Hey Occulties,
I have some exciting news.
So for a long, long, long time, I have wanted to create a very, very, very large book. I wanted to write a book of such giganticism that the publishers of the Oxford Dictionary were mildly peeved at my creation being so huge. Of course, I don't think I have 4000 pages worth of work, so maybe to say that is exaggerating...a bit. I had initially intended to have this book trail Pactum by maybe 2 years (because publishing takes longer, even when the manuscript has gone to the proofreader and they are typesetting and all that jazz, so legitimately, if I had handed my publisher a completed manuscript the day my publisher released Pactum, it could take anywhere from a handful of months to like almost 2 years.) Unfortunately, a swirling shitstorm was upon the horizon, and while my intentions were good, I just didn't have the time to compose everything into a form in which I was like "OK, I can give this to my publisher." Thinking I was putting this off for mere months, I soon realized that no, I still didn't have time. There was even that stint last spring where I looked like Sloth from the Goonies thanks to cellulitis, and yet I didn't have time off (I legitimately worked while on a possible death bed, and I'm actually proud of that.)
This means I put off making this book for...oh, 2-3 years...somewhere in that range.
It wasn't because I didn't want to make the book. I was (and to some degree still am) supporting my household. Like anyone who supports their household and needs to do things like pay bills and stuff, taking time off from a job when you are budgeting very closely already to make a gigantic book that will give payment to oneself LATER (and occult authors are not rich, kids,) is like telling a starving street person if they take that $20 you just gave them and invest it, some time next year it will be $200, so don't waste that money on food, just starve some more...cuz it will pay off in a year.
In laymen's terms, we couldn't afford for me to take time off. I've been over this, but my job has a huge overhead, and a lot of the hours I work are not paid. Just to make things a little more exciting, I got to spend 2 days in the hospital uninsured last year, which obviously did not help with that whole "running on a tight budget" issue. Then Mr NinjaCat couldn't work and I was the sole earner. The idea of taking time off to write a book was not in any way an idea I was even considering at that point.
Finally, things began to stabilize, and also Rufus Opus (author of The Seven Spheres,) reminded me that books are a thing I can write, which also can provide a nice little bonus income and stuff. I considered this and presented my idea to my publisher who, despite having heard this idea before (because I suggested it to the publisher after Pactum,) reaffirmed that this was of great interest to my publishing house.
Now, this will seem premature to some of you, because again, the publishing process can get weird. That may be my own bad understanding of it since my former co-author really dealt with that aspect of the process before and so I admit some ignorance there, but its' quite possible that even if I turned in a full manuscript today (it isn't ready today,) we could easily not see it's release until 2020. ;) Yes, of course I am super excited about writing a gigantic spell book, and even more so when I got a brilliant idea of putting it in more than one volume, and I'm even more excited to do that with the publishing house I use, because they do such fine, gorgeous bindings. I'm beyond thrilled that what has been a dream I have had FOR YEARS is finally rolling into fruition. I had to share this with you.
AND there is a strong chance that when the book is published I can finally, at last, get what I have also wanted for years. A VACATION!!! I can't remember the last time I had a legitimate full vacation where I wasn't working while vacationing. I mean, I even did a smidge of work while in the hospital last year, lol. Imagine. A full week with no work. Maybe even 2 weeks. After 2 weeks I will be so bored I'd want to die, but like...a whole week where the only problems I deal with are like do I want another strawberry daquarri. Wow.
So get excited kiddos. Tentative date is in 2020 for publication, but there is a new book en route to you. And it's going to be big. And beautiful. And amazing. And you'll love it.
Best,
~Cat
Image is from the Goonies. I in no way claim ownership. If you are the owner of the image, and you are mad it's here, by all means contact me and let me know to take it down.