I think the first six months of 2016 have been the craziest I’ve experienced for a long while. My work schedule lost two months (one month was planned, the other not!). I returned from my bucket list trip to the States last week and suddenly it’s July!

(A bucket list item ticked—my visit to Las Vegas in June)

This leaves six months until the end of the year and I’ve spent some time thinking about my writing schedule.

My release schedule this year has been insane. I received the rights back for four books which I needed to re-edit/re-release. Plus, I was writing and releasing the Ruby Riot series. I used pre-order on Amazon which added extra pressure (if you don’t know, Amazon bans authors from pre-orders for a year if the author misses the upload deadline). This makes deadlines tighter than I’d like and adds more pressure. Lesson learned – my pre-orders will be fewer in the future!

This is my intended release schedule. I am attempting to pull back on the amount of pressure I was under earlier this year and move back to a sensible pace. I also have more changes I need to make in my personal life which I expect will have an impact in the next few months. So, I’m being sensible and telling myself I can’t write four books at once. Just two. Haha

First I have to answer a question a few people might be thinking: what’s with all the LJ Swallow releases when Forever Sky isn’t published yet? You keep promising!

The answer is that the Soul Ties series is a re-release and that the Othala/Fallen Sorcery project I’m involved in is a commitment I made last year (more details about that HERE). Dark Elements must be released on October 20th as it is part of a series and that’s my scheduled date.

After the disruption to my writing schedule I had two options: I rush Forever Sky just to get the book published before working on Dark Elements or I take my time and release the book Dylan and Sky (and especially my readers) deserve. I chose the second option. I’ve started serialising Forever Sky on Wattpad for those who’d like to follow the story as I write but it seems the majority of you want to wait to read all at once. I am working on Forever Sky a little every day even though I’m writing Dark Elements too.

So here we go…

Tuesday 12th!
21 Shades of Night Limited Edition Paranormal Boxed Set.
Soul Ties is included in this. One million words of romantic paranormal fiction for 99c

July 26th: Fated Souls  (A Soul Ties Novella) – LJ Swallow (a book I can finally publish after writing almost three years ago!)

October 20th: Dark Elements (Othala Witch Collection) – a paranormal dystopian by LJ Swallow

Fall 2016: Forever Sky (Blue Phoenix #6) – I will keep you updated on pre-order which should be soon.

Publishing between late 2016 and mid 2017: A new series of three contemporary romance books.

The first is about Myf (from the Blue Phoenix series) and I wrote the first chapter a few months ago. Dylan is in this book briefly. If you know the Blue Phoenix books, you’ll know how close to and protective he is of Myf. So he appears as her friend and not because it’s another rock star book… It isn’t! The series will be totally separate. More details on these books later in the year.

Early/Mid 2017: Shattered Souls – the next Soul Ties book (LJ Swallow).

June 2017: Another secret project in the Fallen Sorcery world.

I will try to stick to this schedule but another thing I’ve learned this year is life can get complicated very quickly, and plans have to change. That’s why I’m a bit vague about dates right now.

A big thank you to my supporters this year, especially to my readers and the bloggers who chat to me or have messaged and emailed me with lovely words about my books. I may not be the biggest author but I’m happy my job is something I love. I’m constantly amazed I achieved my dream and people buy, read (and even re-read) my books. Thank you.
And to everybody else (you know who you are!) thank you for helping me through, and for your friendship.