BOOK TWO: IT’S TIME.
Um. In six months.
Still: six months goes by so quickly! I can’t believe we’re already in June of this completely ludicrous year. So if the next six months go as quickly as the previous six did, well, it’s basically time for Freed by Flame and Storm, right? Or maybe I’m just eager to get it in everyone’s hands.
Or maybe I’m terrified of that, actually. A fact that I realized when I saw that ARCs had begun to go out to reviewers. You’d think that, having done this once before, I’d be a little bit better able to deal — but nope! Somehow, knowing that Freed is in the hands of a few people right now is actually way more nerve wracking than when people started to get copies of Bound. See, the first time around, it was just putting something out into the world. I worked hard. I loved my book. I just had to hope other people would, too.
And some of them did!
But that means that now there are expectations out there. Will Freed live up to Bound? Will the resolution to Jae’s story actually satisfy anyone? As a reader, I always want conclusions to be exciting and totally unexpected — while also making total sense and feeling inevitable. But I have no idea if I lived up to my own standards.
Making art is weird like that. You know what you’re trying to put out into the world, but publishing is the act of giving away. Will people get out what you put in? All you can do is hope for the best.
So I’m hoping for the best. Writing Freed was a struggle — and oh boy is that a blog entry for another day — but I’m proud of it. I think it’s a more complicated book than Bound, but I also have no perspective on it at all. But soon, well, soon it will be out in the world and you can judge for yourself.
In the meantime, though, just in case you haven’t read Bound by Blood and Sand yet, here’s a giveaway to help you get caught up. (Don’t worry, I’ll do at least one ARC giveaway for Freed when we get closer to the release!) There are a ton of ways to enter — and even if you’ve already read the book, maybe enter to win a copy for a friend? Or at least sign up for my new newsletter to find out more about the book and what else I’ve got in the works.
Good luck!
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