Hello All,
I am here writing once again on the updates for my books and life. Life threw me some big curveballs recently. I currently have two full manuscripts waiting for final edits, and have not been able to get them done. For those of you waiting I am so sorry. Golon’s story, which turned into a beast of a book, is ready to get going for the final legs of publishing but… life man.
So, as I said five years ago, I like to let you see the writer behind the words so get ready for a long explanation of the last year of my life. I have spoken about my high-risk pregnancies in past posts, and the struggles those presented. Well… after my final baby came into this world, I thought those troubles were behind me. I picked up the writing mantle hard in Jan of 2023 once my youngest was old enough to allow me some free time. I had lofty publishing goals. I labeled 2023 as ‘My Year’ and vowed to focus on my writing again.
It was a wonderful idea in an ideal world. But life had other plans for me.
My final pregnancy triggered an auto-immune disease, rheumatoid arthritis (RA). This means, my immune system attacks my joints, slowly breaking them down. This causes extreme pain. It all began in May of 23, when I first went to the doctor to have them looked at. By the end of 2023, my wrists were becoming almost unbearable. It took about 8 months to finally get the diagnosis all figured out, and writing was very painful, near impossible. So just before Christmas 2023, I was given the news. And it hit me… hard. It’s incurable and I’m in my early 30’s. I wasn’t expecting it, to be honest. I’m a healthy person overall. But once I got the diagnosis, I started medication. Which took four months to begin working on limiting the pain.
Which led me into the spring, when the pain was dialed down and I started hitting editing and writing hard. Preparing for my book releases. When… my eyes went.
I ended up needed emergency retina surgery on both eyes this past spring. It was… insane and completely unexpected. I had weeks of required downtime where I could not even roll over. Then, still, another month of no computer screens. And still today, even 2.5 months out after the final surgery, I am not fully back up to my norm. Vision is not fully stabilized and migraines are my biggest enemies now. Long story short, they had to place something around my eye to anchor my retina in place and I had some complications in the healing process, most likely due to my autoimmune disease.
But, I am getting back into it now. I write because I love it, not strictly as a job. I love this because not only do I find writing therapeutic; it allows me to stay home with my children while they are little. But it does mean I need to get my butt in gear if I plan to start hitting my self set deadlines.
So, plan for the rest of 2024! I am going to work my tail off for three new releases this year. And pray no more curveballs are sent my way.
I really want to get Golon’s Book, His Mate, published. I have had some questions about if there will ever be more of this series and I promise it’s coming. Golon’s book picks up where The Mated Queen left off and follows Marilee and Golon as they tackle the problem of the finite supply of tatio. Last year, I began posting all my backlog onto Kindle Vella as a means to motivate myself, and it worked! But, that is not the final draft. But it is available on that platform as a completed story. New scenes and additional edits will be made before it goes to long form, but all the same. I know many readers have probably abandoned this ship, and that’s alright. I get it. But it’s coming. Editing is a long process, especially when the book turned out as long as His Mate has. So I’m not sure when to even promise this book. But my goal is by the end of the year. I will update when I know more.
Blackmailed Marriage, my first dark billionaire romance, is complete and ready for editing and to be pushed to long form. It is a genre I became obsessed with, began releasing on Kindle Vella, and it had quite a large response. So it moved up on the chopping block. I am not going very ‘dark’ here, more ‘grey’ but still… read only if this genre is something you like. I would be surprised if I don’t get this one published within the next handful of months. It’s finished, just needs to go off to the editor for polishing.
Last year, when everything was running smoothly, I foolishly agreed to join a ‘Snowed In’ multi author book release for November of this year. So I have a Christmas romance book planned for a November release. I really don’t want to end up backing out of this, so I am working hard to get that one done. Manuscript is close, but it will be a lot of work to get it finished. It’s my goal though.
Well, there you have it. All my plans and best intentions. I am still here, writing away, I always endeavor to update on here, my email subscribers, and my socials whenever there is a new book ready. But, writing is my therapy, so sometimes I just write…
Anyways, thank you all for still being here. Indie Author Life means I wear many hats… and they fall off sometimes.
Happy Reading!
E. M. Jaye Books 