I published two novels (Submerged and Deprogrammed), and I published multiple short stories (Spark, Strength, and Standby). And I started working on the final novel in the Emile Reed series, Rebooted, which is almost complete and ready for all of you to read.
And of course, there was the Criminal Minds thing. Which is still crazy to me, even months later. It's amazing how much has changed since they used my quote on the show. More people have discovered my books, which I'm grateful for since I'm incredibly shy and I suck at self-promotion. It's still baffling, really, but I will forever be grateful for that.
But with the good came plenty of bad.
This year was incredibly tough when it came to my personal life. Normally, I try to be as vague as possible when I discuss my personal life on here, but this is something I feel the need to discuss.
When I write, I usually use my stories to escape from whatever is going on in my life. A perfect example would be Loss of Time, a short story included in We Are All Strangers. I wrote it after my grandmother passed away from cancer last year to submit to an anthology call. Another example would be Collide, the story that I've been meaning to release for the past year. If you've been wondering why I haven't published it yet, there's a reason for that: I've rewritten this story NUMEROUS times because I wasn't happy with it.
The latest edition was written after I nearly lost someone that I truly care about to drug addiction.
When I've been taking breaks from the blog and from writing? It wasn't to be lazy. I'll admit, I am quite lazy when I'm home thanks to working 9am-8pm most days, but the blogging breaks have been because I needed time to myself. My head hasn't exactly been in the right place these past couple of months, which is why you don't have Collide right now.
You see, this all started back in May. Someone I trusted, someone that I cared about, stole from me. As in, they cleared out my bank account, leaving me with nothing. That was the beginning of the hell to come. I spent from May to October, right before I left for New York, actually, fighting with the bank to get my money back. When I was on vacation, I figured everything was finally okay, that things would start to settle down. That wasn't the case. Because the night before I left for NY, someone had robbed my parents.
The cops were investigating it when I left, and we figured it'd all be taken care of soon enough. Whatever. Except it wasn't whatever, because the person that did it? Well, it was someone near and dear to me, someone that I looked up to as a kid, and now? It'll be a few years before I'm able to see them again.
I'd been watching this person struggle with addiction for years, and it was this year that I feared I'd lose them to the disease, and all of that pain? That worry? That fear? I expressed it in Collide. I poured my heart into this book. I gave everything I had inside of me to this book.
I'm big on writing strong sibling relationships, as showcased in Capture (Autumn and Keith) , Program 13 (Emile and Hayden), and Submerged (Taylen and Penelope). Family is a big thing for me. And that's because I'm very close to both of my brothers, which is why this has all hit me so hard and why I've been so distant.
I do apologize for the long stretches of silence. I know that they can be annoying, especially when I have authors and publishers waiting on reviews from me, but there are times when I just need to pull away and clear my head. And well, I think I did just that when I allowed myself to pour my emotions into Collide.
(No worries, Collide is a NA romance, it's just there's an emotional story beneath Ben and Gemma's romance.)
Will you be able to read it soon? I hope so. As soon as I finish work on Rebooted, I'm going to submit the new edition of Collide to a few publishers and agents. To me, it's my strongest book yet. I want to try the traditional route first. And if it doesn't work out? Well, you'll have it next year. I'm not rewriting it again. The Collide that exists today? That is the book that I didn't know that I needed to write.
Going into 2014, I'm looking forward to the unknown.
I do plan on querying a few titles (Collide, Decoding Evie, and As We Fall).
No worries, I still plan on self-publishing, but I'd love to sign with an agent and possibly sell a title next year. I'm setting goals for myself this year, haha.
I'm hoping to be able to schedule some signings, but work and lack of funds are going to make that a bit difficult. We'll see! If anything, I do plan on attending a few book events in Orlando!
For anyone that has taken a chance on one of my books: I heart you so hard. Even if you hated it. It still means a lot that you'd be willing to read what I'd written. <3
Here's to a wonderful 2014 for everyone.
And here's an idea of what to expect from me in 2014:
- New Beginnings (The Emile Reed Chronicles, 3.5) -- YA Sci-Fi
- Rebirth (The Emile Reed Chronicles, 0.3) -- NA Sci-Fi
- Survival Instinct (The Yearning, 1) -- YA Sci-Fi
- Stouthearted (Outbreak, 2) -- YA Dystopian
- *As We Fall (The Shaden, 1) -- YA Sci-Fi
- *As We Rise (The Shaden, 2) -- YA Sci-Fi
- Is Love: Volumes 2-6 -- YA Dystopian
- *Capture (Capture, 1) -- YA Fantasy/Paranormal
And yes, McVeigh's novel is officially titled Rebirth.
Leaving this here...
<3 Nicole
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