Finished First Draft!

I finished the first draft of the prequel last night.

Prequel Word Count: 63,234

Corrupt Idol Word Count: 56,734

I was having a really hard time with the last quarter of the manuscript. I kept switching things around before realizing that a lot of it wasn't necessary and could be cut out completely. The ending scene wasn't what I imagined it would be and caught me by surprise. I may add a little more to it, but we'll see. I accomplished the main goal, which was to show the evolution of their relationship and what happened that led to their tumultuous relationship in Corrupt Idol, which I think I accomplished.

The draft is not perfect by any means. I'm definitely going to have to add to, refine, and do some smoothing over, but the bulk of the work is done. Hallelujah!

I don't have a title. I had planned to name the sequel "Corrupt Husband" so this one may be generically named, "Corrupt Beginnings"? IDK. A lot of titles I thought of like:

•  Forbidden Fruit

• Twisted Obsession

• Brutal Obsession

• Forbidden Obsession

• Depraved Descent

Already have multiple books and such titles are easily forgotten anyway, but since many readers remember the title "Corrupt Idol" I thought it might be better to keep corrupt in the title like bitter for the Singed Series. I also don't have a series title for this so I was thinking it could be "Possessing Violet"? I'm not decided on anything at the moment, especially since my brain is fried. We can revisit this in a few weeks.

I plan to take the rest of the year off :) ... Which just means this book will be set aside and I'll be doing admin stuff, enjoying the holidays, and possibly updating the Crime Lord Series (my cover designer and I have been going back and forth on the rebrand and it should be done this week?). I'll also be cleaning, organizing, and taking care of stuff I've let go to hell while writing.

I need to let the story sit, but I'll start editing/revising the first week of January. I'm aiming for a mid to late January release? Without a title, I can't really put up a pre-order or anything, but we'll let all that simmer for a few weeks. Hopefully, by 2025 I'll have more ideas. Also need to get a cover made, but again, we'll let that simmer in my subconscious.

I'm glad I took the time to write this prequel. It was an interesting challenge for me and switching gears to something so different after three years of being immersed in the Singed Series was actually really nice... a relief? Not to say Jesse and Violet's story wasn't emotionally draining in its own way... For some reason, this story felt a lot more "real" to me and made me question myself a lot more than I do with Roth and Jasmine for some reason.

Anyway, I just wanted to give you all an update. I wanted to wish you all Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year! I can't believe we made it through 2024. What a year!