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Archive for the ‘General’ Category

Happy New Year & Update!

I sent a very long-winded email to my newsletter, but I’ll post a shorter version here:  I went through a lot of personal stuff in 2019 including finally facing and working on recovering from my life-long eating disorder (I’m still in recovery, it’s a process, but it is getting easier and I feel more “me” than I have in a long, long time).  This meant that in 2019 I did a lot of work that was beneath the surface of what people see, both personally and professionally.  I have a lot of novels mostly drafted and so the good news is that in 2020, you all are going to see the results of that labor.  Plus I have some new systems in place that should help me be more consistent with my writing going forward (the biggest of these is a new office *outside* the home!).

Book 10 is a bit progressed from the last update but still needs a little work, however I’m somewhat comfortable saying end of this month or sometime early Feb for it given what is left to do. So we’ll open the new year with a new book soon(tm)!

The other cool news is that I have a release date and pre-order links for the NEXT thing, which is a spin-off series featuring Alek’s sister Kira. You might remember her from Thicker than Blood, but you’ll never forget her after you read Bad Moon on the Rise, coming in October this year.  Here’s the pre-order links:  For Kindle click HERE.  For everywhere else click HERE.  And here’s the amazing cover, shot and designed by Gene Mollica:

As you can see, these books will be a bit different from Jade’s story, but no less kick-ass I promise (actually more ass-kicking cause Kira doesn’t really see violence as a problem since she’s an apex predator and all).  Kira’s books will also be about twice as long as Jade’s, though I’m planning the series to run three or four books, depending how it shakes out, so if you prefer meatier reads get ready (they’ll still be fast-paced, this is me we are talking about after all).

And in final news, if you liked Avarice, I’m posting chapters of the sequel, Wrath, on my Patreon since my followers chose it. There are also sneak previews of things (like the first chapter of Harper’s Tale!) and full short stories posted there.  Come join us and check it out!

I wish you all a happy New Year!

Holidays 2019 Update

Long time since an update, I know. There just hasn’t been much new to say other than “still working on book 10” so…

That said, there’s good news! I have to finish up final editing and maybe tweak a couple more scenes, then it has to get copy-edited, one more proofing pass, then formatting, and we’ll be across the finish line on book 10.  I don’t know if I can get all that done before December (especially since some depends on schedules of others like editor/formatter etc and they have holiday plans I’m sure) but the book is nearly here and we’ll probably squeak it into 2019 so I can close out the decade with a finished series for you all.

In other writing news, I’ll be at Dutch ComicCon this weekend as an author guest (site has both Dutch and English options if you want to take a look).  Here is the website: https://www.dutchcomiccon.com/

Also, my Patreon is up and running and the patrons chose Wrath: Pyrrh Considerable Crimes Division Book 2 as the project so the first chapter is live to read right now! There will be at least a chapter every month (and of course, the final version will be available as ebook and print once we wrap it up on Patreon). If you want to read along and possibly get some extra things like sneak previews of upcoming books, short stories, and a chance to vote on things from new projects to character names, click HERE and come join!

Thank you all again for your patience while I figured out this final Twenty-Sided novel and dealt with a lot of life stuff this year.  I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and winter season. It’s going to be a great new year in 2020 and I’m excited about the post-20sided projects I have to share with you (that I’ll talk about after I get book 10 out, cause first things first).

 

Thank you!

Thank you for five amazing years since Justice Calling was first released!  I know y’all are waiting patiently (for the most part haha) for book 10 and it is truly coming in August (soonTM right?), but today is the 5th anniversary of Justice Calling and I figured that was worth celebrating.

I was on bed rest and half dead when I wrote Justice Calling and Murder of Crows and they were the books of my heart. I never dreamed I’d sell over a half a million copies of this series or get to meet the awesome people I’ve met, get to wake up to sweet reader emails and encouragement and knowing that people love Jade & friends as much as I love them. Readers make a writer’s career possible, and I am so grateful for you all, and that you love these little books that are small pieces of my heart in so many ways.

Here’s to five more years, and to finishing this series the way it deserves hopefully.

(and if you want to know what happened to June and July, well, tell my husband to not give me pneumonia next time he gets sick and we’ll talk. I know writers with health issue make for frustrating release schedules and blown deadlines, but trust me when I say we hate it as much as you do. But we’re human, not word machines, and life happens, sorry.)

Thank you all! Update with new book soon(tm).

June Update: No Book Yet

Y’all are likely getting as tired of reading the bookless monthly updates as I am of writing them, but I had a shit May plagued with a terrible cold and the stress of finding a new place to live, so yeah. Things didn’t go to plan (do they ever?).

I am traveling to see my family next week for the first time in a year but other than that, my life is devoted to book 10 being done as soon as I can without compromising my vision of the story. I won’t go into how the sausage is made too much, but I changed a major event in book 10 a couple months ago which meant having to re-draft the bulk of the book, so if you are wondering how it could be almost done in Jan and not done in June, that’s how. You can’t really change something in a novel without re-drafting to make sure the change fits with the whole  (well, I can’t anyway). So please, don’t be too disappointed, the book is coming, and I even skipped hanging out with kittens to work on it this weekend so you know that’s much I love y’all. 🙂

Also, as a bonus for the Patreon followers (which you can be, too! for as little as a dollar!), I posted the first chapter of Harper’s Tale (which is coming probably Oct or Nov this year). So if you want to read it, join the Patreon and enjoy! https://www.patreon.com/anniebellet

Book 10 is still coming, promise

Hey, sorry for the silence. I’ve been dealing with same old same old back injury stuff plus some crazy family stuff that came up (that I might talk about publicly eventually but am not ready to do so yet, sorry).  That combined with me tearing apart book 10 and redrafting it cause I’m mega-paranoid about getting the grand finale of Jade’s story perfect has meant delay after delay.

But the good news is I had the final late night epiphany moment (for me, writing books is full of these moments, ha, but there is usually at least one big one each book where everything my conscious and subconscious brain has been working on comes into focus and I feel like I can finally put the words down in a way that does it justice) and I am full steam ahead on final chapters and edits.

I won’t give an exact date cause some stuff (like copy edits etc) depends on other people’s timelines etc but I think I can confidently say March.  Which I know I confidently said January and we all see how that went, oops, but life happens and I am grateful that people are understanding that authors are human.  This book will be worth the wait, in my totally biased opinion.

And again, before anyone panics that 20sided is ending, Harper’s Tale: Tribes is next on my list to finish and there will be an epilogue novella later this year that revisits Jade combined with a prologue/intro novella for Kira, Alek’s sister, who will be getting her own series in 2020. (I’ll do a separate post about those after Harper’s book comes out, complete with the amazing Gene Mollica cover art I’ve been sitting on and unable to share for nearly two years).

So thank you all for your continued understanding and patience.

May News and Update

Hey, quick update. Books 9 and 10 are still coming, I promise. I’m just having the most epic episode of House in terms of trying to figure out what’s going on with my stupid back injury and am currently stumping every doctor and specialist I see (apparently it’s also related/possible made worse by the terrible case of plantar fasciitis I have, sigh). So the writing and editing have been very slow going. I’m also prepping for a huge move (moving 4,991 miles!) which isn’t helping. Once I’m moved, we’re going to make some modifications to my new office which should allow me to work with less pain, but we can’t do much before that since we’re currently getting rid of 90% of our things.

My goal is to have both books released before the move on June 30th, so hopefully I’ll be updating twice at some point in June with a “yay book” post instead of “screw this pain” post.

I thank you all for your continued patience. It sucks to be so far behind my writing schedule (The next projects after 20sided are so cool and I want to share them and I can’t yet because I need to focus on 20sided, grr) and I know it sucks to have to wait so long for books. Thanks for being here and understanding that sometimes life happens while we’re making plans.

 

2017 Wrap-up

Quick update:

I hurt my back while traveling at the end of August and instead of getting better it got worse until it has severely impacted my ability to do anything, sorry.  I am seeing yet another doctor in December, and I think we’ve finally figured out what is wrong, but it is going to take 4-6 weeks to know if treatment/physical therapy is working and likely many more weeks of physical therapy before I’m back to some semblance of normal.

So… writing is going slowly. If you’ve ever been in a lot of pain, you know how unpleasant and difficult it is to do even the most basic tasks, much less keep track of complicated tasks, characters, time-lines, etc.  As always, I won’t release a book I’m not 100% satisfied with.

That said… Book 9 is almost done (but not edited etc yet) and I’ve already written some parts of book 10 (it follows closely on book 9’s events). So my plan at the moment is to finish both books before the end of the year, and then release them in January fairly close together (depending on edit time needed etc).

I’ve got a lot of plans for next year, but of course my health is always the limitation on my life plans. It sucks, but it’s my reality and I’m trying to work through it as best I can. My hope is that I can stay illness and injury free next year and bring you all a lot of kick-ass books because this book-a-year pace makes me sad. I have far too many ideas to get out before I die and I want to write them all NOW, damnit.

The TLDR: bad news- I’m hurt and work is going slowly due to that, sorry.  Good news- books 9 and 10 should release in the same month so you won’t have to wait nearly a year for the end of Jade Crow’s story.

 

(also, I’m planning a novella epilogue for Jade and another novella prequel for Kira’s series. I’ll be doing a cover reveal for Kira’s series in February as well and trust me, these covers are knock-your-socks-off awesome)

October News

That’s the cover for book 9 of Twenty-Sided Sorceress. The good news is that this will be out in November.

The bad news is that Harper’s Tale won’t be out this month as planned. This story uses some real-life stuff (fictionalized of course) from my own life and that of friends, and it’s proving to be very emotionally difficult to write. I want to get the story right, but I can’t keep letting my perfectionism hold up the rest of the series. Jade’s story can keep going while I work on Harper in my spare time.  So I’m letting Harper’s story rest while I work on books 9 and 10 (cover reveal for the 10th and final Jade Crow book will come in December or so).

Thank you all for your understanding and patience. I think you’ll enjoy books nine and ten and I’m looking forward to making them my focus so it doesn’t take a year between them, which I know y’all will also probably prefer 😉

Thank you!
Annie

Spring 2017 Update

Here’s a quickie update on what’s hopefully happening this year.

Next book out will be Tribes: Harper’s Tale. I should have it out by end of April or early May, depending on editing time etc.

After that will come Brood Mother (the 5th Gryphonpike Chronicles novella) and then a side novel titled Soft Paw which goes between 20sided books 8 and 9.  There will be one more Gryphonpike Chronicles novella which will wrap up that iteration of the series (a trilogy of novels will come in 2018, beginning Gryphonpike Legends). All of that should carry us well into summer with new releases fairly regularly.

Beyond that, my goal this year is to wrap up The Twenty-Sided Sorceress. There will be two more books, books 9 and 10. They are very tied together in terms of what happens with the story, so I will likely delay the release of book 9 until the fall when I can release book 10 within a month or so of book 9. I don’t want to leave readers on a cliff with a big wait (again, mwahahahaha*cries*).

Ending a series I love so much will be rough, but I have plans for the world beyond that which I’m really excited to explore. There will also be an epilogue for 20sided that will be the prequel of the series to come in the same world.

So I have a ton of plans this year. Health-wise I’m doing much better than I have in three years, so hopefully no derails due to health like in years past. I’m also hoping that after wrapping up 20sided I’ll have a few months to work on the sequel to Avarice and get the Pyrrh books out in the world finally.

So… TLDR is lots of fiction coming for you all in 2017 and I’m excited to be healthier and working regularly again! Cheers.

December 2016 Update

Quickie note here about December releases. Due to holiday vacation times at the various retailers, Dungeon Crawl will not be up on Barnes & Noble, Apple/iTunes, or Kobo until early January. I believe I can get it live on Amazon before Christmas, though with the holidays I can’t promise that. So far Amazon hasn’t said upload times will be affected or that they’ll close processing new titles around the holidays, so fingers crossed.

So… book is coming this month, just maybe not to every retailer this month, sorry.