Sword” until November or so. But we’ve still got five chapters to edit in the allegedly final draft, and this editing session has uncovered the need to rewrite two more chapters, meaning they’ll have to be another round of edits.

I haven’t worked on a project this cursed in a long time. It’s pissing me off.

But I don’t have a choice. The only alternative is to put out an inferior book, and that’s no choice at all.

So, as of now, my next book will be Beauty & the Beast: A Modern Fairy Tale. I should be able to get it out next month. I’ll release an official date shortly.

In the meantime, I’ll be hoping there are no more unforeseen problems. I am tired of feeling cursed.