This past weekend was the freebie days for Awakening and while it did well (over 2,000 downloads) it didn’t do nearly as well as Blind Attraction (well over 20,000 downloads.) And yet, with all of the Blind Attraction downloads, Awakening still inspired more hits to my blog/website. It’s strange but I think that it is also very interesting. One of the coolest aspects about being a self-published author is not being bound by someone else’s schedule, which is also a bad thing if I am having a particularly long writing slump. It also means I get to focus on the books that have a higher demand (ahem, gargoyles) instead of following a set time frame.

I started this thing just over a year ago with Darkness Comes and I had every intention of writing the second book immediately but I had Stone Lover and Blight more or less ready to go so I published them and went back to work on Darkness Comes part 2 (it has had several working titles, including Darkness Sees, which would be followed by Darkness Conquers, which I thought was hilarious.) But then a funny thing happened: readers discovered a love for gargoyles and so I wrote Rhys’s story, with the plan to follow up with Armand’s. Taking a little break after Rhys I cleaned up another book that I had written and that became Siren Song. Then back to work on Stone Destiny, which was put on hold because life happens.  Since I was busy with everything else, I pulled out two other books that I had written to clean up for publication: Blind Attraction and Awakening (originally titled Original Sin: Eternal, or something.) Now I am back to writing Stone Destiny and it is going in some directions that I didn’t expect but it is moving forward. Yay!! I think the extra time that it has spent percolating has improved the story; I hope it has, at least.

Anyway, what I guess I am trying to say is if you love a book, especially a self-published book, let the author know; you’d be surprised at how much sway you can have influence which book gets written next. Write reviews, tell your friends, become a fan on facebook, leave feedback. whatever it takes to have your voice heard because you have a lot of power. Writing can be very solitary and hearing from readers can make a HUGE difference. I know that there are a few people out there waiting for the continuation of Darkness Comes and I am really, really sorry that it has taken me so long to get back to it; I will write it, I swear.

My current schedule (subject to change, depending on, well, my readers) is:

1.) Stone Destiny (50% done!)

2.) After Blight (75% done)

3.) Darkness Comes part 2

4.) The continuation of Awakening

5.) …. (I have 2 that I really want to work on plus a billion more ideas, any one of which might scream loud enough at the right time to be picked.)

So, happy reading!!