Vengeful Darkness Is Almost Here!

Hey, Everyone! I’ve just printed the almost-final draft of Vengeful Darkness, so we are getting very close now! I am updating with a bit of good news and a bit of bad news. Keep reading for a full update. 

First, I just wanted to say thank you for all the awesome and encouraging messages of support that have come my way this month. It’s never easy to be late on a deadline or to let people down on timing, but the overwhelming support I’ve had from the majority of you has been truly heartwarming. Thank you!

If you’ve been following along with the almost-daily updates on social media or in the Coven Facebook group, you know I’ve been working on Vengeful Darkness for hours every single day for the past few months.

When I first pushed back the date to June 29th, I believed there was no way I’d need that much time. The draft was completed and I just needed to tweak a few scenes. At the time, the book was about 90,000 words long, and I felt like it was okay. Not great, but getting there.

Over the next few weeks, however, I was plagued by a number of anxiety attacks that left me struggling to stay in a place of great creativity. I don’t say this to make excuses. I just want you to understand that I’m not late because I’m lazy or just trying to annoy anyone :P.

We all go through difficult times, and contrary to what some people seem to believe, authors are just people, too.

I’ve been going through a difficult time from losing the dream house we’ve been building for almost a year to losing my assistant to a tough legal battle and these tough anxiety attacks. Because of all of this, this book proved to be more difficult than I ever imagined.

Mental health is extremely important, and I simply can’t push myself beyond a health point to finish a book on time, even if I said it would be done and will lose readers over it.

I know that most of you would like to see an author whose work you love stay healthy and get books done in a way that allows me to keep writing long into the future, and that means the world to me.

Which brings me to the official update.

The Good News is that Vengeful Darkness is almost completed. My beta readers and editor have been going through the final version over the past several days, and I am so proud of it! Chill bumps and tears. So much  better than it was a month ago. 

I’ve literally just printed out the final version and just need to tweak the two biggest final scenes. I’m hours away from done!!

The Bad News is that I have yet again come up on this preorder upload deadline. The final deadline for Amazon, in particular, is tonight at 8PM, so here I am at less than 3 hours to go finally admitting defeat.

It’s still possible I could put the finishing touches on these two scenes, skip the editor, and just publish the book tonight, but I honestly just can’t do that.

I’ve worked too hard on this to rush it out without a chance to have it fully proofread and to take the time to do my own final read through, which I like to do with a printed-out version.

So, here we are again.

(Have I mentioned that I never should have done a preorder and will NEVER do them again? haha)

Preorders will either totally cancel or be pushed back a few days, depending on what each vendor allows me to do.

If your preorder is cancelled, you will NOT BE CHARGED. No worries there. They don’t charge your card until the book is released, so you have not been charged and won’t be.

Over the weekend, I’ll be finishing up the final scenes in edits, giving my beta readers time to catch up with the ending and submit their final feedback, and giving my editor time to finish the second half of the book (she’s already done the first half).

As soon as it’s finished, I’ll publish it right away and send another email with a new link for you to repurchase.

I honestly can’t apologize enough. Trust me that I’m more upset and have shed more tears than anyone over this.

For those of you who have emailed me to say you are angry and disappointed, I get it. I never aim to be late, but sometimes life happens. Despite being upset, I hope you can be kind.

Links Coming Soon

In the end, the book is a thousand times better than it otherwise would have been, and that’s what matters to me more than anything.

Once it’s published, a book is out there forever. If it has to be a month or so late to be the best book I can write, then that’s just what it has to be.

Besides, many of you are just going to read this in a few hours and be wanting to kill me over this ending…. 😛 But the next book is the final book in this series, so we have to end with a major dun dun dun moment, right??

I love and appreciate you, and I sincerely hope you will still purchase the book when it is published later this weekend.

Emails with new links coming as soon as possible.

Thanks so much for your kindness and understanding.