It’s been a long time since we’ve talked. Okay, this is silly, I know you guys aren’t my diary. I realised that I haven’t updated this blog in…well…approximately a million years. If I was taking a guess. Let me peer back to see where I left you…the day before The Wedding was released, wow!

Okay…stuff has happened, for sure! I enrolled both books in Kindle Unlimited, so they’re available as eBooks exclusively on Amazon (I realise now that I did tell you this last blog!). The paperback for The Wedding is only available on Amazon, as well, because I’ve entered it into the Kindle Storyteller competition. Until I don’t win that, it needs to remain exclusive in eBook and paperback, but hardcovers are available elsewhere. If I win that (hah!), I dunno, there’s some other rules about it that I haven’t bothered to look at. I know, I’m being down on myself, what’s new. I do think that you have to be in it to win it. I definitely wouldn’t win if I didn’t enter at all!

The contract for the audiobook of The Wedding has been signed and I uploaded the production notes this week. I should receive an extended sample of about ten minutes at some point, soon. It’s set to be delivered in August, so that’s exciting. I still need to get The Album properly formatted so that one can be done, too, and also so that paperbacks and hardcovers can be sold, again.

In other news The Baby is so close to being completed that I can taste it. Literally, as I type, it sits at 154,689 words with two more chapters to write after this one. Plus, the epilogue, the sneak peek for The Stalker and the sneak peek for Sebastian’s Baby. I actually do not know what the sneak peek for Sebastian’s Baby will be, yet. It’s the first time that I haven’t known. Okay, I lie, I didn’t know what the sneak peek for Harrison’s Wedding would be until I sat down to write it if I’m honest. I’m assuming that inspiration will just magically strike me. That’s how it works, right?

I also got a cover made for Dreams, the standalone novel that I told you guys about last time. I was just looking randomly at pre-made covers one day and I came across this one that was perfect. It’s my first “shirtless man cover” for a start and it just…it really captures the feeling of being in a dream. Ooh, I can make cover reveal images, now. So, here’s a little teaser for you guys…

I’m toying with the idea of releasing that on Wattpad as I write it and then taking it down when I then edit it and release it on Amazon (if I decide to put it in KU, it can’t remain published elsewhere). Everyone that I’ve told about it has said that they can’t wait to read it. It’s a strange idea for me to publish it on Wattpad as I write it because things definitely change during the writing process. The Baby is going to have a massive rewrite coming its way.

I do still wonder if my books are strictly romance. I get all up in my head about it because I set out to write romance novels, but…well, my editor was the first to say that The Wedding was more “women’s fiction” than “romance”. I feel like The Baby steers even further away from the romance tropes. Like…it kind of takes them and shoves them unceremoniously out the window. The book is more the story about the pregnancy than the story about their relationship…so is it romance? Maybe not. There’s plenty of sex and romantic stuff and their relationship is one hundred percent a massive focus, so is it romance? Maybe. Am I overthinking things? Always.

Also, sigh, since I’m going there. I feel like I’m a bad writer, technically. I should be able to tell this story in less than 160,000 words. This isn’t me looking for sympathy or validation, I’m just writing thoughts, now. I don’t think that I’m a good writer in a technical sense. I can sure as shit write stuff that will make you feel things, though. I was reading the latest chapters of The Baby to mum earlier and we were both crying. Legit. I cry when I read my books. I know, better than anyone, what is going to happen…and I cry.

Maybe, it’s because I know these characters. They’re so damn real to me and I feel every one of their ups and downs as if they’re my own. Then again, I feel like Mum is just as attached to them as I am. I’m pretty sure that The Baby will end up being her favourite book in the series.

Oh, and in some good news, I have finally fallen in love with Hayden! I was talking to my friend, D, about it recently. Hayden has a totally badass moment near the end of The Baby and she reminded me that when I was writing The Wedding, I told her that I hadn’t connected with him so much that I wasn’t sure if I even liked him. It turns out that Hayden is amazing and I just needed to write from the perspective of someone who had a bit more to do with him in order to find that out.

Lita and Hayden are very similar, so they end up becoming friends, and yeah, that badass moment of his was epic. Also, writing the sneak peek for Gabriel’s Album and chapters for Sebastian (I need to write and post another chapter, tomorrow, actually!) has helped me to get to know him, more.

So yeah, I think that’s all the news? I need to get around to posting the latest newsletters, as well, because I write a bunch in the Cruise Control updates that I put in those. After I’ve posted this, it’ll be time to go back to The Baby. Once that’s done, I’ll be on to Gabriel’s Album, possibly interspersed with Dreams, but we’ll see how we go.

Happy reading!