Today is a day that comes with a little twinge of guilt and disappointment for me. August 15th has been the release date for my Slayer Saga novels for the past two years, and I had every intention of bringing the final volume of the trilogy, Fearless, out at this time. I remember last year proclaiming to another author that a deadline is a deadline, and Heartless would be out on August 15th, no matter what. Naturally, I wanted to have the same attitude about Fearless that I had with the previous books. So where the heck is it?
Well, you see, there’s this thing called life that hit me pretty hard earlier this year. And, while I’m a big believer in fighting against whatever life throws at you to achieve your goals, this years brought along a very important lesson that, even with the best intentions, some things just can’t be done. The biggest issue came with the simple fact that I was unable to pay my brilliant cover artist Ingrid Pomeroy as I had for the previous covers. Now, as a part of a trilogy, consistency in the covers is paramount, so it’s not like I could just try to fudge one together cheaply myself. Besides, Ingrid’s work is something I’ll happily drop some cash on…but the problem is I didn’t have the cash. And won’t have it until next year. Add this to the fact that I was way behind on finishing the rough draft anyway, and it became clear to me that my original timeline was simply not going to work at. all. I’m now striving for August 15th, 2017.
I’m still new to this whole thing. I’m going to make mistakes, and promising a product that I couldn’t deliver is definitely a big one. But it’s okay. It’s a mistake I’m going to learn from, and hopefully one that my tiny little collection of faithful readers don’t hold against me (especially since I kind of ended Heartless on one hell of a cliffhanger). The key about making a mistake is acknowledging it and learning from it, which I’m definitely going to do, and sometimes just accepting that shit happens. As a result, my readers are going to be rewarded with a much better book than they would have gotten if I’d have stayed true to my deadline, and they deserve the best book I can give them. Even if that means kindly asking for a bit of patience and understanding and giving out a thousand apologies.
So thank you for your understanding and patience, and I really hope I make it worth your while.
