What’s next? When is Crossroads coming? When is _____ coming?
Short answer: Crossroads is what I’m working on next. Longer answer below.
It’s no secret that 2019 has been a year ‘light’ on new releases for me. And there are reasons for that — reasons that include some growth as a writer (taking time to FINALLY get all my books on paperback and editing and re-releasing The Dominator Series, which was a huge undertaking of over 400,000 + words).
Also, I painted myself into a corner. Yep. It hasn’t been fun getting myself out of this one. Until recently…
I promised to release book two of Hot Alpha Alien Husbands as soon as possible and spent a lot of time this year spinning my wheels. I did get TNT, my surprise Dominator release out. I also wrote Holden, the follow up to Hollow and released The Hollow Duet on top of a whole lot of paperback formatting and that mammoth Dominator editing project, but I had plans for at least 3 other new releases — full length novels. And it didn’t happen. Why? I was blocked with Zane and Tanya. And that hurt my output. And I refused to stop trying; I got stubborn about it.
I started to write that book ages ago, had a technology fail and lost the first 50 pages plus my outline. This changed the way I save. I now autosave to a cloud instead of my hard drive. And I have some other safeguards in place. I pray it won’t ever happen again. That loss made for months and months of stalls with this story and I lost outlines for other books in the plans, too. It sucked! But, I tried to start over with Zane and Tanya. I kept second-guessing it. Stopping and rewriting parts of it. Re-reading what I’d done and doubting it. Not writing anything else other than some outlines and some novellas because people were waiting for it and readers can get twitchy (and sometimes downright snarky) when you tell them you’re working on a story they’re waiting for and then start writing something else.
I’ve finally hit the 80% mark on the book and am in the home stretch and finally loving what I’m reading back to myself, but honestly… I probably should have set it aside early this year and written other books. I’d told readers it was coming and even though it’s my least popular series, that stifled me because I had trouble working on other things due to my self-imposed mindset.
Going forward, I’ll probably be much less forthcoming about what is next unless the process is going really well.
I have multiple series ongoing and have teased about future books from other series as well as future standalones. Ideas come to me constantly and some readers who see those teasers start anticipating those specific books and begin asking about them. As an author, I can let this create pressure for myself (like I’ve done in the past) or I can stick to a new mantra of writing based on the muse.
Sooo… this is what I’m planning to do. From now on, the muse sets the writing schedule and she is allowed to revise it if need be. From now on, if I’m not feeling something I’m writing is going well, I may be putting it aside to work on something else. This also means being vague about release dates and what’s next. As of now, there are several books that are on my to-write list. This means they have made it from my idea book to books I want to write. (The idea book has many more ideas, some of which I’ve teased and one or two I’ve even put on Goodreads). Some of these books will be out in 2020 but I can’t yet commit to timelines.
Crossroads – Beautiful Biker 4. This one is being worked on next. I’m breaking my own rule by telling you this because a) readers are frothing at the mouth for it and b) I’m frothing for it too. I have been waiting to write it all year. If something goes wrong and it doesn’t come easily, I’ll have to rethink but as of now, this book is next on my to-write list.
Other books:
In no particular order — in other words, these are on my ‘to write’ radar but with no clear dates yet.
Wild – My werewolf book
My Incubus book
Kill Game – Dark mafia romance
Backlash – Tessa Ferrano’s story (mafia romance)
Dancing with Darkness – John Lewis’s story (dark romance)
Black and Blue – Nectar Trilogy /Tristan’s POV for book 1 with an extended epilogue (More nectar series books are planned for Sam, Kyle, and Trinity. I can’t think about these until Black and Blue is done)
The Revenge Duet (She’s Going Down and He’s Gotta Pay)
The Beautiful Biker series has lots of other books and I may write more of them in 2020 after Crossroads. The current writing order after book 4 is:
Jaded (5) Jesse and Gianna
Deadlock (6) Deke and Laura
Brave (7) Brady and Andie
Edging (8) Edge and Lola
Beauty (9) Beau and Lily
(It could take a few years for the Biker Series to be complete. My goal before this was to release 2/year but again, that’s all muse dependent. I could suddenly write a few back to back or it could take longer).
Why don’t I write one series at a time until it’s done? As per the above, this is a creative process. Some authors may be able to do this but for me, I am a multi-genre romance author and having multiple series ongoing helps me with my creativity and helps me supply my readers with books in a way that means they don’t have to wait extra long. Biker fans might be stoked if I write all the biker books back to back but this means a long wait for those waiting for alien romance or paranormal romance series that are ongoing.
What about the third alien book? I think that might be in 2020 but I don’t know. Honestly, book 1 is my lowest seller and with the agonizing I’ve done over book two, I’m not ready to talk about book 3. It could come soon, it could be a few years. Book two does hint about book 3 so it will come eventually. And if the series starts selling really well, I may bump book 3 up to the top of the priority list, write it, release it, put out a 1-3 box set and put the series to bed. OR: keep writing the series if readers love it and I’m feeling it.
So, while I appreciate that some of you are anxious for books based on teasers or because they’re part of a world you’ve been reading about, I have to follow the creative urges to ensure that I put out my best work and don’t torture myself.
As always, the best way to keep updated on my books is to a) be a DD’s Chickadee. My Facebook group gets daily visits from me and I’m always talking about what I’m working on there. facebook.com/groups/ddprincefangroup
My newsletter. My newsletter goes out when I have sales, new releases, freebies, or big news to share. Subscribe.
Thank you to those who support the creative process and understand that the muse is the boss. I could have whipped up something to get Zane and Tanya’s book off my desk. I don’t write that way. I have tinkered and toyed and toiled over it because I want it to be the best book I can write. When I create characters, I bond with them. I do my best to breathe life into them. They’re important to me and because of that, I want their ‘life’ to be worthy of my readers. I want their story to be your favourite even if it’s just until my next release 🙂
I will always do my best to bring you the best story I can write, even if it takes a little longer.
Much love, DD
xo
