The Truth About A Bit of Gold

Hello, all!

Yes, it’s been a while since I’ve posted — I realize that and I’m very sorry. Still working on balancing all the online and writing stuff with three kids.

Anywho, it was my very fond intention that A Bit of Gold would be released by the end of May. *crickets* And it’s now (basically) the end of May. And the book isn’t anywhere near ready to come out. One, because I’ve not had a lot of time to work on it like I would want. And two… well, because I hit a snag while editing.

You see, A Bit of Gold was the very first book that I wrote from the Twist Tales series while doing National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I love pantsing my NaNo stories, and it always ends up super complicated and wordy and delicious. ABoG isn’t supposed to be super wordy, and that’s where my first problem lies. I am desperately trying to keep these books somewhat in the category of similar length, so I have to be very careful about how much I’m stuffing into this book word-count-wise.

When I finished writing the first draft during NaNo, I liked the book well enough. I was also busy jumping straight into writing book seven of the series, so I didn’t take the time to properly chew over the completed draft. And I kinda regret that. Because as I’ve been editing, the one thing that keeps popping into my head is: “It’s just good enough.”

Ugh.

I don’t want my book to just be good enough. I settled for good enough with The Rose and the Balloon, and I regret that. I would love to go back and re-edit that first book — make it really shine like it’s supposed to. Someday, I might even do that. But I have that chance to shine up A Bit of Gold, and make it really sparkle. I’m going to take that chance. Seth Stendahl deserves a lot better than this first draft I’ve got.

This is something that I’ve been slowly learning with self-publishing. Since I have the ability to make my own deadlines, I’m not tied down by having things be just good enough. I can take that extra time to polish my work and make sure it’s the best it can be. I rushed with The Rose and the Balloon, and although that story holds a very dear place in my heart, I think you can tell that I rushed it. I don’t have to publish a book just to publish a book. If I’m going to share my writing with people, and share these characters that I love so much, I want it to be better than good enough.

I’m not going to settle. I don’t want to make my readers settle.

It’ll be quite a bit of rewriting on my part, as I’ve realized I need to ditch one subplot in favor of another, but it’ll be worth it. To be honest, I’m cutting out a character altogether so that can focus on a minor character who truly needs that extra spotlight. Not because he or she deserves it in any particular way, but because that subplot will make the book. And — if I play it properly — segue perfectly into book six. Warning: I may be working on another epilogue. *dramatic music*

So, A Bit of Gold won’t be available as soon as I was hoping. I am sorry for that, but I’m excited about taking the time to polish this tale properly. I will try to keep you all updated on my rewriting/editing process and when you can mark your calendars for the book’s eventual release.

God bless!

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