An Update I Hate to Give...

I’ve been staring at this announcement for a while, trying to figure out how to write it. Not because I don’t know what to say. Honestly, I have too much to say.

I decided I’m going to do what I’ve always tried to do here: be open about what’s actually happening behind the books, behind the release dates, behind the carefully made graphics and countdowns and plans.

Shadowed Truths, Book Two of The Chronicles of Fate, will no longer release on November 10, 2026. I am officially postponing the release to Summer 2027.

And while I hate having to make that decision, I also know it is the right one.

I Tried Really Hard to Hold Onto November

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love a plan. Give me a calendar, a spreadsheet, a color-coded checklist, and approximately seventeen tabs open at once, and I am in my natural habitat.

November 10, 2026 has been circled in my brain for a long time. That was the date. The goal. The finish line.

And for months, every time something happened, I kept mentally rearranging the pieces around it. Okay. This happened, but I can still make November. Recovery is taking longer than expected, but I can still make November. Life just threw another flaming object directly at my face, but surely if I move this over here and sacrifice that over there...

I can still make November.

Except eventually, there weren’t any pieces left to rearrange. There was just me, sitting here in August, looking at an unfinished book and finally admitting something I probably should have admitted sooner:

I cannot keep asking my body, my finances, and my life to bend themselves around a publication date.

This Year Has Not Gone According to Plan

Earlier this summer, I underwent a procedure on my lower back that I had hoped would finally provide some relief from the chronic pain that has increasingly taken over my life.

Instead, the procedure did not go as planned.

I was supposed to have two areas treated. I was unable to tolerate the procedure under the anesthesia plan being used, there were significant complications during it, and the second portion had to be stopped. So now I’m in this strange medical limbo. Part of the procedure was attempted. Part of it wasn’t. And I’m waiting to figure out when—and how—we are going to try again.

It has meant more appointments, more recovery, more uncertainty, more pain, and a lot more physical and mental energy being spent simply trying to exist inside my own body.

And then, because apparently life looked at that situation and decided things were getting a little too peaceful, Bryant was injured at work.

And when I say injured, I mean a car fell off a lift and landed on his head.

The entire ordeal was terrifying. I drove all the way to OSU Wexner in Columbus on an injured knee, while still not fully recovered from my back procedure, convinced the entire way there that he was going to have a brain bleed or some other catastrophic complication. Because, quite frankly, that seems to be the general theme of our medical luck this year.

But somehow, against all logic, a car fell on Bryant’s head and he walked away with a bad concussion and a row of staples in his scalp. I still consider that practically a miracle.

And, because I have to laugh somewhere in all of this, anyone who knows Bryant knows exactly how stubborn he is. Apparently he really needed to super dramatic just to prove to everyone that he is, in fact, the most hard-headed in the family.

All jokes aside, though, the recovery has been difficult. He has been placed on medical leave. Beyond how terrifying it was simply seeing someone I love get hurt like that, his accident created another reality we couldn’t ignore: our household income suddenly dropped. Workers’ compensation does not replace his full paycheck, and it takes time before it kicks in at all.

That matters for the obvious reasons—mortgage, utilities, groceries, everything that still expects to be paid regardless of whether life has decided to implode. But it also matters for publishing.

Being an indie author means that publishing a book costs money. Editing. Proofreading. Formatting. Proof copies. ISBNs and distribution expenses. Marketing. Author copies. Launch materials. All of the hundred little costs that quietly pile together behind a finished book.

Right now, that money needs to stay in our household. That isn’t a difficult decision. These books are incredibly important to me. Keeping a roof over our heads is slightly more important... Especially with my history of homelessness for a good chunk of my early adulthood.

Then My Hand Decided to Join the Party

Because apparently my body enjoys thematic consistency, I am now also dealing with a problem in my hand. Specifically, one of my fingers has become increasingly painful and difficult to move. From past experience with something similar, it seems to be an injury to one of my flexor tendons in my right hand... and I'm right-handed.

At the moment, typing normally is extremely difficult, which is a particularly inconvenient development when your job description is approximately person who types several thousand words at a time.

And yes, I did manage to put this blog post together. Typing one-handed is harder than you would think, but apparently stubbornness is contagious in this household. I can still do things in shorter bursts; I can use my phone, I can work around it here and there. But writing a novel requires more than occasionally poking at a keyboard until my hand starts screaming at me. Shadowed Truths deserves more than that.

The Book Is Not Finished

That is probably the hardest sentence in this entire post, because it would be very easy to hide behind everything else. The medical issues are real. The financial problems are real. The physical limitations are real.

But the simplest truth is also this: it is August, and Shadowed Truths is not finished.

There is still writing to do. Then there is revision, editing, proofreading, formatting, production, and all of the work that happens between having a manuscript and having an actual book ready to place into someone’s hands.

Could I try to force all of that into the next few months?

Probably.

I am extremely good at forcing myself through things long after I should have stopped. That is not always the admirable quality it sounds like.

Because eventually there comes a point where determination turns into self-destruction. And I don’t want Shadowed Truths to become something I rushed through because I was more afraid of changing a date than I was committed to giving the story the time it needed.

Somewhere in All of This, My Mental Health Took a Hit Too

Throughout everything that has happened this year, I’ve also found myself battling my depression more than I have in a long time. Honestly, that probably isn’t surprising. My back issues alone have left me bedridden more often than not, and spending most of the year isolated in my bedroom has taken a toll in ways I didn’t fully realize at first.

I’m doing better now. But better doesn’t mean the fight disappeared completely.

And unfortunately, that fight started finding its way into Shadowed Truths.

I have a very clear path in my head for this book and for where The Chronicles of Fate is going as a series. I know these characters. I know what they’re facing, what they’re becoming, and where their stories are supposed to lead. But when I went back and looked at some of what I had written during the harder stretches this year, I realized my own depression had started bleeding onto the page more than I intended.

The story was getting darker. Not the kind of darkness that belongs naturally in this world or serves these characters and what they’re going through. It was my darkness slipping into their story, pushing certain chapters and emotional beats somewhere I never intended them to go, and I didn't want that.

I didn’t want it for the readers who have trusted me with these characters. I didn’t want it for Ami or Dean or the rest of the people living inside this world I’ve spent so many years building. And I definitely didn’t want to wake up months from now and realize I had changed the direction of an entire series because I was writing from a place I knew wasn’t permanent... So I stepped back.

I needed to get my head on straight, separate what belonged to Shadowed Truths from what belonged to me, and come back to the manuscript when I could see the story clearly again. That was the responsible choice for both me and the book.

And, naturally, right around the time I started feeling ready to dive back in and get everything back on track, life apparently stretched, cracked its knuckles, and started throwing flaming curveballs directly at my face.

I Am Choosing the Book

That might sound strange considering I am delaying it, but that is exactly how I see this.

I am choosing Shadowed Truths over November 10. I am choosing Ami. I am choosing Dean. I am choosing the complicated mess waiting for them inside the Countdown Control Agency and everything this story is supposed to uncover about the world that Marked by Fate introduced.

I am choosing revision instead of rushing. Quality instead of obligation. And, maybe most importantly, I am choosing to acknowledge that I am a human being before I am a publishing schedule.

That last one is harder for me than it should be.

Writing has carried me through some of the darkest periods of my life. These characters existed in my head long before anyone else knew their names. The Chronicles of Fate survived years when I wasn’t sure I would ever become the person capable of finishing it.

I don’t want that history to turn into another reason to punish myself.

These books were born from survival. They should not require me to destroy myself to finish them.

What Happens Now?

For now, Shadowed Truths is moving to Summer 2027.

I am intentionally not announcing another exact release date yet. I learned something from this: a release date should be the final stage of a publishing plan—not a finish line I drag myself toward while everything else catches fire around me.

So the priority now is simple: finish the book, get through the medical mess, give Bryant the space and support he needs while he recovers, figure out what is happening with my hand, get our finances stable again, and then give Shadowed Truths the editing, production, and launch it deserves.

For now, though, I don’t want another ticking clock hanging over my head.

Ironically, considering what series I’m writing, I think I have enough countdowns in my life.

If you already preordered Shadowed Truths, I also want to make sure you know exactly what this means for your order.

If you preordered the eBook through Amazon, you will not be charged for the canceled preorder. Once I have a firm new release date and put the Kindle edition back up for preorder, you will need to place a new preorder at that time. I won’t be reopening eBook preorders until I have a date I feel confident in.

If you preordered a physical copy, your preorder is still guaranteed. Nothing is being canceled! You’ll simply receive your copy when Shadowed Truths is released under the new timeline. I will be emailing everyone who preordered and paid so no one has to rely on seeing this blog post or a social media update to know what is happening with their order.

To Everyone Waiting for Shadowed Truths

I’m sorry you have to wait longer. I mean that sincerely.

Every time someone tells me they finished Marked by Fate and immediately wanted Book Two, some tiny part of my writer heart starts doing cartwheels. The fact that anyone cares what happens next still feels surreal.

But I would rather make you wait for the right version of this book than hand you a rushed version simply because I promised November once upon a time.

Ami’s story matters too much to me for that.

There are things in Shadowed Truths that change the way readers understand the Countdown Marks, the Agency, and some of what happened in Marked by Fate. There are relationships that need room to grow. There are truths that need time to unravel. And there is an entire story sitting between where I am now and the word END.

I’m going to get there... Just not by November 10.

Maybe This Is Part of the Story, Too

I wish I could wrap this up with something inspirational about everything happening for a reason.

I don’t know if I believe that.

Sometimes terrible timing is just terrible timing. Sometimes bodies fail us. Sometimes accidents happen. Sometimes money disappears faster than we can replace it. Sometimes the plan you carefully built gets smashed into pieces and there isn’t some secret lesson hiding underneath the rubble.

Sometimes you just have to build another plan.

So that’s what I’m doing.

The destination hasn’t changed. Only the road getting there has.

Shadowed Truths is still coming. The Chronicles of Fate is still continuing. I am still writing. I’m just giving myself permission to get there a little slower.

And maybe, after everything these past few months have thrown at us, slower isn’t the worst thing in the world.

Shadowed Truths

Book Two of The Chronicles of Fate

Coming Summer 2027