Refining Ties: an update and expectations

Hi friends.

Dave here, your friendly neighborhood author, with a few updates on the state of things.

Firstly, I just want to apologize for the lack of content, engagement, and overall presence in the author space recently. I've been largely vacant from social media and this blog and all the other places that you might expect to hear from me. There's a few factors that led to this, and I want to try and give some explanation. If not for you, than for me.

Firstly, I think we're all aware of the current state of the world. Regardless of your views, current events are heavy and hectic in every direction. Every time you turn on your computer or unlock your phone, something is trying to tell you about what's going on. It's overwhelming, to say the least. Disconnecting from it all is one of the only ways to get some peace, and I've been trying to do that more. Mental health is important, and when I feel mine start to struggle, I need to take a moment and recenter myself.

Secondly, and I think another thing most people are noticing as well, is the state of work in general. As you all know, I am by no means a full time author (yet), and that comes with the task of having to maintain a day job while also working on the novels. Novel writing is hard, everyone can agree on that. It's mentally taxing, and the work, motivation, and effort that needs to be maintained to see it through can be enough for a full time job on it's own. Add in trying to navigate and - in my case - manage people in a corporate environment, and it's a lot to handle all at once. Companies are looking for every way to reduce costs and increase profits, and usually that comes directly from the people doing the actual work. It's a mentally straining game to play each day, and in my case, can lead to weeks going by without being able to touch the novel due to the need for recovery.

More specifically to me and the journey that has been Refining Ties, things have been all over the place. This being the first attempt at a sequel and series, there were a lot of obstacles that I didn't expect. Navigating keeping the character true to themselves, ensuring tie-ins to the first book while also building a narrative that can sustain itself through this book and the next: it's a lot. Plot was a large part of this, because I needed something that could be satisfying as a novel itself while also being widespread enough to require a conclusion in the third book. One of the problems from that, however, was my tendency to race through the internal conflicts and leave the story feeling somewhat light. My editor pointed this out to me on the initial pass. Instead of editing the story as it stood, she gave me rough, wide spread changes and direction, and sent me back to work.

Having to rework the entire story was great, and it produced something that I was much happier with, but time until my planned October release was quickly running out. I sat down to do a final pass of editing before calling it finished, and spotted a few things that stuck out to me as subpar. Not to mention, from the business side of things, my marketing and hype has been lacking due to the aforementioned real life issues. As I type this, it's October 9th, and that leaves about 3 weeks before the end of the month. To have the book ready, I would need to finish the editing and reworking of the scenes, plus finalize the print covers from the designer, build a marketing plan, and throw it all out. As much as I'm excited to get this out to you all, I've developed a certain level of quality that I want from my work, and I don't think I can bring it to that level in the time allotted.

This leads me to the main point of this post. I think I'm going to delay Refining Ties. Now, before you get concerned, don't fret! With this delay to ensure the quality of the story, there are some upsides. The major one being that this allows me to solidify and fully commit to an expectation, and that expectation is going to be March 2nd, 2026. While I'm a bit unsure of how a novel set in the autumn season will fare in spring, I think this is a good amount of time to fully iron out all the kinks in the story, while also allowing me time to get all the details worked out and polished. This also allows me some time over the winter to play around with a few other ideas I've had rolling around in my head. One of those being the final installment of the Pointe DeLeaux Chronicles, and another being a collection of horror-esque short stories I've been toying with for about a year as well. If we're lucky, maybe next year will be the year of a double book release! Wouldn't that be something?

If you've read this far, I know this probably isn't the news you want to hear. To be honest, it's not really the news I want to give. But sometimes, sacrifices needs to be made to ensure quality. And rest assured that it WILL be coming out, just not in the timeframe that I'd set expectations of. It's better to wait for the right time than it is to never have it at all.

In personal news, my 20 year high school reunion was last weekend, and I have a plethora of feelings about that experience. Despite what I thought, they're mostly all good as well! I saw people that I hadn't seen in years, reconnected with old, close friends, and generally realized that there was a lot more love floating around than I ever thought. While the realization that we've become "old" was ever present, it was balanced by the fact that we still have a lot of life ahead of us, and we're still the same fun-loving people we used to be. It's given me some perspective on what's important. Plus, I got to tell people about the books, which is always a fun experience.

To close this out, I want to say I'm sorry but I'm not sorry. I've been looking forward to this book release as much as anyone, and delaying it hurts me a lot, but I think everything will be better for it, and I want to give it the best chance of success. At the end of the day, self-publishing means managing all aspects of the process, and while I have to scold the writer Dave for not meeting expectations on deadlines, business Dave needs to pivot to make it work. I think we've come to a happy medium, and I'm still as excited as ever to get it out to you all.

Remember, words take work, and work takes passion.

Refining Ties will be out March 2nd, 2026!

-Dave