So, I got my rights back...

Yep. That's right.

Remember that book I was really excited about contracting with Samhain Publishing last year? It was called RAISING SOME HELL and had an awesome cover made by the brilliant Kanaxa. RSH also happens to be the second book in the Elsewhere duology. The first one, HELL OF A RIDE, is already available, and will be until Samhain closes its doors.

As it turns out, the timing for RSH was (unfortunately) all wrong. Because we hadn't started the editing process at the time Samhain announced it was closing, this book didn't meet the cut-off. The positive outcome is that I was eligible to get my rights reverted. And last week, I got the letter. But, getting the rights back turned out to be a lot more bittersweet than I expected.

While it's awesome that Samhain Publishing were super efficient and emailed the letter to me ASAP, this story is now left in a weird spot called Limbo. I don't know what I'm going to do with RSH. The duology has been split. A duology I was very excited about sharing. 

You see, I was lucky enough to have the Sierra Fox series entirely published (in both eBook and paperback) by Samhain Publishing. Then I wrote the spin-off duology featuring two of my favourite secondary characters: Lavie and Willow. These two girls had a LOT more stories to tell and I was ecstatic about sharing their separate novels.

These two books were supposed to round out all the stories I had planned to write in Sierra's world. Willow's book takes place 5 years after A STITCH ON TIME, and we get to find out where Sierra is now. So it's disappointing that it wasn't released alongside the others.

Yeah, a total bummer.

I don't know where to go from here with this story. Not yet.

Do I sub RSH somewhere and hope someone is willing to publish a stand-alone that fits into a larger world? Do I think about self-publishing? Or do I just let the book sit on my hard drive? I honestly don't know. I've already got a bunch of homeless books sitting on my hard drive from the DB/EP debacle. 

So...

The state of the publishing industry is too shaky at the moment. Too many companies are closing, others are merging, a lot of authors are choosing the self-pub route. The competition is fierce, it's hard to stand out. It's all too hard and confusing right now.

I feel like I've reached a crossroads in my writing adventure. I'm looking to my left and right, trying to figure out where to turn.

One of these days I'm sure I'll make a decision about RSH, but for now--since no one's honking behind me yet--I'm just going to keep the engine idling at the crossroads.

Hold on, is that a semi I see in my rearview mirror? ;)

Decisions, decisions.