Five years ago I started a story titled Will I Ever Love Again. I finished it on a few occasions and deleted it as I would start all over. January 2014 I took another dab at it, and reached out to a few people on Goodreads for some insight. This lead me on a path to meet my PIC (Partner in Crime) across the pond, and we instantly bonded over how both of our characters were named Izzie.
Months of going back and forth with both of our stories, led me to stop at 40,000 words. I was bored with this one, and Logan Black wanted to be created. It’s funny how this one project book became the first one to ever be released. Then came The Chances Series and I finished two more books and a novella. All this happened while this one special story sat in my USB drive, waiting to be touched again. I would open it, read a few lines and close it back down. It was such a rough draft that this year around the end of February I debated on deleting the whole thing once again, or re-write the 40,000 words. A few of my authors friends that had read the old version finally talked me into working it over. UGH… I was ready to pull my hair out.
I’ll admit as I read each line, I slapped myself and would delete, re-write, and delete some more. They always say the more you write, the more you listen to the feedback; you grow. This was the case as I read and knew a little more on how to make the words pop and all that fun stuff that us writers get to do. It took a little over a month of focus, and hard work to take it apart and rebuild the first part of the story. Then came the hard part… Finishing…
Between all this, I signed with Booktrope Publishing and had to devote sometime to getting Chances and Changes relaunched. It was a nice little break as I needed to step away from what I was doing.
As I dove back into the words on the page, I started not feeling the title anymore and renamed a story that had been done so many times. Will I Ever Love Again became Fading Memories.
The story developed as each chapter closed and took a few dives around the corners that I didn’t see coming. In the end it turned out just the way it needed to be finished.
Usually I’m the one that is super excited to close a chapter and/or story, but this one seems so final. It’s like the story that has to be told, but when it’s over; it’s over. As I work on each section of my projects, I always look forward to the next stage. This includes editing, proofing, and the final layout selection. I hands down love my publishing team, and this time around things were so different. This was the first book to take me on the start to finish with a publishing team. Where feedback comes to play, re-writes happen, and then the always bang your head against the wall happens. Totally different than a re-launch, but so nice as it all flows together.
I’m usually bouncing on the edge of my seat when I get the final proof back, this did not happen with Fading Memories. I looked over the changes, approved the additions, and read the notes. I in fact did this so many times that I’m now cross with the pages since Friday.
Today, I finally uploaded it to layouts and made it real. So real that my heart broke when I hit submit. I believe that every author has that one story that is hard to release, that one that’s more than just a story. This is that one for me, it’s more than just a story as parts of it have been lived and I hold it close to my heart. Because of this, I think that makes it that much harder to release it in eight weeks.
With all the emotions aside, I hope that each and ever fan loves it just as much as I do.
Just a little insight to Fading Memories and the journey from behind the scenes. Every Tuesday we will post a new teaser, and I can’t wait to share the cover with you guys.
Thanks again to all my fans, family, friends, and team for the hard work put into this one story.
