We have all seen how much the world can change in the last two years. With that, so do priorities. With significant issues needing to be focused on around my house, I had to prioritize my family and our household. In doing so, I started working outside the home again.
My job is a very important one, and I am passionate about what I am doing, but it is intense, and it is hard to switch that intensity off to write sometimes. I travel a lot and spend hours teaching classes online and in person. My creative side isn’t always at its best when I am home.
I have been working on Mission: Gratitude for the last several weeks. It was set to release in November, but unlike the first four books, this story is not flowing the way I expected it to. It’s been like pulling teeth, and I know better than to force the issue.
With the deadline closing in, the stress was growing. These books go through a much more in-depth editing than my other romance novels. Scenes are reviewed by special people who have given input on the technical aspects of the story. The story is then read by a couple of ARC readers before it even goes to editing, then it goes through 3-4 rounds of editing with my main editor before it goes through two separate proofreaders, and then on to more ARC readers. This process takes months, and I don’t even have a quarter of the story nailed down.
That is why I have canceled the pre-order for Mission: Gratitude. It was a tough decision, but one that I believe I needed to make. I will not rush this story. It is not like I am just trying to give two characters a happily ever after, but I am showing how people overcome struggles that some of us could never quite comprehend.
When will it be released? Well, when it’s ready. I will not put it on pre-order again but will immediately release it once it has been written to my satisfaction and has gone through the entire editing process.
My sincerest apologies to those of you who have been waiting for it. I know this is the second time I have canceled the pre-order, and it frustrates me to no end that I have had to do that. I just can not rush the books in this particular series. I do hope that you can understand how difficult this decision has been.
Sincerely – Stacy Eaton