Saturday 21 June 2014

Catching Up and Free Stuff

Hi Everyone!

First things first...

I'm really late to the party on this, but Cruel to be Kind, my story for the Goodreads MM Romance Group Event is available as a free download here. It's also listed on Goodreads here. It's MM, BDSM, Vampire.

My story from last years event is on the same site, again as a free download. It's called Taken. It's MMMM, BDSM, Elves. (Heads up it contains what some readers may consider dubious consent.) Download it here. See it on Goodreads here.

The stories for this year's event are still posting, lots of different stories, lots of writers you may not have read before. Check them out. All the stories contain tags at the start so you can get an idea of it each one will be your thing before you dive in :)

On to other news...

I've been debating about whether or not to write about this. If you've been following me for a while, you may well have heard me mention that I've had certain health concerns that sometimes mean I can't write and release books as quickly as I'd like. For people new to the party, a brief recap. I was diagnosed as having ME (also referred to as Chronic Fatigue Syndome) 17 years ago, when I was 13. My symptoms are toward the more severe end of the spectrum a lot of the time.

ME is effectively a negative diagnosis. There is no test for it. You get to a diagnosis by ruling out everything else that could be causing your symptoms. This isn't a perfect process. There are a lot of things to rule out. Every so often, a new possibility rears it's head and you have more tests and, generally, add something else to the list of things you *don't* have.

It's quite an emotional process. To be honest, I've reached the point where I really want a test for something to come back positive. There's nothing they can do to help me with ME, but if an underlying condition is found, there's the hope that there will be treatment or management options attached to it.

Over the last few weeks, I have had a couple of tests. The results aren't what was expected. I don't have what we were testing for, but it seems possible that I might have something else instead. There are lots more tests to do to find out what exactly might be going on, and if it is at the root cause of what is currently diagnosed as ME.

I don't want to get my hopes up to high. I don't know if there will be an actual diagnosis at the end, what the options might be, or if it will turn out I have ME plus something else alongside it.

In an ideal world the process will lead to me being able to do more writing and release more books at a quicker pace. However, along the way, it might be that things actually slow down a fraction more, because energy will have to be diverted to dealing with tests etc.

There won't be anything new coming out this summer, but I have my fingers crossed that Axel's Pup will still release in the autumn :)

*Hugs*

Kim Dare

Sunday 1 June 2014

Update on WIPs

Hi Everyone,

It's been a while, so I thought I would shoot out a quick update on my various ongoing projects.

The Goodreads MM Romance Group has just started posting the stories in their Love's Landscapes event. The order the stories are going to be posted in is a closely guarded secret, but there will be a couple going up every day. You can read them first here. All the stories are free!

I'm still working on my Axel's Pup re-write. It's currently 90k+ words. I have four chapters left to re-write, then it's on to editing it. I'm not sure how long the finished story will be, which is making it difficult to work out when the release date will be.

Unfortunatly, there are some health issues which mean my progress is slower than I would like, which makes working out the release dates for everything even more complicated. All I can really say is that I'll keep you posted.

The next project in the pipeline is Fourteen Nights (Sun, Sea and Submission 6, for Resplendence Publishing.)

After that, I'm on to the Avian Shifters series. The plans have changes slightly here. The current plan is to release the new indi edition of Duck! along with a follow up that focuses on Ori and Raynard's continuing story. Then, a little while later, release the indi editon of Magpie, along with a follow up that focuses on Kane and Everet's relationship (although it seems likely that Ori and Raynard will have quite a big role in that one too.) Then, a little while later again, we'll have the third novel, which will focus on new characters. I'm guessing that the follow ups will each be about 40k, half-novel length.

And that's it really.

Remember to check out the Love's Landscapes Stories!

*Hugs*

Kim.