Starting Demons Forever!

Today is the day that I officially start work on the final book in the Peachville High Demons series, Demons Forever. I'm so excited I can hardly see straight!!! I already have a rough outline of the book, and I am pretty confident I know how the series ends, but to be honest, things always turn out different when I begin to write. The story always goes in its own direction, and I just have to go with it. If you looked at the original outline for Rival Demons, you wouldn't even recognize the story! But in the end, the story came out exactly as it was meant to, in spite of me :P.

My plan is to spend the next three days finishing my outline - filling in all the details that I see in my head. Here's a quick pic of my outlining tools for the next few days, hehe. I kind of have a passion for stationary and post-its and stickers, lol.

Since this is the final book in the series, I'm going to spend some serious time thinking about the previous books. What questions have been left unanswered? What story threads need to be tied up? Like I said, my rough draft never ends up being the full story. Writing a book for me is sort of like putting together a puzzle. Except I don't always start with all the right pieces. During my rough draft, I put together the pieces that fit and throw out the pieces that just don't work. Then, I rewrite the story until it's right. It's a feeling inside that just knows when something fits together the way it was meant to.

So tomorrow I start the hard (but fun) work of starting to piece together the puzzle for the first time. On Wednesday, Feb. 1st, I will start the actual rough draft. I am hoping the words come easy, hehe. I know I'm definitely excited about writing the final piece of Harper's story.

So far, I've received a lot of messages from fans of the series wondering when the final book will be out. Right now, I don't have an answer. I'm hesitant to give an expected date, because I know that pregnancy is somewhat unpredictable. I don't want anyone to be disappointed if I miss the deadline this time around. All I can do right now is assure you that I will be working on the book every day, and I will get it out as soon as I possibly can. Again, take the time to sign up for my mailing list or follow my blog if you want to stay up to date on my progress with the rough draft.

I hope you are as excited as I am about Demons Forever!!!

Brief Update and a Thank You

First and foremost, thank you to everyone who has been so supportive over the last week. Rival Demons has been out for exactly one week, and the reviews are starting to come in. All 5 stars so far on B&N and Amazon, which is so exciting I can hardly see straight! Thank you to everyone who has purchased the book and to those of you who have left reviews. I sincerely appreciate your support of the series!!!

I also wanted to give a brief update on Demons Forever. I've been getting a ton of messages from people who have just finished book 5 and are dying to know when Book 6 is coming out. Eek! I haven't actually started writing the book yet, but I do have an outline. Next week, I will officially start the rough draft, and I promise I'm going to work hard to get this book out faster than the last one. I definitely want to get it out a good amount of time before my baby comes, but I'm hesitant to actually make a guess on a release date until I've at least finished the rough draft. I promise I'll keep you updated here on my blog and through my mailing list. If you haven't signed up yet, you can find the sign-up form here on the right side of this blog at the top of the green section. I don't mail out often, but I'll definitely be sending out a mail when I have a release date set for Demons Forever, so stay tuned!

Today on the web, Beautiful Demons is the featured book over at Kindle YA Authors. This is a great new site that features bargain YA books for your Kindle, so check it out! Also, as you all know by now, I've joined a group of Indie YA and MG authors called the Indelibles. We're all taking turns posting on the blog (a post goes up every Monday, Wed., Friday) and today is my day!!! Stop over at the Indelibles blog if you have time and leave a comment so I don't feel lonely hanging out over there, hehe.

Again, thanks to everyone for your support. I know those of you who have read Rival Demons are already anxiously awaiting Demons Forever, so I'm going to be hard at work finalizing my outline and getting ready to start writing next week! Yay!

Getting Excited!

My work on DEMONS FOREVER has really just begun. I haven't actually written a word of it yet, to be honest, but that doesn't mean I haven't been working on it. Mostly, I've been going over my notes and working on the story-line. I think of all the books I've written so far, this one makes me the most nervous. Knowing the series is coming to an end is difficult. I want to make sure to wrap up all the loose ends. I want to answer all the questions that need to be answered. And I want to give all of the fans of the series an ending they can love. It's extremely important to me that this be one of the best (if not THE best) books in the whole series. That's a lot of pressure to put on myself!

But at the same time, I'm getting crazy excited about this book. So much of the story is finally coming together in a way that will hopefully surprise and delight you, hehe. I've been spending a lot of time in the Shadow World lately. At least in my mind I have. I think about it all the time, really. This is my first time ever writing a fantasy world. I've written several stories that are based in our world, but with a paranormal twist. Ghosts, zombies, witches, etc. But this is my first time actually writing another world all together. Granted, it's still connected to our world in a lot of ways, but it's still foreign and different and very exciting to create.

I had planned to start the actual writing of the rough draft last week, but art takes time, and I don't want to rush this book. I want to make sure I take the time I need with it to make it a fitting ending to the Peachville High Demons series. I will, however, be starting the rough draft this week. I'm definitely ready to start getting the story down in words. If you want to check my progress, you look at the word meter on the right side of this blog or on the right side of my website's home page at www.sarracannon.com. I try to update my word meter every day. I'm anticipating this last book to be a little bit longer than the rest. Book 4 was already close to 60,000 words, and I'm guessing Book 5 will close out at around 70,000. I never totally know until it's written, though.

Anyway, I hope you'll keep up with my progress as I go along. Once the rough draft is complete, I'll start revisions (which for me, usually means nearly completely rewriting the book), then critique, then formatting, and then finally publishing! Getting excited about DEMONS FOREVER!