Veronica King

Tag: publication

  • Silver Lined Reflections

    Silver Lined Reflections

    2025 was a year of everything not going according to plan, and I am glad the plans didn’t work out. 

    Now during the time that the changes were happening it felt like I was in the trenches, between career expectations, and personal life goals things were not all falling in place for me like I thought they would. This translated to feelings of failure and really affected my self-esteem, but I am dangerously optimistic and these are the silver linings I found in the darkness.

    While the manuscripts I thought I’d be focusing on were shuffled around, I’m really happy with the work I’ve done this year. And that sentence alone is momentous for someone who, for her whole adult life, had tied her value to her work output.

    Have I written more books in years before? 

    yes. 

    Do I need to meet that level of production every year?

    No. 

    I have actively in past years downplayed any accomplishment I have made because the thought of well i’ve done it so how hard could it actually have been? And it took awhile but I’m happy to say regardless of if it’s my first pixel art piece or the release of my fourth official work I am going on record to say I will be celebrating every victory, small, big, even those schmedium wins.

    The overall  take away is that it’s okay to be happy with the work you do and not have to focus on output. I feel like that’s a pretty cliche take but if it gets more folks talking about it, I will happily yap. 

    Because my plans went awry I had the opportunity to dive into a new genre, and write a story with someone I consider one of my closest friends. The novel is feminine rage converging with a deconstruction story, and a wlw romance. This is a story I hope to share more details with you sooner rather than later. It’s gritty, and graphic, but the themes are important to talk about and I’m so proud of Chandra and I for carefully stitching such a tale together. I also had another contract signed with my publisher, Inimitable Books, so that was exciting. I feel like the line up we have in store will really expand upon the Veronica King’dom’ in a crafty way. That again, I look forward to elaborating on in the new year. 

    To my small readership I hope you have enjoyed the books that came out this year, and while I’m hard at work, I am happy to say I have a bit of a break as there are no planned book releases for me in 2026. So I guess follow along for the little updates, as I do have big(albeit more realistic) goals in the new year.

    While right now everything that’s behind us can be looked at with clear perspective and the future is foggy, but in view. I look forward to navigating the waters of 2026, and sharing my voyage on the career front, because I’m very fortunate to have such a supportive crew working alongside me. So thank you 2025, because of you I found myself saying often that there’s always a secret third option, and every setback can be an opportunity if looked at with enough creativity. 

  • One Conclusion, Assorted Beginnings

    One Conclusion, Assorted Beginnings

    The end of

    Lore’s Adventure in

    Thimbleton

    Right here, right now is such a weird space to exist in. When I originally drafted Down the Well I didn’t think it’d be the book that landed me a publishing contract. Lore’s story was one of three that ensnared all my creative focus. At the time, I was freshly out of high school, going to collage full time, and working at a small family owned bakery. Lore’s story has parts that overlap with my own and I was floured to see how many readers connected to her as well. It made me anxious that the same readers who connected with the first book may not enjoy its sequel. From there I spiraled on if I made the correct choice to combine books 2 and 3, as this was suppose to be a trilogy, and combing those drafts felt like I was creating my own sort of Frankenstein’s monster. It pushed me to a sort of creative panic that I started seeing the story in blips and chunks not wholly. Not cohesively as I leaped between chapters. The thought of is this good enough. Am I good enough. Weighed heavy on my shoulders. I’m feel fortunate to have a publisher I can speak so openly to, and after leaving that conversation with Zara I now had a name to what I was feeling. Second book slump.

    Turns out that this is something common within the author space. It can be very isolating and hard to navigate. It’s also a feeling I wasn’t thinking about before publication. There was a lot of moving parts of the industry from standards to big feelings that I was not thinking of before signing but that can be for a future blog.

    The self inflicted pressure felt like it had sprouted roots in my bones. I am still a small author with a very small readership, and I appreciate each of them so much, while I know you can’t make everyone happy, I really wanted to make most of my readership happy with Cliffs of Wayward, and the conclusion to Lore’s story.

    I guess this would be the part where I share how I overcame the big bad second books slump, but I haven’t really figured it all out just yet; however, I am closer to being out now than at the start of the year. So, while some days I still second guess myself, I accept that will happen as imposter syndrome strikes all of us at some point. What keeps me going is the love of story telling and my little trio of close knit friends. They keep me passionate about the craft of writing. I have many of novels in the work as I write this that I’m excited for. In a way they each brought my spark back because of their themes, importance, and characters lit a fire in the dark.

    Adventures in Thimbleton was the first manuscript I had ever finished, so it is kind of poetic that it was my first published, completed, series. Lore as a character and her story quickly became a key for bigger ambitions for my story telling. While it may be vague now, in time I hope some of you will remember this tid bit and the vagueness becomes more clear. While Lore has left Thimbleton, I hope to have the opportunity to return.

    • • •