Okay, so my newest addition to the YA science fiction genre came out yesterday! I, uh, thought I'd written a blog post about it a couple of weeks ago, but well, I didn't. Ha!
RIFT has had a rough road to publication. It's had highs and lows. Been on submission in New York, been through countless revisions, and got picked up by a publisher (which announced yesterday that they're closing. RIFT would've been out with them in February 2017. Ironic that I released it on the same day they announced their closure, right?!), and then I got my rights back.
I submitted it to Kindle Scout, and they didn't take it. For a few days, I thought I'd just move on my merry way. And then I thought, No, I'll put this book out. I do love the book, and I hope readers will too!
You can get RIFT on Amazon.
Okay, so I've been on a pretty crazy productivity schedule for several months now. The reason is because I'm releasing a new inspirational western romance every 11 weeks. And there was one point in April, where I'd just put up a pre-order and I'd only written ONE CHAPTER of the book.
One chapter.
And the book was coming out in 11 weeks. And I'd only written that chapter so I could put it in the back of the book coming out.
I started panicking a little. I mean, I write fast, but I need time to edit, let the book sit, format, etc.
And I never wanted to be that far behind again. My goal for the summer was to write enough so I could be working 6-7 months ahead of a book's publication date.
I wrote 240,000 words from the last day of school in June to the first day of school in August. And since school started, I've written 2 more books, one at 50K and one at 53K. And I just started another that I'm 20K into.
I have to do this if I want to continue publishing according to my schedule -- and in fact, I've decided to roll out my new series (starting in January) every 6 weeks. SIX WEEKS. But I'm happy to say that the book I'm writing right now doesn't come out until April. So I've achieved that 6 month cushion I wanted for myself.
I'm using Google calendar to keep track of what I should be working on. I give myself 3 weeks to write a 50K book. If I can get 3K/day for the 18 days, I can get really close. I take Sundays off, and I don't work Mondays so I can usually get closer to 5K to make up for any days I don't meet my word count goal.
I draft 2 books back-to-back. Then I take a break for formatting, marketing stuff, relaxation, releases, outlining the next 2 books, etc. That's usually 2 weeks. Then I'm back to drafting.
I feel like I'm doing pretty well at sticking to my schedule, but I also re-evaluate everything every month to prioritize things I may have overlooked, or move a book I'm not feeling like writing. But I have a productivity schedule, and I use it!
Do you do anything like that? How's it going for you?
Okay, so it's been a while since I've released any YA novels. I'm still plugging away on them. I still like writing them. I just think they require so much more brain power than I sometimes have!
But I have a duology coming: The Rift Walkers duology will be published very soon! And they got new covers!
You can get RIFT, the first installment in the series, on October 17. That's my mom's birthday, so I was pretty stoked to release a book that day.
And the second and final book in the series, MEND, will be out on December 11. That's MY birthday, and I've always wanted to release a book on my birthday! So I am going to! It's going to be epic.
I love the covers the fabulous and award-winning Steven Novak did for me. Don't you think they're amazing? (Lie to me!)
Anyway, here's a bit more about the books, with buy links if you're so inclined to pick up a copy.
About RIFT: Seventeen-year-old Saige Phillips can’t help holding on to the hope that she’ll find Chloe, her twin who went missing five years ago. After all, Saige sees echoes of Chloe sitting in the window and skipping down the stairs. Though there’s never been any sound associated with Saige’s “hallucinations,” she’s freaked out by the breathing she hears in her bedroom.
The breathing is definitely real, and it’s definitely not coming from Saige. It’s echoing through a time rift that originates in Saige’s bedroom. Then a grayed-out guy shows up, saying his name is Price and he’s from the future. He has the same blue film clinging to him that Saige has seen on Chloe, and she seizes onto the idea that her twin went through the rift.
As Saige searches for answers in her time, she’s met with secret after secret, all coming back to one source: her physicist mother.
Price lives in the year 2073 with his Time Keeper father and a whole slew of global initiatives that regulate time travel. He knows time shouldn’t be played with. What he doesn’t know is why the rift opened now, or how he can stop it.
The deeper Price digs, the harder the truth is to swallow. His father willfully violating the global time travel initiative is one thing. Stealing the rift site from Saige’s mother is quite another. And kidnapping—or worse—to cover everything up takes things too far.
When the rift begins to show signs of overuse and instability, Price is desperate to close it before it explodes while Saige will do anything to keep it open long enough to find Chloe.
In this dangerous game with time, someone’s bound to lose.
BUY for only $2.99 on Amazon.
About MEND: The high-octane conclusion to the time travel thriller, RIFT.
With Cascade gone through the rift, Price is determined to fix everything and find her. It doesn't matter if there's somebody that could become him--steal his life--on the other side of the rift. What does matter is that he figure out how to mend it.
But he doesn't even have access to it anymore. When he wakes up to a new, different existence than what he's used to, he realizes that everything about time is fluid. And anyone with the power to walk through time can change his entire future.
Cascade knows this all too well, having lived in dozens of realities over the years. And the one she lives in now, she doesn't want. Because it still harbors secrets about her father, who her sister Saige is determined to find.
Find him they do, but no one--not Price, not Saige, not Cascade--is prepared for what they'll find on the other side of the rift...
BUY for only $2.99 on Amazon.
RIFT has had a rough road to publication. It's had highs and lows. Been on submission in New York, been through countless revisions, and got picked up by a publisher (which announced yesterday that they're closing. RIFT would've been out with them in February 2017. Ironic that I released it on the same day they announced their closure, right?!), and then I got my rights back. 
