Hey, Champions, I’ve got some bad news to share today, so I’m just going to rip off the bandage and jump straight into it: I’ve had several dentist and doctor appointments and found I’m going to need another round of teeth procedures on top of some other health procedures/surgeries, so all books–excluding Magiford trilogies–are getting pushed back.
This means Second Age of Retha Book 4, the final Elves of Lessa book, and the next Angelique are all on hold. It’s simply that with all of my health issues, there’s no way I’ll be able to complete them as fast as I usually do, and the Magiford books will get priority for reasons I go into down below.
Obviously these changes are a big deal, so I wanted to tackle some of the comments/questions you’re sure to have.
Are you okay? Yes! About half of this is the same as it was last year, and none of these procedures are life endangering. Everything is just very tedious/painful, and I essentially have weekly appointment for the next year and a half between my dentist and the surgeon for x-rays, the procedures/surgeries, recovery follow ups, etc, on my teeth, and my doctor for some scans, different procedures, tests, etc for a few other health issues that have popped up in the last few months. I’m hoping the additional health problems will be solved by the end of the year, but I know officially that all the mouth fun won’t be over with until fall of 2023. (Remember how I said I would likely need either two or three mouth procedures last year? HAHAH, now I’m likely gonna clock in at six. Woohoo!) Also, now I’m drinking milk like a baby cow and popping vitamin D supplements like a cave dweller because my bone isn’t growing as fast as the professionals would like, so Moo to you all. 😉
What are these new health problems? Again, it’s nothing serious, just painful and tedious to address. The long and short of it is that I pushed myself too much the past few years and I ignored health problems that I should have addressed immediately, but I didn’t. Now I HAVE to address them, or they’re going to turn serious, which I need to avoid. I’ve already started undergoing tests and scans, but I will at bare minimum need additional procedures to fix these issues, which means more necessary recovery time–and that’s what made me decide to officially change my schedule.
Why do all of the books have to be delayed? As I mentioned above, it’s the recovery times. I can’t write on pain meds or while I’m in the hospital, which means I’ll be losing quite a bit of time in the next year. I tend to write on a fairly tight timeline, which means losing even two weeks would delay a book launch. And writing books is like dominoes, if one gets delayed and pushed back, it nudges back all the books behind it. I can’t take shortcuts and make up for last time. (Or rather, I refuse to take a shortcut, because it would mean releasing a subpar book, which I’m not willing to do.)
Why aren’t Magiford books delayed? Honestly? It’s because they sell best. And with all of these procedures ahead of me, I need to be able to pay for my dentist’s kid’s college, and my doctor’s mortgage by the time it’s all over. The Magiford books hands down are my best sellers. As long as I get them out, I won’t have a problem affording these procedures for my mouth or my other health issues, so finances are the honest reason of why they’re the priority. (This means there will be a Magiford trilogy in which book one will launch sometime in December of this year, more on that in an upcoming post.)
I’m really upset/sad about this. Me, too. This isn’t what I wanted, and I’m not looking forward to any of this. Unfortunately, it’s out of my control. I need these procedures, or things are going to get uglier than they already are for me. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be sad by this unfortunate turn of events. You’ve been waiting so patiently for these books, and now they’re getting delayed, that’s disappointing! Don’t feel guilty for being sad about this–in fact, we can be sad as a community. However, our emotions about this situation won’t change it. Blasting me with an angry email isn’t going to make it so I suddenly don’t need these procedures. No matter how angry/sad/upset we are about these delays, it’s not something that will change.
Are there any upsides to this? We’ll try to look on the bright side and say there will be a few. While I can’t write while on meds, my team and the companies I work with have proven to be very kind/understanding if I tend to ramble or say weird things, so I’m using the various recovery times and hospital visits to kick off a few projects that have been sitting around forever. This year I’ll be working with Bee Audio again to get you some more audio books, we’ve got new covers on the way for some of my old books, and I was FINALLY able to go through the edit of Robyn Hood that a very patient Champion did for me so the edited version is available now–for the first time ever with the same pretty formatting as my other books. I also have a few little tricks up my sleeve that I’ll share with you all later this year to soften the blow for all of us, starting TODAY!
In an attempt to try and make this post not 100% depressing, I’ve got the short you Magiford fans have been waiting for: A Bowling Alley Romance (Click here for the PDF) It’s about Chase and Chrysanthe, and I’m so excited to share it with you!
And with that, I’m going to end this post. Thanks for your support, Champions. It means so much to me. <3 I hope you enjoy the short story, and starting with the next post we’ll be back to some Magiford themed topics.