I am currently doing a promotion on both books of my World in Chains series. Empire of Chains is free through November 27th, and The Shadowed Land is on sale for #1.99 through November 30th. If you’ve been waiting for the right time to pick up Empire of Chains, this is it.

Empire of Chains

The Shadowed Land

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Today, I wrote for the first time in over a month and a half. It’s been a tough road for me lately. Between work and school and depression, I just haven’t had the time or energy to get much writing done. Recently, the depression seems to be lifting a bit, so I was finally able to write a bit again.

I managed almost 2,000 words today on Godchild, the second book of my trilogy The God War’s Chosen. I hope I can get back into the swing of things. I still have about a book and a half to write in this series, and I also need to get back to work on editing my World in Chains series and my Sunweaver trilogy.

My next release will be Sunweaver, the first book in my Sunweaver trilogy. I’m hoping to get that out by the end of February. Following that will most likely be The Gilded Empire, book three of World in Chains. I don’t want to set any kind of release date on this one just yet. Ideally, I’d like to have a release every three to four months, but that may not be possible with other things taking up my time.

I’ll try to keep everyone updated more often.

I’ve been writing a lot recently about finding the balance I need to be successful in writing and also with life in general. I wanted to do four or more releases a year, but I just don’t think that’s going to work all the time. My books are fairly long, so there’s a lot of writing and editing work involved.

When I considered this issue, I decided I’d aim for a release roughly every four months, or three releases per year. Life is busy right now, but I think I can make that work. I’ve already written eight and a half novels. That means I can focus mostly on editing those novels, and four months seems a reasonable amount of time to get those edits done to my satisfaction (while also having the time to write some new material).

A lot of self-published writers these days have insane release schedules. Maybe I’ll be able to do that someday, but right now, there’s no way I can make writing a full-time thing. I have to accept that I have limitations, and pushing myself too hard will result in burnout and worse writing.

Obviously, if I have a book ready before I reach the four-month point, I won’t have any problem releasing it earlier than anticipated. This will depend on how things are going with new material as well.

Overall, I’m feeling my way through how to manage a writing career on top of school and work and family commitments. I feel like this four-month-release plan is a good compromise. It’s not too far from what I wanted to do, and it gives me enough time to avoid high stress levels.

I’m calling this a progress update, but I have to admit there hasn’t been a lot of progress lately. I’m still working on the proofread of The Shadowed Land, but I’m not making much progress anywhere else. Life is getting in the way. Between school and work and family commitments, I’m struggling to make the time to write or edit.

I’ve also come to the realization, once again, that I keep putting too much pressure on myself as far as my release schedule goes. Ideally, I’d like to release a book every three months or so, and if I were writing full time, I could probably do that no problem, but I have a lot of other commitments, and I don’t want to rush my releases and put out an inferior product.

To take some of the pressure off myself, I have taken down my page detailing my release schedule. Putting dates, even tentative dates, on my releases has led to a lot of anxiety, and I don’t need that right now. I’m still going to work hard to get my books out there for my readers, but I’m not going to pressure myself into any specific dates until I know I can release the book by that date.

I’m hoping that this can actually increase my productivity. I have to admit I’m still working my way through how to do this whole “writing career” thing. There’s a lot to learn, and I hope I still have a lot of growth left.

Thank you for your patience as I work my way through these things.