Where I've Been and Where I'm Going

11/11/2019

Long time no see! Going to just get to the point with this one.

Where I've Been

The biggest thing I have been up to is that I gave birth to my son Dominik on September 12th. Now I can write about pregnancy and birth and do it justice! I'm sure this sounds cliche, but I really can't imagine life without him now that he's here. Don't get me wrong, he does not sleep for very long clips and is currently the reason why I can't eat pasta sauce, but so far being his mother has been a joy.

My maternity leave ended last week, and I was able to do quite a bit of writing, but I'll get to that later!

The last time I posted, I hadn't mentioned that my newest book SHREWDEST FACTION: A SQUAD TREBLE NOVEL had come out...honestly, that was partially because it a bit of a menagerie. I didn't post about anything at the time, and I'm pretty sure my publisher doesn't police my blog, and even if they do, my new way of life is giving zero you know what's, or at least trying. So here is the concise, as professional as I can be summary of that tale:

I had the cover you see here made when I got the contract for SHREWDEST FACTION. I used the same cover artist last time and with ENSHRINE with no issues.
Somewhere along the line my publisher's policy on outside covers changed (I don't mean to be rude, but the covers they do are yikes to say the least which is why ALL of mine were made by The Book Khaleesi.) Long story short they rejected the cover.
I had an existential crisis and did not answer them, proofread my book, or do writing of any kind because FEELINGS.
Months later they were like "Um...you alive?" and I had to finally have confrontation (which I loathe) and tell them how unhappy I was.
I was told (even after explaining that SHREWDEST FACTION was the second book in a series; they have so many authors I'm convinced they can't keep all of us straight and they don't do one contract for multiple titles) to have one of their covers (again yikes) or to pay for the rights back on SF.
Did I mention that all of this happened while on vacation? Yeah...
Just when I was getting ready to shell out, I was told they would let me use the cover I paid for BUT NEVER AGAIN! (I exaggerate)

So yes, I got the cover that matches book one, but I'm kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place with this situation. I will not, repeat WILL NOT go through this again with book three. I'm not going to have a low quality cover that makes no sense because of ego or not wanting to be considered a vanity press or what have you. The whole situation is making me not want to submit with my publisher ever again and when Enshrine's contract is up in the next few months I'm going to think very hard before renewing. I am not completely innocent in this, I should have spoke up earlier, I could have submitted Limited Truth elsewhere, but I didn't. Squad Treble is supposed to be four books and now I have to wait for their contracts to potentially run out so I can try to submit to an agent who might take previously published works (sounds like they're a rarity) all because I wanted a cover that would help sell my books. I know you aren't supposed to judge a book by it's cover, but we are all kidding ourselves if we think that doesn't matter. Maybe I'm asking too much to have input on reflections of myself?

So much for being concise.

On a much more positive note, I've been freelancing a bunch. Primarily, I have been working as a content editor for another small publisher. I will get royalties for that in spring of 2020. I've also been assisting on a Korean to English comic and it is adorable. I did a few ghostwriting assignments, but they want those erotica romance stories that aren't really my wheelhouse. Some money is better than no money, right?

Where I'm Going

0Number one thing: being more present here and on social media. Now that I'm home more and not dancing, I'm doing my damndest to promote my books that are already out. Enshrine is going up for some new reviews and Limited Truth is going on a blog tour in January 2020. I'm going to be better about posting on here as well. (No really!)

I'm planning on posting to this blog once a week. I'll be posting about what I'm working on, but other things too. I'll probably do a seperate post about this, but I'd like to promote other writers, authors, and artists. If you want in, let me know in the contact me tab!

I had really terrible writers block for almost the entirety of my pregnancy. I think this was partially due to Cover-gate (why work on something that was going to end up with an unprofessional looking cover?) and having no prospects to go up for query else where, but also just from being tired and uncomfortable. I wrote a few snippets, but was not in love (which apparently is called Imposter Syndrome???)

Now I have the opposite problem. I've got four WIPs and I'm wishing I could still be home writing all day long (getting really good typing one handed with the baby). There is a whole Works in projects page now so I won't elaborate, but the third squad treble book is coming along (but don't expect it anytime soon), I've got something Going for NaNoWriMo (I'll talk about it in the next paragraph). a dystopian I may jump back one I start querying the NaNoWriMo book, and a gymnastics thing I hope to tackle.

So I feel like my NaNoWriMo project is kind of cheating, but if nothing more, the challenge is keeping me accountable. It's an old WIP, like from before I was married and was still in college blast from the past. The rough draft was finished way back when and then I started a second round shortly after. NaNoWriMo has been mostly me typing it up but also changing and adding things because it was overwritten and a little too "my man left me, woe is my sham of a life" for 2019/2020. I'm hoping to polish it after this round and query agents if all goes to plan by early 2020.

So look for me this weekend, though I may post about featuring other creators before that!

Yours in writing,

Kay

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