Many years ago, I participated in the Doms of Dark Haven multi-author project. It came about when I tagged along with Cherise Sinclair to a dungeon in San Francisco. It was an interesting experience...maybe not my scene, simply because I don't like crowds. I hear "too loud" and when I'm in a closed space it's like a cacophony and I hear everything and understand nothing. Nevertheless it was intriguing enough that I came out with a major story buzz and we started planning.
Then Sierra Cartwright joined us. The book was published and successful. Book 2 happened and time moved on, eventually, the contract ended. I expanded Evangeline and Holly and released them into the Truckee Wolves world. (You can buy them directly from this site!)
During the creation of the world (I still have the notes! Somewhere...) Cherise and I created 2 anchor characters...Xavier and Destiny. And we assigned custody...She got Xavier and I got Destiny. You know, the naked, ditzy girl with toy badges as nipple shields? LOL!
I started her book, stopped it. Started again. Lost the files and started from scratch. I needed to pull her out of Dark Haven and unlike a lot of my characters, she didn't "manifest" organically. I had to build her. I mean seriously...there just wasn't much to work with. No backstory. No character development. I had a good start and then Loose Id closed up shop. At that point, I was discouraged and depressed and abandoned the project.
Lots of things happened in the interim. I took a very long hiatus from writing. I'd get Destiny out, tinker with it. Change location. Change heroes. (it's always been a threesome, featuring Kevin from Educating Evangeline) and then put it away. It grew to 114,000 words and joined the plot-heavy Truckee Wolves series. Then I literally couldn't afford to get the damned thing edited. It was too long.
Last year, I won an editing package in an auction and intended to use it for another WIP. Then my mother got hurt, I was laid off my job, one sister went to the hospital with organ failure. The other sister (in Utah) had a health emergency and we lost her.
Oh, and my plumbing failed. The whole system. Still saving money to fix that. (Wanna buy a book?)
In the middle of the emotional shitstorm, I remembered Destiny. And I remembered that I have an editor. So I signed a contract, jumped back into the book for some clean-up and proofing.
The book is due this Monday and should be out of edits in mid-August.
How does a September release sound?
Still have to get proofing contracted and a kick-ass cover, but it's coming, folks! It's really happening!
Here's a peek at Winter and Kevin, having a moment: