Done and Dusted -- Now On to the Next

Voices in the Briars is now done, all final polishing and so on taken care of, and the file's already set up for pre-order at Books2Read. And a big WHEW! to that. I'm getting myself ready for the next book to work on, but I'm giving myself the last Sunday of this month to just chill and take care of myself -- even if it still means I get up at 2:30. Insane schedule, I know, but that's what I follow throughout the work week.

At any rate, keeping to that wake up time even on the weekend has benefited me considerably when it comes to writing, so I guess I'll attribute whatever success I have in getting books written and done (though not necessarily sold) to my torturous hustle-your-butt-out-of-bed alarm set up. 

I've started getting into the zone for The Perfect Rochester, and to get into the right headspace, I'm putting together a playlist -- even choosing a "theme song" for the book. And THIS song, in particular, captures the mood of the book all the way through, so I'm making this the theme song. It's fun, it's sassy, and perfect for Narcisse's adventures in finding Mr. Right.*

As a bit of a heads up, there might be a shifting around of books on my calendar. So far I've managed to follow what I had listed for 2023 and 2024, and The Perfect Rochester is set to mark the start of my 2025 publishing calendar. That said, what follows after that book might be shuffled around a bit, largely because Compline hit a bit of a snag in the brainstorming stage, and now I'm faced with way too many options on how to approach this book. And I don't like having too many choices. A couple, sure. More than a couple? No. 

This could be me overthinking things as always, and what I usually do when I find myself in that position is to set the book aside, move it around on the calendar, and allow books with more solid plots to leapfrog ahead of it. It's annoying -- not gonna lie. I'm one of those who sets a plan for myself, and I'll stick to that plan come hell or high water, but more often than not, that mindset comes back to take a massive chomp out of my ass. 

And this is where I stop and remind myself: ADAPT OR DIE. Nothing will turn out good if I insist on pushing at a brick wall. So if -- and that's a big IF -- I do mess around with the calendar, The Twilight Lover will jump ahead of Compline, and with any luck, that's the extent of the change. But as always, I'll be posting about any final shifts when they happen. 

* gotta add: it's also ironic (but no spoilers here)