Hey. So, let me just get the suspenseful part out of the way right now.
I have decided to close out Like A Fine Wine with the fourth novel, and I am sorry.
The primary reason I’m doing this isn’t because of sales or money. I know I’ve complained about it a few times, but that isn’t it. The reason is because I just am not enjoying writing it. Like, at all.
Originally, I intended there to be six novels, and I had a rough idea for each novel. Although I managed to write the first two novels without too much trouble, what I’d call maybe the regular amount of doubt for a novel, (every author goes through varying levels of ‘is this terrible?’ or ‘I’m so sick of this can I work on something else PLEASE?’), the third novel was tough. Very tough. Although I got through it, it was extremely difficult to find the motivation to write. I came to dread it each time I went to work on it. I thought it was a product of my stress, depression, and anxiety, all of which spiked near the last quarter of 2020. And although certainly those things were not helping, I can tell now that it wasn’t just me, it was also the story.
Because after a break, I got to work on Like A Fine Wine 4 and almost immediately ran into the same problem. It’s been very tough and I hate to admit that my heart just isn’t in it. As I began approaching the end of Like A Fine Wine 4, I initially resolved to wrap the series up with a fifth novel, but even the thought of that feels impossible to me right now. Even if I were to take a hiatus from the book and come back to it later, I’m confident it wouldn’t matter. I’d have just as much difficulty in April or September as I would right now.
So I’m going to wrap it up with this fourth novel.
I am genuinely sorry. If it was different, if I was feeling neutral towards it or even just kind of bad, I’d push on, but that just isn’t the case. It’s become obvious to me that working on the series is really clogging me up creatively and draining me emotionally. It’s so hard to work on other material because I know I’ll have to go back to writing something I just do not want to write. There have been times in the past when I’ve pushed on with certain projects no matter how bad they made me feel, no matter how unreasonable it seemed, and I feel like I’ve almost always suffered when I’ve chosen to push past the breaking point. I’ve had to make a few tough choices before, like ending Paranormal Passions and Valkyries at three stories instead of going on like I originally intended, or canceling Women of the Wild, or leaving Adventurous as a single novel instead of making it into a series.
I don’t know what else to say, really. I know some of you were really looking forward to more, and the only solace I have to give you is that, at some point in the future, I do still intend to write a follow-up series with Jack and a few others.
I hope you’ll forgive me, but I’ll understand if you’re upset.
I’m going to try and have Like A Fine Wine 4 finished up relatively soon, then the Complete Series will go up.
Again, I am sorry. I wish it could have gone differently, but the very second I asked myself ‘What if I stopped at book four?’, something inside immediately went ‘That is the correct thing to do’.
I did get a fifth cover made, and I’ll release it soon so everyone can see it.