While I’ve already made this announcement on my Facebook page, I figured it was about time I updated the rest of the world on why I’ve been mute about The Benighted‘s sequel. For those who aren’t on Facebook, here is that announcement:
I’ve always said that Under A Melting Sun (my Amazon rainforest story) was the hardest story I’ve written so far (hence the reason why it’s still in progress), but Illusory really wanted to take the cake on this one. I’ve never wanted to wrap my hands around a story’s neck and just choke it until Illusory happened, which is why I decided, despite the previous deadlines, to just trash it. Hey, if I hate the way the story is turning out, then ya’ll are gonna hate how the story is turning out. In fact, you’ll hate me, and I’m not taking that kind of heat. Although sequels are known to be the more difficult stories to write due to the hype of the first book, this one really wanted to just send me to a therapist.
So why confess all this now? Mainly, I didn’t want to say anything until I had fixed the problem. Saying you trashed a book can cause panic, especially when people are looking forward to it, but saying that you trashed a book and have taken all this time to rewrite it into something better kind of gives the situation a silver lining. And that’s exactly what’s happened. Over this summer (and as we currently speak), I’ve already rewritten the story line into what it was meant to be. Sure, there will be readers who will probably still not like it, but at least I the author can be proud to call it mine. This is what the vision I had was supposed to look like, and I can now confidently say that.
As to the new release date, it is looking like it will be in November. However, due to my previous actions, nothing will be finalized yet until the story is complete. I would rather take the time to give you guys a story you’ll enjoy instead of rushing it in order to stick to a deadline. I respect my readers too much to give them crap entertainment, so unfortunately that means we all have to wait just a little longer. Luckily, I’m just a few chapters away from completing, so everything should work out this time. 🙂 Hopefully. Fingers crossed.
So in ending, thank you all for your patience and support. I appreciate it beyond words and can never thank you enough for it. ❤ Keep reading, peeps!
A. M. Dunnewin 
That’s so intersting. So you rethought the entire story in a different way?
I have never done such a thing and I’d love to know more about it. To me, stories always had a kind of natural course, so – even when I revise the story completely – the actual movement of the story always remains the same. What about your story? Did you write a completely new one?
I rethought parts of the story, which ended up changing pretty much all of it. 😛 The only reason I did it is because the story was becoming way too dark to the point that it was actually making me really uncomfortable lol! The overall story was supposed to be as dark as Benighted but with more action, and for some reason it became really emotionally dark which started overshadowing the characters. I knew this story was going to be more emotional, but I was hoping it would be more subtle about it. 🙂 Like dark but entertaining, not dark and depressing. Even though I’ve redone it, I think it did really help getting all those thoughts out in the beginning so I could go back and slyly put them back in. I basically saw what the story could become, and was able to rein it back so that it wouldn’t get out of control and scare people. 🙂 Because that’s exactly what it was doing to me, and it wasn’t fun. 😦