the Author
October
22
44 Comments

State of the writer, October 2017 edition

Posted in writing.

When I first started working with an alpha reader, I was a bit nervous, because he read every chapter as it was written (and still does), and it meant he would see the rough edges and the bits and pieces of incom­pe­tence that is raw first draft.

I was afraid that, because he loved these books and got them, he would become disil­lu­sioned because I was not infal­lible or genius or what­ever. I was just me. This did not happen. He approached process as an edifice that had already allowed me to produce novels that he loved, and he was aware that he did not know what that process, ulti­mately, was — but he absolutely trusted it.

He was, however, still surprised.

I remember this clearly: he was surprised at how much of the work of a novelist had… nothing to do with writing the books. Revi­sions. More revi­sions. Edito­rial letter. More revi­sions. Copy-edits. Page proofs. Terrible angst about how. Damn. Long. The books were.

Starting the next book six times, trying to find the exact voice of the partic­ular book. Etc.

And so: October.

Revi­sions (WAR). These came to a halt with copy-edits that were some­what urgent at the begin­ning of October (Cast in Decep­tion. I finished those just in time to go to Can-con. I returned to page proofs of the mass market edition of Grave. I have a book review column due in November, and there is not a lot of October left.

How much writing did I get done this month? T_T

about 2k words of a Severn novella. 

War is now with my DAW editor. She will read it, and she will have comments, sugges­tions, etc. I will return to War when I receive them. In the mean­time, page proofs are due back in the DAW office at the begin­ning of November. I can usefully proof about 50 pages a day before I start to miss mistakes. That will be the rest of October.

So: my intent going forward is to finish those page proofs (I am one of the authors who finds this agony because all I can see are mistakes, which is arguably the reason for page proofs), write novellas, and then start Cast in… while waiting for my DAW version of the edito­rial letter on War (which is a long phone call or two).

Sorry =/

44 Responses to State of the writer, October 2017 edition

  1. desiree says:
    October 22, 2017 at 1:13 pm

    Never, ever, be sorry! I can always read Jewel’s story again. You are a prolific author (as well as my favorite) and work takes time. Your fans and readers under­stand this. Now go about your busi­ness woman! And forget we’re waiting! Peace ✌

  2. hsmyers says:
    October 22, 2017 at 1:16 pm

    Because I’m greedy, I’d love to convince you and your editor(s) that “too long” is a good thing! That said, I will wait semi-patiently, semi, sorta…

  3. Karen Zorn says:
    October 22, 2017 at 1:17 pm

    Writing is work, a lot of work, and some­times it comes easy, most of the time not. I haven’t written fiction, but over 35 years of tech­nical and proce­dural output, which at times can be agoniz­ingly dull. I look forward to each and every one of your books and am always amazed at the worlds you create and the indi­vid­uals who popu­late them and their stories you tell. Unfor­tu­nately my imag­i­na­tion doesn’t go much further than “click Enter”.

  4. wmacneill says:
    October 22, 2017 at 1:17 pm

    What in the world could you possibly be sorry for ? It sounds like a lot of work or more exactly it sounds a lot like work. I have found delving into e‑books as currently published a seem­ingly host of errors and I also find that I tend to mentally correct those errors as I read. Most seem to be the victim of auto­cor­rect and 99 percent of the time the correct verbiage just pops into my head. So I can sympa­thize with your dilemma but try to stay the course as your sweat, toil and agony results in my delight. So again, thank you.

    Walt

  5. Joey says:
    October 22, 2017 at 1:27 pm

    I’m glad you attended Can-Con — hope you had fun!

    Novellas!

  6. Kitiara Aerin Young-green says:
    October 22, 2017 at 1:27 pm

    Michelle I was hoping to meet you at can-con but lost my apart­ment at the time. I cried for two weeks about not being able to go and meet you my hero.. Who inspires me to not give up on writing the books I’ve tried to write with little success since I was 8 years old (I’m 27 now). Meeting you means every­thing to me save immi­grating back to my ances­tral country (Scot­land) which I’ve wanted and planned for my whole life. All the five or six degrees I’m going for in college are to accom­plish that goal. I wrote you a letter, thinking I would hand it to you in person so you would know every­thing i wanted to say to you because I struggle with autistic traits and ADD/anxiety depres­sion disorder so I have social inter­ac­tion prob­lems. I want to send you that letter but I want to send it some­where that you’ll actu­ally get it and that it won’t be lost in the tons of fanmail I’m sure you get. Can you tell me where to mail it? This was the first conven­tion you were to go to where I had enough fore­warning to try and find the money to go, so I was heart broken. Everyone in my life who I’ve shared the cast books with agrees that kaylin is me like an iden­tical twin. The things she suffered at barren’s hands I suffered at my father’s and a lot more. Kaylin is what keeps me going everyday and I read the whole series once and even twice a month. My books are falling apart because I can’t afford new ones. Not since we lost our apart­ment (me and my husband). I dreamed of seeing you sign my books.. As much as I have always dreamed of seeing my hero’s comments on one of my own finally published books. My other hero.. Anne McCaf­frey (you’d love her book serieses I think) died before that dream ever had a chance of reality, but you’ve been far more encour­age­ment and hero to me than even she was. Kaylin means the world to me, I’ve no idea how I’m going to get cast in decep­tion yet.. But I’m writing this to you, because I’m praying you’ll remember me the next time you’re going to be working at your book­shop, or going to a conven­tion, And so announce it with enough time I can beg for help to get there and meet you. I have strug­gled since I grad­u­ated high-school in 2008 to get started in college and be successful, it’s only in the past two years that I’ve been moder­ately successful and now I’m about to grad­uate next December with an asso­ciates and finally start univer­sity. I ninety percent of the time have no idea how I’m going to afford my books or manage around my disabilites. But your books always get me through. Books are life and oxygen to me anyway and always have been. I hope that you’ll let me mail the letter to you.

  7. Ralph Walker says:
    October 22, 2017 at 2:20 pm

    You continue to feel the need to apol­o­gize to the one group who never ‘needs’ an apology from you. Your Alpha Reader; your editors; your publishers; your contrac­tual respon­si­bil­i­ties; and, most impor­tantly, your family and friends; THEY need and deserve apolo­gies, but not us.
    I am always aghast at how much work you have to do in order to provide us our plea­sures. We appre­ciate all that you do.
    Please, take all the time you need. We can wait, impa­tiently at times for sure, but never­the­less, we can wait.
    Don’t forget to build in some time for you. Relax, decom­press, enjoy the plea­sures in life, like we do when we receive your writings. 

    ps.
    Have you named a Sword of Power after Terry yet? You know he will never forgive you, if you don’t :)

  8. Zia says:
    October 22, 2017 at 2:54 pm

    I echo other voices here, you don’t need to apol­o­gize. I hope you were able to enjoy Can-Con.

    I’m looking forward to all the upcoming works with great antic­i­pa­tion, but I’m also willing to wait as long as needed.

    October does seem to be flying on my end as well, but as I switched jobs a month ago, I’m still running around with the deer-in-the-head­light look. 

    Hope­fully things calm down for you! As always, thank you for taking the time to write an update for us. I always appre­ciate them.

  9. Stefan Engel says:
    October 22, 2017 at 3:29 pm

    Michelle,
    I am Proud of you. I am rereading all the Jay series, to be ready for War’s debut. The breadth of char­acter types is amazing. You created a true hero in Jay. Thank you. You are a creator of heroes and that is the highest art. :)

  10. controuble says:
    October 22, 2017 at 3:55 pm

    Hope you had a good time at CanCon. I really need to try to get up to one of the Cana­dian cons one of these years, but I just got a new contract posi­tion, so no PTO until/unless I get hired on direct. Looking forward to reading anything you write — where, when will the novella be avail­able? I like Severn.

  11. Melanie Allen says:
    October 22, 2017 at 4:12 pm

    Bless you, breath… one step, two steps, one step back­wards, its a beau­tiful dance…

  12. Lesa says:
    October 22, 2017 at 4:48 pm

    Again never be sorry! I love your books. You are doing every­thing right. :)

  13. Joyce Ronquillo says:
    October 22, 2017 at 4:58 pm

    As my son some­times says to me; “Don’t over think it”. We love you, we’ll wait; and most of us won’t whine too loudly about it either. I’m down in the bottom of the Amer­ican South­land so I’m sure you can’t hear my toe tapping as I wait for Kaylin to arrive.

  14. Wave says:
    October 22, 2017 at 5:39 pm

    Don’t worry about the time it takes, we will still be here and will read/listen when it is released.

  15. Nikita Segadaes says:
    October 22, 2017 at 10:07 pm

    I have been waiting for war for so long, this series is astounding, you are a genius never think less! the amount of detail and preci­sion in your war and cast novels are amazing! I love the elantra world, it has so many remnants of the sumerian/anunnaki home­world history where Tiamat (the primor­dial dragon mother) and other feline/human and aerian hybrids play a major role in our ancient histor­ical record. I was flab­ber­gasted when i saw the name Tiamaris as a dragon! Was that inten­tional i wonder or did you randomly choose that name? Was Elantra influ­enced by Mesopotamian histor­ical record? Or did they just happen to be closely related? I only wonder because in sumerian and baby­lonian tablets it speaks of the orig­inal home­world of the anun­naki ances­tors having sentient dragons who were the first­born, then anun­naki humans and hybrids came later, can i ask if this was where the influ­ence came from?

  16. Linda says:
    October 23, 2017 at 3:31 am

    I love every­thing that you write so don’t be sorry about anything.

  17. Tracy Perkins says:
    October 23, 2017 at 10:00 am

    Thanks for contin­uing to share your process with us. It’s inter­estibg seeing how the sausage is made ????. As someone who has to squeeze writing into her life I am as always impressed by your dedi­ca­tion and commit­ment. It’s obvious you put your heart and soul into these books and as readers I don’t think we have the right to ask for anything more than that.

  18. Daniel Catudal says:
    October 23, 2017 at 10:54 am

    Every time you take a moment to update us about your progress and mindset, is worth more than you may beleive. I never thought I would care more about the author than the books them­selves, which I love by the way. Its been very pleasant to hear from you again, Every one of your comments are a great moment in my day. Love to read your next book when­ever, no rush.
    Dcat

  19. Jo-Ann Pieber says:
    October 23, 2017 at 7:09 pm

    I echo all the thanks for the update, for the sheer dogged­ness in working on multiple (yay) projects, and the reas­sur­ances that we are both patient and supportive of all your efforts — whether we fully compre­hend the scope of these or not. I too feel concerned that you protect your­self from getting too fraz­zled or too stretched with multiple competing demands. I suppose I still, naively, imagine that writing is an activity that is vastly soli­tary until it’s Done, and that authors have total control over the end result. Have to say that the notion of all the back-and-forth, dead­lines, space constraints and so on make me break out into a cold sweat. Stay strong and take care of yourself.

    It’s good to know you have taken the time to read (assuming you have already done so) for that column you mention. Is that sort of thing ‘under wraps’ until it’s published or can you share here about what you have read? Any posi­tive recom­men­da­tions from you, or others here, would be appre­ci­ated as my choices lately are very lack­luster and I’m yearning for a damn good book. The last good thing I read, or was swept up into and loved was Ada Palmer’s first two of a series, Too Like the Light­ning, and Seven Surren­ders. Though ‘tech­ni­cally’ sci-fi, or at least cate­go­rized that way at the book­store, I do think it’s just a plain old Good Story and thank­fully for me anyway, it avoids the usual things in sci-fi that make me roll my eyes. 

    So, have you or anyone read anything lately that they highly recom­mend? If you love reading Michelle Sagara/West as I do, what do you love reading nearly as much (if that is even possible)?

    Finally, I know you have a few other places you commu­ni­cate and I’m not sure that This is the place where this sort of discus­sion is ‘supposed’ to be. If I err, pls forgive and let me know.

    Wishing you joy and ease in what­ever you are doing on any given day.

  20. Miriam says:
    October 24, 2017 at 8:57 am

    Thank you very much for the glimpses into the logistics/business of writing fantasy novels. I really appre­ciate it! Can’t wait for War.

  21. Michelle Sagara says:
    October 24, 2017 at 11:56 am

    @Walt: a writer friend said, last week, that she feels that I don’t consider anything “real work” if it doesn’t involve new words. And, ummm, yes, in some fashion it’s true. The work all has to be done – I know that intel­lec­tu­ally – but somehow I feel that I’m not… not being a writer if there are no new words.

    And no, rewriting whole chap­ters, which in theory is all new words, are not new words — they’re fixing old words which wouldn’t have needed fixing if my brain had been firing on all cylinders.

    That’s part one. Part two is: people who come to the web-site come because they read my books. And because they want new books and new words. And since I’m not actu­ally getting new words written, I feel on some level, that I’m letting them down.

    And yes, again, I realize that the work is neces­sary and it has to be done, but I’d like it a lot if I could manage to do *both*. And I can’t. So, then, apologies >.<

  22. Michelle Sagara says:
    October 24, 2017 at 11:59 am

    @controuble: When the Severn novella is finished, and the person who donated to pixel project gets it, I will (prob­ably) self-publish it, and will announce that here. But, ummm, it’s not finished yet T_T.

  23. Michelle Sagara says:
    October 24, 2017 at 12:01 pm

    @Nikita: not consciously (re: influ­ence). But the thing is… every­thing one reads and thinks about and loves — or hates — kind of sinks roots into the brain, and becomes part of the roving subcon­scious. I read a lot of mythology when I was a child, and a lot more of it when I was a teenager — I liked myths. This wasn’t so much about study. I just liked reading them.

    I did not delib­er­ately pull Tiamaris from a known source — but I can’t say defin­i­tively that I never read that name, if that makes sense?

  24. Michelle Sagara says:
    October 24, 2017 at 12:07 pm

    @Tracy: I think, before publi­ca­tion, it was squeezing writing time around the day job and the home — but… I feel as if, since this is effec­tively the day job, I should somehow get More Done. And I get more done than I did in 1989. But. Well.

    @Daniel: Thank you :). My assump­tion is that people want to know about the book they want to read — but I real­ized that if I went completely silent for months at a time (usually when a book was not going well and I felt guilty) people actu­ally started to worry that I’d been hit by a car or had wandered so far off the grid I might not come back. So… then I started to try to do a monthly post so that readers *wouldn’t* worry about that. But… I guess I felt a bit bad about having no actual news to post. I mean — to me “still writing” didn’t feel like some­thing news­worthy for readers? 

    The easy posts are: I’ve sold two new CAST books. These are followed by: This is the cover. And at least by: I have finished the book!

  25. Michelle Sagara says:
    October 24, 2017 at 12:09 pm

    @everyone: thank you all for your constant encour­age­ment — if I’ve missed responding to anyone, it’s not because I don’t value that.

  26. Kat says:
    October 24, 2017 at 11:52 pm

    Speaking of ‘this is the cover’, I noticed the CiD cover and blurb is out in the wild. Get amongst it everyone! Yay! I’m so pleased they have continued with the same design/designer for the series. I’m still waiting for the night­shade tattoo to appear, though!

  27. Peter Moore says:
    October 26, 2017 at 1:40 pm

    Like everyone else has said, no need to apol­o­gize. We under­stand. (or at the very least I think I under­stand) I do know that the creative process is work. HARD WORK. As my mentor has told me innu­mer­able times; “If ______ was easy, they’d call it sexy and every­body would want to do it”. Don’t worry about us. We’ll get by. War will be done when it’s done. At the very least you are better about getting stuff out than many many other epic fantasy writers. Now if you were Patrick Roth­fuss, G.R.R. Martin, Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan, even Robin Hobb, we might have a beef, but you are “rela­tively” punc­tual about getting stuff out. So thank you for all your words: your new words, your old words, your old/new words, and your new/old words, and most espe­cially all those wonder­filled universes those words build. Thank you for building an escape hatch into another universe where I can go on occa­sion, after I finish my visit, no matter how long it is I come back here refreshed and willing to do my own work.

  28. Ralph Walker says:
    October 26, 2017 at 4:42 pm

    Hey, no fair. You should have left Robert Jordan off your “late” list. First, it is not right to speak ill of the dead ( Emma should have taught you that ).
    Second, Jordan was pretty timely, bringing us the Wheel of Time.
    And, lastly, of the others on your list, whom do you suspect would leave notes with a bequest that someone finish his series, for us!

    No flaming, please. Just MHO.

  29. DeDe says:
    October 26, 2017 at 7:00 pm

    Defi­nitely no need to apol­o­gize! Snow here today, so I curled up w/ my re-reads. Your books are some of the few that I can read, and re-read endlessly. So no matter how much time it takes you to finish the story — I’m pretty sure I’m getting more time enjoying your work after it’s complete. 

    And thanks for not getting hit by a car… :-)

  30. Natasha says:
    October 27, 2017 at 10:09 am

    Your books can never be too long. I miss the days of thou­sand page books. I prefer reading to watching tele­vi­sion so a 150 page book is maybe 3 hours worth of reading — on a busy day. Your books, thank­fully, are longer than that. As such, it would be awesome if you could convince the folks who write the checks that there is profit in marketing two versions of your books. The shorter version they believe is more marketable, and then the much longer version (digital only) with all of the detail and cut chap­ters you wrote orig­i­nally. I, for one, would purchase both copies because I love nothing more than delving into these char­ac­ters lives and letting my imag­i­na­tion go wild. Happy writing!

  31. Michelle Sagara says:
    October 27, 2017 at 2:08 pm

    @Ralph: I was enor­mously impressed by the amount of work Jordan did in his later years. Had I been Jordan, I don’t think I could have written a word given the various medical treat­ments; he wrote three books. And yes, he tried to make plans to have that story finished.

    I’m sure no disre­spect was intended – but not everyone is aware of the context in which he wrote toward the end of his life. I know that as a reader, I see… the books. But I don’t know a lot about anything else.

  32. Tickle says:
    October 27, 2017 at 9:19 pm

    Hi Michelle! No need to say sorry for anything. Your process is your process (even if you have to wait on others). Your stories are so enjoy­able & have that re-read­able factor, that we have tons to enter­tain us until the next book in the series (I love both Sun Sword/House War & Cast series). So just do you Boo, we will be here waiting to throw our atten­tion, love & money at you, LOL. My ques­tion is, after War, will there be another series in this saga that will bring back some of our favs from The Sun Sword & Sacred Hunt series to join the fight w/Jewel’s crew and/or do just as impor­tant things some­where else? Maybe not all, but def Kiriel & her crew (incl. Valedan, Diora, Aure­lius, Osprey’s) & Margaret and her Voyani crew, or Stephen/Bredan’s child & his hunt sister? I don’t need any details, a yes, no, or maybe will suffice (though detail wouldn’t go amiss either, LOL).

  33. Michelle Sagara says:
    October 28, 2017 at 5:49 pm

    @Tickle: The answer is both yes and no. Yes, I intend to finish what is the final arc set in this universe. Yes, it returns to Kiriel. But I’m less certain about its even­tual publishing dispo­si­tion. Regard­less, even if self-published, I’ll write and finish the End of Days arc.

  34. Ralph Walker says:
    October 29, 2017 at 12:39 am

    OK, color me confused. I thought that the return to the Dominion with Valedon, Kiriel, and Stephen of Maubreche with his huntsister(?) Nenyane, etc., was going to be named, The Black Gauntlet.

    Is The End of Days a different arc? Is The Black Gaunlet kaput? 

    Or, ( hoping against hope :) ), there are TWO Essalieyan arcs pending?

  35. Fyreink says:
    October 29, 2017 at 12:53 am

    Publishing a book is a long process, never be sorry! One of the reasons I love the Cast books is that they make great comfort reads, and when I’m going through a reading drought.

    Reading Cast in Flight, I was surprised that the Barrani didn’t make a big deal out of blood­lines, consid­ering that they make a huge fuss over lineage, and that adop­tion and chil­dren not born in marriages were perfectly acceptable.

    Also I was rereading Cast in Moon­light, and was wondering if some of the char­ac­ters will appear again, like Captain Neall and the name­less Barrani Arcanist who appar­ently knew Teela?

    And finally, regarding the back cover copy of Cast in Decep­tion, in the second para­graph, it says “Add nine of their closest friends…”, shouldn’t it say eight, unless you’re counting Teela, in which case please ignore this comment.

  36. Michelle Sagara says:
    November 1, 2017 at 2:54 pm

    @Fyreink: We did include Teela, and now, on balance, I’m wondering about that >.>.

    Re: Barrani: they don’t make a big deal about blood­lines because there’s no inherent power *in* the blood­line in their prag­matic view. It’s more Roman: if you can adopt the best, you adopt the best. If the cousin is more polit­ical powerful or adept than the son, the cousin will hold and take the line. If that makes sense?

  37. Fyreink says:
    November 2, 2017 at 3:13 pm

    Re: Barrani: Yes, it makes sense :) and I actu­ally liked how you wrote that. It reminded me of a Twitter thread by Aliette de Bodard about magic and lineage in SFF. Here’s the link: https://​mobile​.twitter​.com/​a​l​i​e​t​t​e​d​b​/​s​t​a​t​u​s​/​8​7​0​6​1​9​5​3​7​9​9​3​0​1​9​392

    And sorry if I caused any headaches about the back cover copy. I thought that Teela is the only “normal” one out of the orig­inal 12 that went to the West March, and since Terrano is gone, I wasn’t sure if she was included as well.

  38. Mel says:
    November 7, 2017 at 2:41 am

    War is coming… yaaaaay!

  39. Mary Grove says:
    November 8, 2017 at 4:37 pm

    One thing you do extremely well is tell us what’s going on. One author I really really like wrote two wonderful books in a series and then disap­peared for 25 years with nary a word. So until you start leaving us out in the cold like that, we’re happy to listen to what’s going on in your life, glad offer praise and encour­age­ment, and always, always rejoice in the work you offer us so gener­ously. That’s my strongest impres­sion of you actu­ally, that you’re generous – with your gifts, your time, your honesty and your fierce desire to do more, better and sooner than anyone else would ever expect of you. If you can’t be gentle with your­self at times, please listen to us and believe it when we tell you that we’re grateful for what you’re doing. That it’s more than enough to make us happy just to hold a new book with your name on the cover and prepare to dive in with glad expec­ta­tions for all the joy that reading it will bring. Know that you are part of our lives, just as you make us part of yours in these posts, and we’re happy to hold you for as long as you need while you do the work we love.

  40. michelle says:
    November 8, 2017 at 6:33 pm

    @Mary: Hmmm. Well. I under­stand how an author can disap­pear, although 25 years is a long stretch. It goes like this: (Michelle’s inner thoughts).

    1. People actu­ally like my books! Yay!

    2. People come here to interact with me because they like my books! Yay!

    3. People want news about New Books!

    4. … book is not going well. Book is not going well at all. I have nothing to post of any interest to readers because I haven’t finished a book. I haven’t sold a book. A book is not being published now that can actu­ally be read by readers. And the book is not going well.

    5. No one wants to hear non-news, right? I mean: “still writing” is non-news, right?

    6. Radio silence.

    I try to post here once a month, in a kind of “State of the Author” in part because I real­ized that this was not, in fact, true. I was offline and people were starting to panic; some people were worried I’d been hit by a car among other things. “Still writing” has value for readers because it means I haven’t aban­doned my book(s) or given up on writing. It was actu­ally my alpha reader who pointed this out, because I asked whether or not posts containing no useful infor­ma­tion to readers had any value for readers. And he’s a reader, and he patiently explained that knowing that an author was still working on a series or a novel was actu­ally relevant.

    “But-but-it’s not finished yet!”

    “Yes. But you’re still working on it *to* finish it. Trust me.”

    So I did.

  41. Constance Torhalt says:
    November 14, 2017 at 6:58 pm

    I just hope you’re taking the time to care for your­self. I remember reading your Live­Journal entries, talking not only about your writing process, but your job at the book­store, and your family — partic­u­larly about your son.

    So, in between all the cons, and the writing, and the dead­lines (god I hate dead­lines), and family, I hope you’re making you-time.

  42. Vance Marker says:
    November 21, 2017 at 11:54 am

    Hey.…all you can do is all you can do! You’ve touched so many people with your many works and I think I can safely say that we are all incred­ibly thankful and appre­cia­tive that you have chosen to share your talent with the world. 

    I, myself, am waiting for War.…and the antic­i­pa­tion is both exhil­a­rating and agonizing! Until that hits the shelves, I’m carrying around dinged up copies of The Sun Sword and Oracle. I hope that perhaps one day we’ll get to hear the stories of the Voyani in much greater detail. I’ve been longing to return to Arkosa and know more of the other three lines.

    In any event, I hope that you and your family have a wonderful holiday season and a very happy (and produc­tive) new year!

  43. Tarun Elankath says:
    November 24, 2017 at 9:22 am

    I am a soft­ware devel­oper and the process of bug-fixing, code-reviews perfor­mance-testing and the last 10% of any devel­op­ment activity are always the the most painful. Yet proper atten­tion during this process is what makes some­thing truly shine. I suspect its more painful for a writer — big book writers don’t appear to have some of the tools that we have to expe­dite this phase.

    At any rate, if it makes you feel any better, I prefer to read long, spell-binding Sagara books than the quick noodle-food fare of faster writers. (Not that I am averse to quick noodle-fare when needing lighter entertainment…)

  44. Anna says:
    January 10, 2018 at 1:21 am

    I have only found your writing recently, and I have never been so attached to a char­acter as I am to Kaylin. You have written so many books for me to love. And there is depth, and cohe­sive­ness. Your char­ac­ters think and feel in ways that make sense. 

    All these words to say: your work is worth waiting for. The care that you take in your writing shows. 

    Also… The number of books you’ve published in a fairly short period of time is impres­sive. We really aren’t waiting long.

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