These past few weeks have been crazy with releasing the book and ironing out things that still needed ironing out! I can’t believe how many issues have popped up even after this book has been released! It seems like every day there is something new. My new favorite issue is Barnes and Noble’s paperback copy of my book … which has a completely different cover, by a completely different author. Needless to say, a call was immediately placed to get the situation under control … but we were informed that it could take days. DAYS! Another joyful day of being the self-published author over here!

But that’s the small stuff I guess. My book is still out. It’s being read. And good or bad I am continuing on my journey with book 2 as promised. On the bright side I guess I can at least say that I know now what to do when releasing book 2 … fingers crossed that I don’t need to add to my ever-growing list of things that I need to know for next time…

However, that brings me to my other dilemma of the day – Connor and Riley – or more specifically, Riley!!!!!

Over the past few months Connor has had such a strong presence in my head so I’ve known for a while exactly who he is. I’ve only really touched upon Riley. When I wrote the sneak peek for Chaotic Beauty a few months ago, I thought I had a basis for who Riley was/is. It wasn’t until these past two weeks when I’ve been creating scenes and happenings for Riley and Connor (and a few others) that I realized I was WRONG about who Riley is.

When I write I need to have an outline … it’s basic but I need to know my start and end points and a few things that happen along the way. Of course I know it will change – it completely changed for Unexpected Beauty – but some things (like whole scenes and even chapters that I wrote out on paper weeks and sometimes months in advance) didn’t.  During this past week especially, I found myself up at 3 and 4 in the morning creating things for Connor and Riley that I know I will NOT be changing in the future when I get to these specific things. Tweaking and hammering out things a little better – sure – but changing it – NO. But that leaves me in such a sucky position because the Riley I am in love with now, is not the same Riley from the sneak peek in Unexpected Beauty. She’s not exactly the foul-mouthed person that we meet in the beginning of Connor and Riley’s story.

I will admit that even before I released book 1 I struggled with the editing of a certain part that she has in her dialogue with Aiden … but each time I wanted to run my red sharpie through it, or hit the backspace button and just create something new, I found myself laughing at what she said and just thinking … it’s a real-life moment (we’ve probably all had times when we have stumbled along saying something and words don’t come out right and you catch it too late but pray nobody else catches it and when they do, you don’t know what to say and more embarrassment and stumbling ensues … and then WHAM, you’re buried deep and saying way too much of things best not discussed) … so I left it.  BUT NOW, knowing what I know as the writer … certain characteristics that I gave Riley before don’t mesh well… like her bad-mouth and some of the things she says. SOOOO chances are, I will be going back to the beginning of Chaotic Beauty and changing a few details about Riley around … I NEED to. Riley this week is so much better than Riley from a few weeks ago … trust me!

I must say that writing book 2 is a lot more fun … and also a lot harder. Duel POV is no joke! I am still madly in love with Connor, but I must say, I am really loving Riley just as much, and I don’t think I would have if I didn’t write the book this way. I learned my lesson from book 1, and not being able to truly explore Liam’s character with the readers (of COURSE I knew who Liam was, what he was thinking, feeling, doing at times, why he felt certain ways and did certain things etc., but others didn’t and it was hard!!!) so I knew that duel POV’s was the way to go, and I am really pleased that I made that decision. Some of the scenes in the middle and towards the end that I’ve written for book 2 … Jesus … I am so happy I went with exploring and being in the minds of both Connor and Riley! It really is a chaotic mess … a chaotic BEAUTIFUL mess!

And speaking of that, I guess I actually need to get back to plotting, and outlining, and planning, and all that stuff… and then typing so you can actually read it on time! Ha-Ha. So until next time … happy reading!  xoxo