July 26, 2017
I have been terrible about staying in touch with readers on social media. No really, I’m well aware of how awful I am at posting regularly on social media and giving readers information about my upcoming book in the Fearsome Series. What I hear often is: When the hell will it be published?!
Excellent question. Here’s the direct, no bullshit answer: I don’t know. I’m hoping to publish it this fall. The book is massive and I’ve spent an extraordinary time revising and cutting it down from 600 pages to something more manageable. I planned on publishing in summer 2015, but a broken collar bone and pneumonia changed those plans and the revisions on Book 4 were pushed to the side because I had two completed books in a different genre that were on schedule to be published in 2015. My other books are not romance, in fact, they’re rather dark thrillers and for that purpose I write them under a pen name. I try to keep my writing projects separate from each other because my romance readers would likely not enjoy my thrillers where people are getting knocked off and no one goes on a date. And vice versa, my thriller readers are a different audience who do not read romance. I happen to be one of those people who reads everything, but I totally understand that people have their preferences when they want to escape into a book.
After two years of writing the psychological thrillers and living with some characters who were fairly insidious, and others who did not end up with happily ever afters, I’ve cleared my agenda to devote myself to the romance novels I want to write, the ones I have planned within the Fearsome Series, along with another series I want to create that takes place in one of my favorite beach towns.
I guess you’ve noticed I like small towns. Believe me when I say I love New York City and not a day goes by when I don’t think how fortunate we are to raise our children in this amazing city. Sometimes we really do feel like we are living in the center of the universe and that’s most apparent when friends and family from around the U.S. and the world come and visit NYC for the first time with wide eyes of awe and wonder. We have a subway rat that eats pizza by the slice! I kid you not, you can see him in all his glory on YouTube. But I have lived all over this country, and I miss the small town outside of Charleston I lived in as a child, and I miss beautiful Santa Fe, New Mexico, and I think fondly of the charming friendly towns in the Midwest that were also a part of my childhood. So that’s why the Fearsome Series takes place in the fictional town of Hera, New York. At heart, I’m a small town person who just happens to live in a very big city.
To show you how serious I am about Hera and its zany, lovable residents, a while ago I created a large map for myself that sits in front of my desk so I can ponder the lives of my characters while I work — and also to keep their homes and businesses straight. You may notice new additions, those are from the soon to be released Book 4.
Map of Hera, New York. It only exist in my mind and my books:
By the way, one of my beta readers, a friend who is also one of my graphics designers, is calling Book 4, FLAWLESS, and that kind of stuck. I mean it starts with the letter F, so it must be good.
Again, release date for FLAWLESS? If I can get past my obsessive compulsive nature and anxiety and stop revising this book and just hand it off to my beta readers and editors, the book has a chance of being published this fall. From that point, my plan is to also create the new series and publish my romance books more regularly and put my thrillers on the back burner for a while. I miss romance and funny, intelligent characters who meet and fall in love. I miss all of it, so it’s time to create those characters and their stories again.
On another note, I thought I’d share a snapshot of some of my favorite novels (and a memoir), stories I have never forgotten. I pulled these out at random from my bookcase, but I thought they’d be a nice walk down memory lane for me and give you an idea on books that have influenced my writing:
I’m also running a special little giveaway. A new independent book store opened in Brooklyn recently called Books Are Magic. Great name, right? Anyway it’s owned by author Emma Straub (I happen to love her books—and her father’s GHOST STORY was one of my favorites when I was a kid!). I digress. I’m giving away one of her store’s tote bags and one of their fabulous Books Are Magic pins, along with a signed copy of my book, FAITHFUL.
I’ll pick a winner Friday August 18, 2017.
TO ENTER:
Until my next post, have a wonderful summer and keep reading!
Sara