Tuesday, January 6, 2015

New Year Writing Plans

Happy 2015, everyone! The new year has been underway for nearly a week now and has already been a busy one. With every new year, I think about the books I hope to write. I've been pondering on this post for a while, wondering where 2015 will take me with my writing and this year, things are starting off a bit differently.

Toward the end of 2013, I had a very set schedule for 2014 in regards to writing because of having contracts with Ellora's Cave that needed to be fulfilled. Those books were set to be written, each had a deadline and those deadlines were pretty tight. I had to keep my head down and write, write, write throughout the end of that year and the first half of 2014 to meet those deadlines and fulfill my obligations. Of course, right after I turned in the last book to meet those obligations, things started to get sticky with Ellora's Cave. Admittedly, it did throw some of my writing plans (and motivation) a bit out of whack.

But as I've learned in my years of working with horses, when you're thrown, you get back up, shake it off, grab the reins, and get on again. And so toward the end of 2014, I began work on a new novella for MLR Press, Acting on Love, a story featuring Brandon Alexander and Shunichi Miyamoto from the Conquest series. As Jesse will tell anyone, those two need some resolution in their relationship ;-) I handed in that story at the end of November and as it looks now, it will be my first release in 2015. I don't have a release date yet, but that story coming out is one absolute book related thing that'll happen for me in this shiny new year. 

Now, for the rest of the year. I don't have anything already contracted. I don't have any stories due in by a certain time. Really, I'm free to go in any direction I want with what I work on and the path I decided to take after handing in Acting on Love was to go back to the Instincts series. I'm currently working on a story putting Daniel Valente and Ryunosuke Kimura back in the lead. Ryu's also had some unfinished business hanging out there for a while and it's time to work on that now too.

Once that story is finished, my next plan is to go back to Terra for Book 3, which is Lark and Zane's story. So you see, it's looking like 2015 will be the year of me returning to my series, whereas 2014 had me releasing a lot of stand alone titles. And I'll admit, I'm thrilled to be getting back to my familiar friends with all my series and working with them again :-D

There is one other story that I have, which is a stand alone title. I'm happy to say that one of the books that had been contracted by Ellora's Cave has been given back to me. This story had not yet been published and the working title was Heart's Gamble. As some of you may recall, I had requested rights back on the four books that I had with Ellora's Cave, three titles that are published, one that had yet to be published. While Ellora's Cave is still considering returning my rights back to me on the published works, they did go ahead and give me back the rights on this not yet published manuscript. They have also issued two more payments to me, and at this moment, have paid me up through August 2014. So there has been positive developments there. There's a chance I might work to get Heart's Gamble out this year, but really, I need to let the story sit for a while, then go into with a fresh mind and do some rewriting. Still, I wanted to give an overall update on things with EC and me.

And there we go! What I'm thinking at the moment of working on 2015. My deepest gratitude to everyone for all your support through not only this past year, but for all years that you've been sticking with me on this storytelling journey. I'm sending out good wishes to everyone for a new year filled with happiness and many good books to read!

18 comments:

  1. I'm wishing the best in that everything is resolved with EC this year.

    I really look forward to you getting back to your series! eheh! That's going to be fun to go back to! <3

    Ahh.. I must admit, I am most sad for the one book that was my absolute favorite that is stuck with EC... especially since you had told us your muse was tickling for a sequel with a certain Demon. LOL...
    But in the end I love your works and will be so happy to have anything. My wishes are that you'll not be as stressed with the EC mess and that you can happily write again. :))

    *hugs* xoxo

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    1. Thank you very much! I'm hoping the EC situation will be resolved this year too. There has been some improvement, so that's encouraging. And honestly, thinking about that certain demon makes me sad too. I do love him and all the guys from that story. Thank you for the support and kind words on the situation *hugs*

      And thank you for looking forward to my series books! I'm glad to be getting back to them and working on wrapping up some things with a few of the guys that have been hanging out there for a while :-)

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  2. I love all of the books you write. Happy to hear more are coming our way.

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    1. Thank you so very much! Hearing that gives me a big smile :D I'm glad to know you've enjoyed them, and I appreciate you looking forward to the ones that are coming! It's been so nice for me visiting with my Conquest guys and Instincts vamps again, and I'm super excited to get back to Terra. I hope you'll like the new stories!

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  3. Hi Shannon - happy new year. Hope 2015 brings you lots of love and happiness. Will be looking forward to reading Lark and Zane's story and Brandon and Shun and Daniel and Ryu....god the list goes on and on.

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    1. Thank you very much for the New Year wishes! I hope you have a beautiful and happy year, too! And thank you about the upcoming stories! I'm glad you're looking forward to them :D I'm loving getting back to my series again. It's like visiting loved friends :-)

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  4. Happy New year! So glad that Brandon and Shun's story is going to be your first release this year!! I really enjoy reading about them and series! Im also excited that you are thinking about continuing with Ryu and Daniel's story as well >.< I hope that you receive much more happiness and success this year and may you experience new adventures as well. Im such a big fan =D It's like I have Frost Bite. The Frost has bitten me and wont let me go since I first picked up Conquest all those years ago! I guess from now on everytime I read any of your books and I get interrupted, Im just going to say " dont bother me, I'm in Frost Bite mode " lol cheers --Rinky

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    1. Frost Bite, lol! That's cute! I like it :-) Thank you so much for the sweet words and support *hugs* It makes me super happy that you enjoy my stories so much :D I've really enjoyed working with Brandon and Shun, now Daniel and Ryunosuke again, so I hope that you'll like their stores as much as my other ones. Thank you, again!

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  5. Thanks so much for this information about what is to come from you in 2015. I was wondering are you going to do a book on Dillion Davis from Finding A Dream from the Conquest Series?

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    1. You're very welcome! I'm not sure if down the road I'll write a story with Dillon, but I never rule anything out when it comes to writing. I can say, though, that in Acting on Love, he just might show up ;-)

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  6. With all those stories to look forward to in 2015 I can tell it is going to be a happy new year! I hope EC gives you back your rights. I would also love to see where you might take a certain demon.

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    1. Thank you! I'm glad you like the sound of what's coming up this year! With EC, it's not looking like I'll get my rights back on the published stories. They did reply to me on one of them, Model Love, and denied returning my rights. I'm pretty sure it will be the same story for the remaining two books. So I've got some thinking to do.

      At this moment, EC has almost caught up to way they owe me with back royalties and from what I've heard, they've been sending out payments to other authors and the editors they've owed too. So as far as the payment issues oo, there's been improvement, which is great! Now, there's the whole lawsuit issue against Dear Author, and that's a whole other can of worms.

      I'm going to keep watching how things continue to develop, then I'll have to make a decision regarding that demon and his story. Of course, nothing says if I write it and submit it to them, that they'd accept it with all the changes they've had. But I do want to write his story!

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    2. Oh, I think they would accept it. After all they like Vampire Prince well enough to want to hold on to the rights. The bigger question is if you want to be even more tangled up with them. Do they own the rights to the characters in your books? I suppose that is standard. Makes it harder to jump ship. Lol

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    3. You do have a good point on if they'd accept it. And yep, contractually, they have first right of refusal on any sequels to books I've published with them. Most publishers are like that, though. If you start a series with a them, they want you to keep it there. And for the exact reason you stated. Makes it harder for an author to bolt, lol!

      And you got it right on the bigger question. That's where I'm at with it now and trying to figure out an answer. I'm going to keep watching how things continue to play out with them. All I know is that I don't want to let that demon and his story go, so hopefully I'll figure out an answer to that big question soon :-)

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    4. Well, you have plenty of projects lined up to keep you busy (and your readers happy) while you wait for them to get their act together or not. The demon will just have to sit on the back burner. Hope he's not too impatient. Lol

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    5. Right you are! Getting through edits for Acting on Love, finishing the next Instincts story, then moving on to Terra, and going through edits on both of those should take up the next few months. Maybe EC will figure out what they're doing by then, lol! The demon is a little impatient, but I've kept him in check this long, so I should be able to hold him back a bit longer ;-)

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    6. *sigh* like I said, a happy new year! You know, I have a couple dozen new books on my ereader but I find myself reading To The Other Side again. Which means I will have to read the knight again and will be dying for #3. I'm always in the mood for your stories. Thank you for being an author! I always look forward to your new releases.

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    7. That's a beautiful compliment that you re-read To the Other Side. Thank you! I'm looking forward to writing Book 3 and seeing what Lark and Zane will get up to ;-) And thank you, so very much, for the sweet words about my work!

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