Plans for the Rest of 2021 and Beyond

Hello everyone!

As you may recall from my last update post, I had some plans for the rest of this year with regard to cover changes, formatting, and revisions. I thought I'd share how all of it is coming along.

As a reminder, here's what I said the plans were:

"My goal is to have the covers updated everywhere by the end of May, formatting on Not Until Tonight updated by summer, design a new cover for Now You Can See by the fall, and have If Only We revised and upload the new version by the time we reach its anniversary (October 27th)."

Here's what has (and hasn't) been accomplished:

Update Covers Everywhere: Yes!! I shared them everywhere, including here on the blog. Check out the posts to see the new covers of If Only We and Not Until Tonight if you missed it.

Format Not Until Tonight: Yes!! I updated the formatting on Not Until Tonight and uploaded it to all retailers.

Create Cover for Now You Can See: Not yet. I was hoping to get myself a tablet this summer so that I could create the design I have in my mind. Unfortunately, my medical bills from the last year have prevented me from being able to get the tablet.

Revise & Republish If Only We: Not yet. While it isn't October 27th yet, I can already tell you this will not happen on time. I did get the revisions started, but it's actually going to take longer than I originally anticipated.

What are my plans for the rest of 2021 then?

When it comes to writing and publishing, I've decided to press pause for the time being. I discuss the reasons why on my Lilly blog, but I'll share a short version here.

I've been facing some new medical issues lately, which included the possibility of needing another surgery due to a new cyst being discovered on my ovary. Thankfully, the cyst has since disappeared and I no longer need surgery. However, before finding that out, I did some soul searching and decided that ultimately I need to spend the rest of 2021 taking a step back from everything. I haven't been in a good headspace all year in general and it has affected my ability to write more than I thought it would.

The plan for the remainder of the year is to simply do what I can. I'll still be writing, whether it's actually writing, revising, or outlining, but I'm not setting up deadlines or specific goals. I want to utilize this time to take care of myself in all aspects of life. This way I'm able to go into the new year refreshed and less anxious about pushing myself to do more than I can handle.

In that case, what are my plans for 2022?

First and foremost, I want 2022 to be the year I publish something new. There's a first draft of a novella that I completed a couple years ago that needs to be thoroughly revised. It's the first in a series, so there will be more taking place in the same small town featuring other characters.

Also, next year will be the year I share more. My Facebook page, Facebook group, and Instagram have been pretty much barren for years aside from a handful of posts. While I am active on my Twitter account, I don't talk much about my books or writing. Another thing is that I would like to start sending out newsletters. I set up an account for a newsletter but never followed up on it since I didn't have anything new to share.

Since If Only We isn't going to be ready on October 27th of this year, I would like to aim for next year. It's over a year away, which is plenty of time for me to slowly make my way through the story.

And that's about it!

I'm looking forward to all these amazing things and can't wait to share everything with you! I'll be back on here at the end of the year as well as the beginning of 2022 telling you all about what's been going on and is coming in the future.

Take care, everybody!

Not Until Tonight Gets a Brand New Cover

Hello everyone!

Not Until Tonight has a new cover, has been lightly edited (to fix a few errors found post-release), completely reformatted, reuploaded on all platforms, and the cover is up everywhere! In case you haven't seen the new cover, I'm officially sharing it here now.

The Old Cover

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The New Cover

What do you think? I designed the new cover myself and I think it turned out pretty good. And luckily for you, I have Not Until Tonight available for FREE for a limited time. So grab your free copy before it goes back up to regular price!

If Only We Gets a Brand New Cover

My first book, If Only We, has a new cover! I started designing my own covers a few years ago and I figured that this cover is in need of an update.

The Old Cover

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The New Cover

What do you think? I feel it suits Adrienne both in hair color and the ambiance of second chances.

As of right now, If Only We is only available on Amazon (and in Kindle Unlimited). I am currently in the process of doing some revisions due to some errors that have been discovered post-release. While I'm fixing those mistakes, I figured it wouldn't hurt for me to read it over and see if I can tighten it up a little more. I feel I've learned a lot over the years with writing and my very first book could use a little bit of a refresh.

My goal is to have it rewritten, proofread, and reuploaded everywhere by the time its anniversary comes up on October 27th. Since it's more of a "read it over while fixing a handful of issues" sort of revision, I think it's manageable for me to get it back up everywhere by then.

Updates in the Land of Jessica L. Tate

Hello everyone!

I realize I'm rarely on the blog anymore, but life has been chaotic over the last year, hasn't it? If you're reading this, I hope you're doing well, staying safe, and are healthy. My husband and I are hanging in there and we both received the vaccine earlier this month. He's been working through the pandemic and I've been working at home with our eBay business and my personal assistant business.

Over the last two years, I began working on a plan for what I would like to do with regards to publishing as Jessica L. Tate. Since my writing tends to be more for my pen name rather than this name, I haven't had much time to actually work on this plan. However, I would like to start taking small steps so that I can publish something new under this name.

Some small things include the following:

• Updating all my current covers
• Updating the formatting on all three published works
• Revising If Only We (there are some errors that have been discovered since publication)

You're currently able to view the new covers on retailers (for my fiction books), but I haven't fully updated the covers on Goodreads or on this blog. The formatting shouldn't take too long since I learned how to do it last year. But the revising of If Only We might take a little bit. I have to double/triple/quadruple check this one because the errors are regarding the timeline and I'd hate to cause any confusion to readers. And while fixing those timeline errors, I'll be going through and doing some light edits with grammar, etc. The main story won't be changing, but there's a decent amount that needs to be updated.

When it comes to future releases, that's another thing entirely. I wrote a novella thinking it would be published as Lilly, but the steamy scenes felt forced and didn't suit the story. Instead, I'll be doing a little bit of an overhaul of the story so that I can publish it as Jessica L. Tate (since my Jessica stories are no steam/no swears). This novella was created to be part of a series, so I still have to outline and write the rest of the series. My plan as of right now is to rewrite/revise the first book, write the rest of the series, and then publish them in 2022. Of course, this isn't carved in stone just yet. I am still writing books as Lilly, so I have to plan accordingly for the books I'd like to publish under that name, too.

Another thing is I would like to publish more poetry. Sadly, my laptop (which contains all of my poetry) is on the fritz and I'm unable to access those poems. I do have most of those poems available in notebooks that I wrote them in upon completion. It's basically a matter of either getting the laptop working again or typing all the poems up again. Since that's all up in the air, I have no definitive plans for the poetry just yet.

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What it all boils down to is that once I take care of the small things, I will know more about the bigger things. My goal is to have the covers updated everywhere by the end of May, formatting on Not Until Tonight updated by summer, design a new cover for Now You Can See by the fall, and have If Only We revised and upload the new version by the time we reach its anniversary (October 27th). I would do all of the above sooner, but I also have to work on getting taxes together, finish writing my current Lilly book, and update formatting on my Lilly books, too. There are so many things to do and so little time!

Anyway, I'm going to work hard on getting everything accomplished as quickly as I possibly can. I would love to share new stories and poems with you and I can't wait until next year when I can give you something new!

Happy New Year! My Goals and More!

Hello everyone! Happy New Year to you all!

I know, I know, the only time you ever hear from me is at the start of a new year. Seems like I need to come up with some sort of routine to stay in touch with you, right? Yeah, I honestly should. It's just difficult to come up with one since I don't really have anything happening to share with you!

I have it in my head that this year could be the one where I make a triumphant return. Then again, I wouldn't want to make promises I can't keep. However, I do feel it's time for me to make progress toward publishing at least one or two new books, don't you? I also have some other things up my sleeve as well, so be on the lookout for some news!

Word of the Year

Last year's word of the year was RECLAIM. While life in 2020 wasn't exactly the year to make wild proclamations, I still feel I was able to do some of that throughout the year. Even though I'll continue to work on the word reclaim and my words from previous years (balance and intention), I want to focus on a new word.

And that word is MINDFUL.

I need to get back to my roots of being more in tune with myself and what I need and want in life. This will also require the other words as seen in this graphic: gratitude, confidence, change, transform, rise, release, listen, progress, grace, and forgiveness. To achieve this, I am going to start writing in a journal regularly like I used to several years ago. When I stopped that, I feel like I lost a sense of myself and I want to have that part of me back again.

As for other resolutions, I want to continue to learn German daily, to become healthier (eat better, exercise, and lose some weight), be more positive, and write as much as I possibly can.

Since I no longer have a book blog to discuss reading goals, I'll go ahead and talk about that on here instead. I completed my goal of reading 35 books in 2020! And in 2021, I want to aim a bit lower. Reading 35 books was hard for me to do last year and I'm not sure if it was because of what was going on in the world or because of everything else I had on my plate, but I had to rally near the end of the year to meet the goal. So I'll be aiming for 27 books this year, with the possibility of increasing it later in the year. Who knows? Maybe 2021 will be a good year for reading for me!

Here are two pictures of me from 2020. The second one features me with my heart rat, Nigel (AKA Smoosh). Sadly, he passed in October, but I'll never forget his smooshy and loving face.

Expect to hear from me a little more this year! I hope you're all doing well and taking care of yourselves during this tough time. Hang in there and talk to you soon!