After 6 posts in April, all devoted to the new book, I somehow let the month of May slip away without one single post. So, let’s catch up!

NEW BOOKS

I wish I had better updates to share about The Answers You Seek, but unless you are an Ebook reader there are none. So far, the Ebook is the only version available despite the publication date of April 12th. I had really hoped things would have improved by now, but it’s only gotten worse.

The trade paperback, which should have been available by now, is not even available to be preordered now on Amazon. Even the publisher’s website is pointing you to retailer sites, none of which have it available either. I’ve received no update from the publisher since I first emailed them back in April. I sent another email to them this morning to follow up. The issue before was supposedly delays with printers. I have my own opinions about that which I’ll keep to myself.

The mass market paperback edition is still available for preorder, but not due to publish until October so don’t hold your breath. I have actually preordered a copy of both just so I can watch and see what happens. I preordered the trade paperback in April. The delivery date changed several times, but has shown a due date of June17th-18th now for several weeks. I have no faith in it showing up then. I’m pretty sure the date will change to “unavailable” sometime next week.

If paperbacks ever do become available, I still hope to have a book-signing party somewhere and will also offer an online give-away. I have three reviewers on deck, and I got a response from one of them today that they should have their review done next week so that’s something to look forward to. Otherwise, with only an Ebook available, my marketing has been slow while I work on other projects. Speaking of…

OLD BOOKS

Last month I reached out to an editor to see if they’d be interested in working with me on my manuscript for The Piano Maker’s Son. They said yes! This is a book I’d been writing for over ten years and finally finished up in 2020. I pitched it to several agents throughout 2020 and 2021, but due to the pandemic there wasn’t much traction. I finally gave up late last year to work on something else.

The editor has worked with some publishers and said he might be able to help me pitch it to them. This book is not LGBTQ focused, but I told him I was open to changing that if it would give it a broader appeal to some publishers. We’ll see what happens when he finishes up the edit in July.

WORKS IN PROGRESS

I’m always working on something! Last year, after I’d written The Answers You Seek, I discovered I really wanted to write more mysteries. I started thinking about a character who I could build a series around. She’s an investigative journalist. I started outlining a story and wrote a few chapters. I set it to the side to do research, but I also started writing a completely different mystery at the same time. I was losing steam on it and earlier this year, I decide to just introduce my new investigate journalist character into it. It worked!

So, I’m about 60K in words into the first book in the series. And due to the outlining of the other book which I thought was going to be her introduction, I’ve now got a good base to start writing the second book in what I hope will be a four part series.

I hope to finish the first book by the end of summer. While it’s with an editor, I’ll work on book two and try to pound out a first draft by year end. Next year, I’ll pitch book one and the series to agents while book two is being edited and while I hope to be writing book three.

GOALS

For 2022, I wrote 4 goals (or new year resolutions) on a post-it which I kept on my wall above my desk. It reads:

• Write a new book.
• Revamp the “Piano” book.
• Market “Answers.”
• Edit and finish the “Ghost” book.

It’s nice to see that by mid-year I’ve got at least two of these goals moving right along and a third one in the works.

The only one I doubt I’ll follow through on is the “Ghost” book. This is a manuscript I started in 2018. I wrote almost 60K in words before hitting a brick wall. I didn’t know where to go from there and I had no ending.

So, I abandoned it. I revisited it last year and hoped to revamp the whole thing, but I lost steam when I decided to focus on my new investigative journalist series instead. There’s a chance it could become the base for one of the books in my series, but we’ll see. Like I said, I’m always working on something.

So now we are all caught up! What are you working on or writing this year? What goals did you set for yourself (writing or other stuff)? Are you following through on them?