The Awakening Trilogy Answers
For everyone who always asks about The Awakening Trilogy and Beyond the Awakening.
First: It is being changed from The Awakening Trilogy to The Awakening Series. Beyond the Awakening was supposed to be both a spinoff and a continuation of the storyline. Instead of doing that, I am just going to put them all under one solid umbrella.
Second: I'm frustrated too!
That's where we'll start. I've written Beyond the Awakening, re-written it because I hated the first one (okay there have been probably four different versions over the years), and then lost the files to a computer crash. Then I reread the original trilogy again to refresh myself for starting over, and decided that it should have never been seen by the public (despite how much everyone enjoyed it). The original electronic files for the trilogy were also lost, making this a much more difficult task on my end.
The trilogy was my very first foray into publishing and I've learned a lot since then, including the fact that I couldn't trust people I gave thousands of dollars to for editing that series. It was dreadful, considering. My intention, when I pulled the whole thing from publication, was to give it a facelift and turn my oldest baby into something I could be proud of.
In the interim, I still had to make money to pay the bills, so I've worked on other books, had day jobs on and off, dealt with almost losing a child and the health issues afterward, and moved a few times too. Lots of things took priority over getting the facelift done and the spinoff finished because they had to.
I've been hopeful a few times that I could get it fixed up and things were finally looking good again just before Covid hit. Then everyone's world got turned upside down and mine was no exception. So, it was delayed again.
I'm also a temperamentally creative person and if I'm not feeling it, I can't do it. Stress (for all the above listed reasons and more) is a huge reason that I get stifled and bogged down by projects. So, it has been slow going in trying to get back in a place where 1) I have the time and 2) am in a creative place where it's possible.
Currently I am working on:
Newer titles - because I have to pay those bills and some titles sell better than others. Business decisions suck, but they're necessary.
Working on repairing/reformatting a lot of old book titles that were dumped (for a time) exclusively into Amazon for Kindle Unlimited, and now that I want them to be released wide, I've realized the original ebook formatted files are no longer available thanks to a wiped computer. So, those are being put back together and re-released to a wider audience.
Working on older titles, like The Awakening Trilogy, as time permits. I just finished refurbishing The Ancients Series earlier this year. So, it's happening. Now that The Ancients Series is done, all my extra time will be devoted to getting through the fixes for The Awakening (Trilogy) Series and the future books that go with it. That includes new covers, interiors, and the addition of at least one new book to the series.
I wish I had all the time in the world to get everything done that needs doing, but I'm just one person. I'm also a full-time (sole parent) single mom, so the responsibility for parenting is 100% on my shoulders and takes time too. I won't even tell you how many hours a week I already work, because frankly it's disturbing, but again, with just one of me - there's never enough time.
As it stands, I wouldn't expect to see The (new) Awakening Series until 2022 at the earliest. Again, it will depend on the time I have available to work on it. It is my backlist priority now that The Ancients Series has been re-released.
I know this still doesn't give a solid timeframe, but it's the best I can do, for now.