I wanted to take the time to address my to-write list. So here’s a mile long post that does that.
There are pros and cons to sharing future plans with readers.
Pro: I get to talk about upcoming projects and reader excitement feeds the muse.
Con: I can’t write at lightning speed, nor can I always command my characters to talk to me immediately and tell me their story – and this can lead to readers drumming their fingers asking…
Okay, but when, DD? WHENNNNN?
What’s on my to-write list? What’s near the top? Has anything fallen off?
As always, I try to follow the muse. When I try to force a book that’s not ready to come, it’s a whole lot more work than it should be. And way less fun. I love my job and prefer it to be fun.
And books can take from a month to four months to write. It really varies. I write big books and my process is such that they take time, so I generally release 3-4 books a year. I’m working on some techniques to increase my output but we’ll see if they work. LOL.
Here’s my current list of to-write books. It’s subject to change. The muse could hit me with a new idea or the schedule could change if something’s not working for me.
I know there are certain books that have been hinted at that some are looking forward to, so here’s where those stories are at as of now… I made a priority level list to go along with it.
As always, DD’s Chickadees on Facebook is THE PLACE to get the news first, closely followed by my newsletter.
As for series that are currently ongoing (shifters/bikers), the plan is to release a shifter, release a biker, then work on another book or two from my to-write list and then come back to bikers or shifters until those series are done. The Beautiful Biker Series is planned at 10 books, and then a spin-off for another chapter before I come back and do next-gen. From there, who knows. Basically, I have no plans to end that series at this time. The shifter series is planned at seven books. My hope is 1-2 bikers or shifters per year.
In the cauldron right now:
Level 1: (coming soonish / on my schedule)
Twisted – I’m at nearly 300pgs / work-in-progress so it’s coming SOON. (Shifters #2)
Jaded – Next on the to-write list after Twisted, as long as Jesse talks to me. I don’t think this is going to be a problem. <touch wood> (Biker series s #5). He’s in my ear right now, urging me to finish Twisted so we can get on with it… So I’ve been making notes for when I’m ready to dig in.
Hot Alpha Alien Husbands 3 – I’m hoping to tackle this book this year after Jaded. Will it be the last in the series? I’m not sure. Possibly. I originally wanted to keep going with it. There were so many possibilities. They’re fun to write but they’re not as popular as my other series so we’ll have to see what happens with the sales of book 3. The newest covers that were redone last year have definitely breathed new life into sales for them so here’s hoping. There will be scenarios introduced in Joran’s book that will make a spin-off series possible whether or not this series continues so I’m not saying goodbye to alien romance. I love the creative flexibility of creating new worlds.
Level 2 (works in progress. Stuff I’m currently dabbling with when time/inspiration allows)
Specter – Sebastian and Willow. I’ve been dabbling with my incubus occasionally. He’s not far along enough yet to know when he might be coming, but it’s a side project I’m dabbling with so it could suddenly come out of nowhere. We shall see. Cover reveal coming soon. Or… I could do a surprise release when it’s ready. We shall see.
Black and Blue – The Nectar Trilogy book 1.5 slash 3.5. A planned novella (but you know how big my books usually are so even novellas are larger than average). I’ve made some progress recently, but not enough to say when it could be coming. It’s Tristan’s POV of book 1 and will have an extended epilogue (hence 1.5 and 3.5) for the trilogy. Hopefully it’ll spark urgency for the next volume of books, which I have planned for Sam, Becca, Kyle, Trinity. I hope to release Black and Blue this year but we shall see. If that works out, I’ll try to schedule Sam in for next year. I’ve got several chapters down in both the old style of 3rd person pov and I tried doing it again in 1st person to see how it felt and it didn’t feel right so I froze. I plan to work on it some more after Jaded – and see where it could go from there.
Revenge, Baby – This is a new biker world I’m dabbling with. It started as an anthology short story and when my schedule meant I had to back out of the anthology, I kept working on the story intermittently and met side-characters that I want to know better. No idea when it’s coming. It’s about Melody and Drake and it’s a one-night-stand revenge sex story with a good girl who plays with a biker one night that results in… yep… a pregnancy. I had to put it down for a bit because I originally planned for it to be light and fun. And then I got the idea to make this a 1% MC series but I’m not sure if Melody and Drake’s story fits with that theme so I’m at a bit of a standstill as I don’t want it too similar to the Beautiful Biker series. We’ll see what happens.
Placeholder / temporary cover (I might change this. We’ll see if I decide to make it a darker series)
Level 3: On my radar and pinging regularly…
Backlash – Tessa and Zack’s book. This is one I’m thinking about constantly. I’m not quite ready to tackle it because bikers, shifters, and an alien book are currently on the front burner, but this one is not far behind. This is a Dominator Series spin-off.
Level 4: Lower down on my radar and probably not coming too soon.
Chasing a Rockstar (tentative title) – My rock star romance for Chase and Jordan, who you met in Crossroads. Maybe the year after next. We’ll see what happens.
Dancing with Darkness – John and Gabriella. This is another Dominator Series spin-off about widower and dad of six, John Lewis. He’s become quite the miserable ogre/perfectionist in his post-Kate life. But his new nanny, Gabriella has intrigued the Dom with being a mix of infuriatingly strong-headed and clearly sexually submissive. No current ETA but not forgotten! 2023/24ish?
The Revenge Duet – Kane and Natalie. A lovers-to-enemies romance. This one is one I’ve been marinating on for a couple years and it’s going to be a big duet like The Devious Games Duet so I’m not ready to set aside several months for the work involved yet. Maybe more logical for 2023/24
Truly – A Saved spin-off about Truly/Julie from Kruna’s story. This idea hit me hard one night out of the blue. And I think the idea is a good one – and one that’ll allow us to spend more time with Alessandro and Holly, too. It hit so hard I made a cover right away and talked about it in my Facebook group. But then… I didn’t have time to work on it so set it aside. And now it’s been a while without any further work done on it, so at this point, it’s down the priority list but not forgotten.
Also probably in this level are potential books for Julian from Bad Girl (if you know, you know. And I’m super excited about THAT story), Tony from Kill Game and Dirty Stack, and… for kicks I do plan to eventually write The Austin Smut File from Good Girl. I might publish that as a co-write with Jada Miller-Carmichael
Level 5: Way back there on the backburner – so far back it’s just a misty apparation….
Notes in the Sand – This one is only being mentioned because it’s got a Goodreads link from way back in my very early days so I occasionally stumble across it. I have no idea what I’m doing with this one. The idea/premise has changed a bunch of times so it’s murky AF. It’s an amnesia / deserted island story and I can’t delete the Goodreads link or I would – but have no idea when I’ll write it so it’s sort of waaaay back on the backburner.
Other than that: I have plans to release 1-2 bikers and shifters each year. And of course this list is fluid. As books are done and if new and urgent ideas come to me, the order/level will shift.
Here’s the planned writing order for shifters and bikers:
Shifters:
-Tyson (out)
-Mason (coming soon)
-Riley (planned for end of 2022/early 2023)
-Greyson
-Jason
-Lincoln
-Joel
Bikers:
-Deacon (out)
-Rider (out)
-Spencer (out)
-Fork (out)
-Jesse Coming spring/summer 2022 (I hope)
-Deke (end 2022 / early 2023ish)
-Brady
-Edge
-Bronto
(Then a breather for the Deadwood, SD chapter before we come back for Beau. Estimated 3 books)
-Beau
(Beau’s book will kick off next gen)
So… to summarize, my brain is like my Firefox browser with 20 tabs open, music playing from somewhere, four excel spreadsheets, three word documents and another 10 tabs open on Google Chrome. Lol. Seriously. my husband shakes his head whenever he sees the way I run my laptop – and it runs much like my brain.
This post was written in February 2022. I don’t promise release dates – I do my best to set realistic expectations but over the years I’ve learned that writing plans can easily go awry so all I can do is try to keep everyone posted on how it’s going. And I regularly do that in DD’s Chickadees.
xoxo