Follow:

    I’m Back (Ignite Won’t Have A Sequel & Here’s Why)

    green leaf on pile of books

    I haven’t worked on any writing projects in over a year.

    It was in September 2022 that I decided to take a break from writing. I was in the middle of editing the sequel to Ignite, my debut YA sci-fi/superhero novel, at the time. And I’ll admit, up until a couple months ago, I barely even thought about writing. 

    I’ll explain more why I had to take a break from writing and why I haven’t gone back to it until now, but to do that we’ll have to start this story at the beginning of 2021. The year Ignite was published. 

    I was overwhelmed, to say the very least. I sent Ignite to an editor and realized there was more work that needed to be done on the story than I thought. For a while I worried that I wasn’t going to be able to meet my publishing date deadline with all the editing and revising that had to be done. And on top of that I was juggling all the first-time indie author things. If you’re an indie author, you know how much work goes into it. Working with the cover designer, organizing the cover reveal team, blog tour, street team, ARCs, putting out social media content, giveaways, newsletters, interior formatting, setting up with the printing companies, getting the book trailer made, making sure my website was updated, and the list goes on and on. To be honest, a lot of it escapes my memory because there was so much to do, and it felt like a whirlwind. But I do very clearly remember feeling like I was drowning in it all. 

    I tried to be happy. I tried to be excited. I mean, I was publishing my debut novel after all. This was a dream come true. I was supposed to be overflowing with joy and enjoying the process. But I wasn’t.

    Don’t get me wrong, there was definitely some excitement. I realized the importance of what I was doing; a long-held dream of mine was coming true. But during those months around Ignite’s final editing and release, I was drowning in the worst anxiety I had ever experienced. And at first, I didn’t even know it was anxiety that I was feeling. All I knew was that I felt all these new, random physical symptoms and when I didn’t realize it was anxiety (until a random Google search) that only made it worse because I thought I had a serious health issue. Que the doctors visit, allergy tests, and weird diets to figure out what was going on. I was desperate for answers. And relief. 

    When I realized what I was experiencing was extreme anxiety, it gave me answers but no relief. Through almost all of the year 2021, I battled extreme chronic anxiety that was affecting me and my life in every way possible. It washed out any bit of excitement I had about publishing my debut novel. In fact, sometimes I wanted to forget completely that Ignite even existed, because it was a reminder of what I struggled with at that time. 

    As I entered 2022, my anxiety levels had lessened but were still very high. I was trying to push through with editing the sequel to Ignite. But to be honest, I had almost lost hope at that point. I had almost lost hope that I would ever get better, ever be happy again, ever be free from the anxiety. After 2021, which was one of the worst years of my life, I hated the thought that I went through all of that for nothing. I hated the thought that after all that, all I was left with was an anxiousness that was going to follow me for the rest of my life, something I would never find relief from. I remember praying, begging God to please bring some good out of all of that because I was going to lose hope if all of it was for nothing. 

    Late January, I signed up for jiu jitsu. Hang on. This isn’t off topic, I promise. When I started jiu jitsu is when things started to look up. Looking back now at who I was at the beginning of 2022, it was so uncharacteristic of me to jump into a martial art. Yeah, I had always thought it was cool. But for the timid girl who liked to stay safe in her books and ballet and horses to sign up for jiu jitsu was surprising. And I really think that was God pushing me to do that, because He brought so many good things through it. Believe me, I was terrified at first. Coming into this new place with new people and learning a new skill completely foreign to me. But as I got more comfortable, jiu jitsu became a place where I found friends and the mental health benefits that come from regular physical activity. Through that came a little relief from my anxiety. Even with that reason alone, you can see why I quickly became obsessed with jiu jitsu. 

    Let me tell you about where I was at with my faith at the time. I grew up in a Christian home, accepted Christ when I was 8, went to church every Sunday, did studies with my family, read the Bible on my own, prayed, all that. But I had always felt distant from Jesus. I believed He was who He said He was and that He offered the deep love He said He did. But I didn’t believe that love could be for me. I believed that God was cold and distant and always upset with me because of my mistakes and flaws. I thought I had to be perfect for Him to love me and I knew I wasn’t. During that season of extreme anxiety, I prayed for help and relief but I don’t think I ever believed He actually wanted to give it to me. Because I felt I wasn’t good enough to receive it. So at that time, my faith didn’t feel real or personal to me. I was deeply conflicted by what the Bible said and some deeply rooted lies I believed about Him and about myself. 

    It was through jiu jitsu that I met a friend I was able to open up about these things with. Through this friend came Bible studies and countless talks where my eyes were being opened to the truth about the gospel and the love, peace and freedom I could find in Jesus, as well many of the lies I carried that were keeping me from fully believing and living in that. If I were to go into all the details about that part of my journey, this newsletter would be a full length book (who knows, maybe one day I will write a book about this). But for now it’s enough to say that in the last year and a half Jesus has completely changed my life. Loving me deeper than I thought I could be loved, showing me truth about who He is and how He sees me, giving me tremendous peace and continues to bring more and more healing into my life. The healing part has been really painful sometimes, but also really good. Really, really good. Because it’s given me hope I didn’t have before.

    So much has changed about my life besides how I’ve changed as a person. I’ve found great new friends, a hobby I’m obsessed with, a new job, and I’ve moved out on my own for the first time. So many blessings and answers to prayers. 

    So that’s why I haven’t written all this time. All those things and all those changes and growth and healing have taken up a lot of my focus and energy. For a while it was time for me to step away from escaping to my stories and address the issues of my heart. Even though that journey hasn’t stopped, I feel more ready now to start returning to writing. To make it something new and rediscover that wild imagination I had as a child. 

    So now to the part that a ton of you have wondered about…when is the Ignite sequel coming?? Well, I’ve got some big (bittersweet) news…


    I’ve decided to not complete the Ignite sequel. 

    That’s right. The sequel I was in the middle of editing is gonna be dropped (at least for now, maybe someday I’ll get back to it). This was both an easy and difficult decision to make. Difficult because I know so many of you were eagerly waiting for the second book. But easy because the thought of returning to that project was a tremendous weight on me that made me not want to return to writing. I have so much stress and anxiety and bad memories tied to that project after what I’ve gone through the past couple years. I’m just not ready to return to that specific project in the near future. But now that this decision has been made, I feel lighter and freer to be able to continue to create. 

    BUT that doesn’t mean content for the Ignite series is over! And that’s where you come in. 😉 While Ignite won’t have a full-length novel sequel, I do want to pursue writing prequel or sequel short stories connected to this story and these characters. And here is where I want to hear your voice! If you have a character you want to see in the spotlight, a backstory you’re curious about, or a story idea of your own about the Ignite characters, I want to hear it! Just reply to this newsletter or send me a message on any of my social media platforms with your ideas! 

    I have a ton ton of new things for this series and for my author platform in general that I think you’re going to love. A lot of those things won’t come for a bit yet, but I can’t wait to involve you more on this process in the future. 

    And I want to say thank you. During Ignite’s release, even while I was on break, and as I came back to posting on social media, so many of you have shown so much excitement and support, and that makes me even happier about coming back to writing. All of your fan art, enthusiastic participation, and sweet messages during the stressful process of publishing always brought a smile to my face. 

    And if you have any other ideas about what you’d like to see me do, you’re always welcome to reply to these newsletters with any ideas or input you have! 🙂

  • WORDS Blog Tour

    A new blog has arrived… I’m so excited to share about Kaley’s new blog! Keep scrolling to check out a…