Hello 2021!
Creatively, last year didn’t go so well. All of my plans went up in smoke (as did yours, I’m sure!), but this is a new year and I’m feeling very hopeful.
The biggest personal changes that will (hopefully) help me this year are related to my health and day job. Last year, I had surgery and started medication that have helped me manage my chronic illness SO MUCH BETTER. I still have rough days but they are fewer and (generally) more manageable. Yay! The other big thing is that I’m starting a new day job and I’m very excited about it. My previous day job had gotten quite stressful and unstable, and I’m hoping for good things with this new one.
The absence of all that stress has already led to good things, because I was finally able to edit the Brazenbourg duet. And on that note, here’s what I’m working on this year!
BRAZENBOURG DUET – These are both now edited (yay!) and are off to my copyeditor for a final edit. After that, I give it another pass, create the ebook and test it, then finalize it, so I’m hoping I can release the first book in the duet in February, with book 2 soon to follow in March (or, if I run into delays, it would be March and April). Since book 1 ends in a big cliffhanger, I want to release them close together so you’re not waiting too long.
VOLLYWOOD SERIES – Now that my creative mojo is coming back, I’m also back working on the first book in this series. I can’t wait for you meet Ash and Larkin! With any new series, I like to have the first few done before I launch it, so I’m hoping to release at least books 1 and 2 this year but this is still up in the air.
ROYALS SERIES – As of now, I’ve written books for all the royal siblings except for Carolina, and I have several couple-centric books I’d like to write too. Since I’ll be publishing Arianna and Finn’s duet, you will still get a Royals fix this year. I’m not sure if I’ll get to other Royals – I want to finish up the first in the Vollywood series and see what I’m feeling like creatively. Carolina’s story will be hard for me to write (for some personal reasons I’ll share in the future) which is probably why I’ve left her until last, and also why I might do a different Royals book instead, or maybe even another short story instead of a novel.
I’ll do a mid-year check in this summer and give you all an update. For now, you can count on the Brazenbourg duet release in the first few months of 2021.
PRINT BOOKS – These will be releasing this year for the Royals, Seaside, and Brazenbourg series. I’ll be releasing the Royals series first. We’re just finalizing the covers (which are a little trickier in print because the spine widths are different for each book). I’m hoping all my books in those series will be in print by the end of 2021!
The Royals series will also be getting new covers (ebooks, print, and audio) and I’m so excited! The cover for Royals 1 is already done and it looks fabulous!
AUDIOBOOKS – Alexander & Rebecca’s audiobook is done and is available on Audible and Apple Books/iTunes! Because audiobooks are expensive to produce, I’ll be waiting a little while before we start book 2. It will take at least a couple years to get through all the Royals audiobooks alone but, if the first few do well, then I’ll be able to produce the rest more quickly. I LOVE the first one, so I’m excited to get the rest done too.
I think that’s it for now! What are you looking forward to most? Is there a book you’d like to see that I haven’t mentioned above? Comment below and let me know!
~xoxo Marianne
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