I can honestly say that I am so relieved to be where I finally am. Because Great Sexpectations is actually finished!! It has felt like the biggest uphill battle getting this book over the line, and I’m still pinching myself that I’m really there. It’s done. The book is complete and the best part is that I’m so happy with it.
Currently the book is with my beta readers, who are the first people to have read this book apart from me. I don’t pass my books on to beta readers until I’m 99% happy with them, so I’m not expecting too many change suggestions or any further major edits will be needed. But Beta readers are great for picking up little things that I’ve missed, so hopefully they will find any of the final issues of problems for me. And then, in a couple of weeks time, the book is off to my copy editor and I can breathe another huge sigh of relief to know that I’m finally back on schedule.
And speaking of schedules, I now have a publication date for Great Sexpectations! A real publication this time, not an optimistic, “I’m sure I can make it” date like I set last year and told everyone about and then went eerily quiet when that didn’t happen. Oops, sorry guys.
Anyway … publication for Great Sexpectations will be happening on 8th August 2023, and any eagle-eyed fans will see that yesterday the book popped up on Amazon and the other digital ebook stores as available for preorder. It’s finally happening!
Other Book News
My two other unpublished manuscripts are sitting rather idle at the moment. Blackmailing Ava Darling is currently out on submission to some Australian publishers, and although I’ve had a full manuscript request from one of them, I’m now just waiting to hear back. I’m not feeling optimistic about this book getting a traditional deal, mainly because I wouldn’t feel optimistic about anyone or any book getting a traditional deal in the current climate, but it’s out on submission all the same. Once I’ve exhausted all the trad options and probably once I’ve decided that I can’t be bothered querying any more, I’ll make plans to self-publish this one as well – hopefully for later this year or early next year.
As for Deadly Beautiful (formally known as Kalileia), I really need to get back to that series! I’d still love to self publish this, but I’ll only be comfortable self publishing book 1 so long as books 2 and 3 are underway. Currently they are not. I’m at a bit of a limbo stage at the moment, where I literally have six (yes SIX) different novels that I want to start work on and I’m trying to decide what direction to go in and where to focus my time. A couple of them are series starters, which means I’d need to commit to writing the whole series, whereas others are stand alone books. Whatever the case, I think I’m just taking a much-needed break from writing now that GS is finally done, but I want to get back to writing something in the next month. It may be time to create a good old pros and cons list, or do some long-term strategy planning to work out just what to start writing next.
What I’m Watching and What I’m Reading
The stand-out shows I’ve watched lately are Queen Charlotte and Reacher. And as for reading, recent stand-outs are The Branded by Jo Ricciono (book 1 in a YA fantasy series and I cannot wait for book 2!) plus The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth, a book that surprised me and had me thinking about it for long after I’d finished.
Cover Photo by Amy Shamblen on Unsplash