What I’m Working On (And Not)

Working On:

1. A new contemporary romance series of standalone novels that will include Anywhere. I never intended to create a series when I wrote Anywhere, but I’ve since come up with a group of college friends that Skye and her best friend Paige hang out with. I’m currently working on Paige’s book, which will chronologically take place before Anywhere, and it introduces all the characters that future books will focus on. The series is going to include The Book I Wasn’t Ready To Write a year and a half ago, as well as the one I started writing in its place on the Retreat of Awesome (which I then put aside to write the Untamed series with Victoria).

It’s been quite an undertaking to figure out timelines and general story lines ahead of time so I can plant the seeds in this first book of Paige’s. And I’m setting it in a fictional town on the coast of Massachusetts, so that’s another level of detail I haven’t needed to attend to in a contemporary novel before because I’ve previously set my books in real places. But I’m having fun with it, and can’t wait to share these books with you.

Paige’s book is called Love Changes Everything (because love really DOES change everything). That’s also going to be the series name. At this point, I’m thinking there will be 7-8 books in the series. (I have some serious work to do, my friends!)

2. The romantic-comedy series of standalone books co-authored with Victoria Green I told you about way back in April. We’d hoped to get the first two books out earlier in the year, but things got delayed. So we’re shooting for a release this fall for our wedding planner book, Happily Ever Now, and her column-writing friend’s book Yours Truly. These are funny and sexy books, and we are so excited to get them out into the world soon!

What I’m (Sadly) Not:

Remember when I announced with great delight that I was FINALLY going to write the next book in the Intangible series? Yeah. Well…cue red-faced me right about now. I was all excited about it and set up some promos to garner attention for the first two books, try to get new readers into the series while I was writing…but the sales just weren’t there. My feeling is the YA trends have swayed away from paranormal at the moment (I’m pretty sure what’s selling best is contemporary, thanks in great part to John Green), and if I’m not able to drum up interest and sales because people aren’t reading as much fantasy right now, I simply can’t justify spending several months to a year writing a book that hardly anyone will buy.

So, I’m not writing the third Intangible book right now.

I know. I know. I’m so sorry. I feel awful because I know there are those of you who love the series and are dying to find out what happens next. I HATE disappointing you guys, and I don’t want to leave you hanging. When trends swing back toward fantasy and I have the sales to justify the work, I will jump back into that world PRONTO. *I’m* disappointed, too. I’d really wanted to live in that world again, but I have to make the best business decisions for my career.

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I’ve got tons of ideas floating through my mind about all kinds of stories I want to write (I want to do some YA contemporary soon!), and am taking notes, letting ideas simmer to see what fills out and rises to the top. So much I want to do—I just wish I wrote faster. :-)

I hope you all are finding lots of great reads, and wish you a bookishly good weekend ahead.
<3,
jen