The Exiled Fleet Launch Day!
🎉 Today’s the day! 🎉
The Exiled Fleet (The Divide #2) is out now in paperback, ebook, & audiobook, wherever books are sold! 🎉🚀✨
Just 4 months after The Last Watch’s release on April 20th, I’m a sophomore author! WHAT! It seems like yesterday I was filling up that mug for the very first time and now somehow I have 2 books on the shelves! 😱
I'm so humbled by the incredible response from readers & reviewers, and I can't express how excited I am to be sharing the second installment of The Divide series with you all. I had so much fun writing this book & I'm incredibly proud of how it turned out. (Shh don’t tell but to be honest, I think I like it even more than The Last Watch 😝)
Storytime, feel free to stay a while & listen…
I had plenty of the usual struggles while drafting this book, but lucked out on the dreaded “2nd book syndrome” many authors face when drafting their second published novels. In part it was b/c I wrote this back in Summer/Fall 2019, so the idea of being published still felt like a far-off fiction that may or may not actually happen—so there wasn’t any of the usual pressures involved with writing while already having a book out in the public eye.
BUT, I think it’s largely due to the fact that I already paid my “2nd book syndrome” dues back in 2017. 😓 While I was querying agents, I drafted another book, entirely unrelated to The Divide, as is the common advice. It was A DISASTER.
I got hit hard with all the symptoms—crippling self-doubt, performance pressure, imposter syndrome, etc. Crit partners & beta readers had such a positive response to The Last Watch, I was 100% convinced it was the only decent book I’d ever write. I still think back to that time & shudder. 😩
As awful as it was, I try to tell myself it was worth it—that book turned out all the better for my struggles & The Exiled Fleet got away scot-free! I was able to just have a ton of fun writing the best follow-up I could & now I get to share it with the world on this fine August 17th just 2 days before my birthday! 🎉
I can only hope I paid my dues enough that I don’t get another round of 2nd Book Syndrome during whatever I draft next! Wish me luck! 😅🤞🤞