I have to confess, I am horrible at social media. I apologize for not being a regular blogger. To be quite frank, if I am going to create, I’d rather be spending that time on writing novels.

If I didn’t have my Gal Friday, the lovely Janet Snell, doing regular fun posts to my Author FaceBook page (you are following that page, right? — if not here’s the link: https://www.facebook.com/authormonettemichaels), I most likely would not interact as much as I do with my fans. I do update my website when there’s something to update and that’s usually when a book is coming out. Same goes for my newsletter (you are signed up for my newsletter, right? — if not, see the link in the right-hand column). With current FaceBook changes and a concentration on Groups over Pages and Timelines, I may have to bite the bullet and create a Group to go with my Author FaceBook Page (picture me hiding in a corner, curled up in a ball; yes, I am a social media introvert).

Since I am here, I bet you’re wondering when the next SSI book, Firestorm, Book 6 in the Security Specialists International series, will be out. If you’re already a fan, you’re aware I put this book up for pre-order back when An Ill Wind came out. At that time, not one word had not been written in Firestorm, but I was advised by my distributor that pre-orders were the way to go even if the book wouldn’t be out for months and months.

Taking this advice–because what do I know about marketing? (less than nothing)–I set the release date on the pre-order as December 1, 2019.

Good news is  — I will beat that, but can’t tell you by how much.  Because—I have a drop-dead deadline to upload a novella for Robyn Peterman’s Magic and Mayhem Universe by September 30, 2019 (publication date, October 21, 2019). That puts Firestorm on the back burner for now while I write What A Witch Desires, Book 3 in the What a Witch series.

Be assured, Firestorm is done, BUT not “done” done.

You all know I tend to write long. Mostly because I write layered novels with a romance plot, a suspense plot, and an action plot. This book was supposed to be less lengthy at around 75,000 words. Ah, no. Final first draft exceeded that by about 10,000 words and once I revise (will get to that in a moment), it could be over 100,000 words. Since I am not the fastest writer (cough, life intrudes, cough), it took me awhile especially coming off a long book four in the Prime Chronicles series.  Also, switching back and forth between two series is often a culture shock and I have to get back into the series world I am currently writing (my SSI world bible is in two HUGE binders, see picture below).

I was in the early revision process for Firestorm when I realized I needed to write What A Witch Desires. Like now! Sigh.

Happily, the novella is coming swiftly (13,000 words in less than a week and about to the half way point, so yay!), and I hope to soon be back to whipping my SSI novel into shape.

And, yes, it needed a good spanking. The story is there (my crit buddy and two beta-readers have said so); it just needs a tweak here, a total rethinking on an aspect of a character there, maybe some more nuances here and there, layering in of more scene setting, cutting repetition, etc. — what can I say? It’s a process. Almost as hard and involved as writing the book in the first place. Good news is, I am much faster at editing and revising than I am at writing a full first draft.

The take-away from today’s blog is the following:  (a) Moni is a slow writer , but a fast reviser/editor; (b) she needs to get her life more organized (and since she is A-type, that’s saying a lot); (c) she sucks at social media; and (d) she will have two books out in the latter part of 2019 (yay!). If you need more updates, follow me on FaceBook. If you want a sneak preview of Firestorm later this summer, sign up for my newsletter. Thanks for reading and being a fan.