Book Update

Hey everyone! I just wanted to give you guys an update. I’m on the last four chapters—another one of those ongoing, long ass scenes. This is probably the least developed section out of the whole book, and what I knew needed the most rewrites.

I’m hoping to finish rewrites in a week/week in a half. After that, I’ll be doing a final read through/polish to make sure the book is cohesive and make final decisions about things I was on the fence about. This will probably take me around a week. I’ll be sending chapters as I finish them to my editor so she can start, but I’m aiming for the complete book to be sent off by July 15. With something of this size, she says it’ll take her around 4 weeks to edit (hopefully sooner, but we’ll see how it goes). I should get it back around mid-August, and I am aiming for an end of the month release. I may do a pre-order for the end of September just to be on the safe side and then do an early release when the book is ready (end of August, fingers crossed).

Super Patrons will get a copy of the raw ebook that I send to the editor, and all patrons who are subscribed during release month will get the final ebook the week it publishes.

Bitter Confessions is currently around 129k words, and I’m estimating I’ll probably add another couple thousand or so during these last chapters, which would bring it within a hairsbreadth of Bitter Secrets' 135k words. The first draft of Bitter Confessions started at 116k words, which goes to show how much you flesh out during rewrites. And I’m not done yet, so…

This book has been incredibly challenging. The story is constantly pushing me out of my comfort zone. The topics they’re discussing, the sex scenes, the complicated mix of emotions between them… When I write Roth and Jasmine, it sucks the life out of me. In comparison, I wrote and released Corrupt Idol in less than 2 months. And if I’m writing a simple storyline where I don’t have to do that much research or invest too much emotionally, I can usually bang a rough draft out within 2 months. But when it comes to this series, it’s like I’m having to coax the characters to let me tell their story. There’s so much pushback. I’ve never experienced anything like it.

It’s funny because in the rough draft I avoided a lot of sensitive topics, not sure if I wanted to go there. And for some reason, during rewrites, I decided to lean into the discomfort and dug deeper than I anticipated. I would say this is a transition book from newlyweds trying to find their footing with each other to married life, where we see if they can keep their promises over weeks and months and throughout all the unexpected scenarios that crop up in between.

What I wanted to do with Roth and Jasmine was explore in depth what a marriage of convenience/fake relationship would look like over the span of a year. How sometimes the lines blur and then solidify and blur again… And constantly deal with the uncertainty of how everything is going to work out, knowing your relationship is supposed to end. This book only covers 33 days out of the year they’re supposed to spend together. Bitter Secrets covered 22 days. I’m hoping I can complete the rest of their year in 2 more books. And then a conclusion book, which would make the series 6 books without Roth’s story included.

Thank you for being so patient with me. I’m almost there! I don’t know if it’s because this is the book I’m working on, but this is my favorite so far in the series! I’m happy with the rewrites and just need to get through this last bit.

I’ll update you guys when I’m done with rewrites and polish and when it’s officially off to editor. I hope you're all having an excellent week!