Ah! Who doesn’t appreciate a good dose of self-chastisement in relation to procrastination of work that should have been handled and the resulting looming deadlines that, inevitably, will not be met? Well – this post is my confession to just that, as well as the knock-on effect that it will have to other writing projects… But I am getting ahead of myself, so I shall start this litany of excuses (couched in self-recrimination) from the very beginning.
Firstly, I have been struggling a bit with the pacing and certain plot points or events in my second novel, The Trials of Ata (it’s been quite the trial *ba-dum-tssss*), and like any well-adjusted and independently functioning adult, I have been dealing with it in an appropriate and time-tested fashion: by avoiding the tricky bits and just pottering on as best I can without dealing with the core issues.
Writing around the problems, as you can imagine, did not take off. I hit a snag about a quarter of the way in, as the proverbial elephant(s) in the room could no longer be circumvented. Then the next phase of my carefully constructed plan kicked in: avoid writing Trials altogether, and proceed to faff around with other projects, thereby feeling very productive whilst simultaneously managing to avoid the most pressing project – the deadline of which was looming.
Hence, we reach the greatest consequence, i.e., fact that I am still grappling (at least actively and not hypothetically, by this point) with the redistribution of events between Trials and The Dispersion of Ata (book number 3, for those who are unaware). Needless to say, I am nowhere near ready for the planned release date at the end of November – hurrah for me – and I have thus made the mature (read: desperate) decision to relegate the release date for Trials to 2025.
(Cue the anger and tears of all the readers of Assays that were looking forward to Trials… )
However, there is light in this hour of darkness, for I have not been idle in my idleness (forgive the repetition, but it is for effect, I assure you). I have cobbled together a short, prequel novella for The Chronicles of Áitarbith and will be releasing that early in the New Year in lieu of Trials. Here is the cover, and you can find the blurb by clicking on this link.
I realise that this is not what was promised (as my sister said, quite cynically, upon hearing this announcement: this is the amuse bouche no-one asked for, while being hungry for the meat and potatoes of the main), yet I like to think it goes a little way towards providing some Áitarbithian reading early in the New Year. Something is better than nothing, after all.
On a further positive note (but still in line with unburdening my soul): I have been prodigiously productive on the new book ideas front, having come up with no fewer than five new projects (one of which is a sequel duology to Ata’s trilogy). I have also managed to map out their plots and flesh out the central characters, so… productive procrastination for the win?
At the very least, I am really eager to get my teeth into these writing projects, but will only get around to them from next year onwards (and definitely, absolutely after Trials, as I have been reminded assiduously by my siblings).
And so we have reached the end of my confessions, which (though perhaps not particularly shocking or salacious) have been haunting me over the past two months, and I am therefore very relieved to unburden myself. Onward and upward! Let the writing commence!
K.I.S.
