Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Benedictine Oblate and Third Novel News

Hear ye, hear ye! The news express is making a quick stop straight from Emmyland.

From all the recent emails I've received recently, it looks like I'm officially on my way to becoming an official Benedictine Oblate. Cue the happy crying, fangirl squealing, and other celebratory actions a young woman of my age should've outgrown by now... but hasn't. lol. The Oblate novitiate period is a year-long process of discernment. To say that I'm excited would be an understatement. Did you not see the "fangirl squealing" part? lol.

Seriously, I could not be happier. My spiritual life has gotten a much life boost. I honestly feel like a different person and have been much happier. The Lenten week of depression only lasted the entirety of Holy Week before disappearing. I've already planned on spending more time in adoration with this book by St. Alphonsus Liguori this week. I look forward to discerning whether this is something God is calling me to do over the next year.

We have a (tentative) publication date for the third novel: May 14, 2018. That's 4 years (what?!) and 2 weeks after the publication of the first novel. It is the first non-Will and Lina book and something that was re-written over the past couple of months. It started out as one thing and with one idea and it morphed into something else. Not only that, a sequel will have to be written to finish the story. I tried to avoid it but I couldn't; these characters have a mind of their own.

As with my other novels, I decided to take the self-publishing route. Why? Because, really, it's the best options for these types of books. The YA/NA market is hard to break into, especially with books with my specific intent to write books that aren't smutty or insulting as the ones that dominate the current market. No, self-publishing is the right path for these books... for now. The autobiography I'm ghostwriting will (hopefully) be going to an actual publisher and is headed down a more traditional route.

If you're new to these parts, my novels tend to be YA/NA (young adult/new adult) aimed at young women between the ages of 17 to 26. I've had guys read my previous two novels (When Two Worlds Collide and London Calling) and I haven't heard too many complaints but, yeah, it's not aimed for y'all. I just have to put that warning out there. ;)

Alright, that's it. I've had an uber long day and I'm "functioning" on less than 5 hours of sleep which tends to make me a little silly and giddy. You guys are better off not seeing that side of me. lol.

I hope y'all are having a great week thus far!

As always, thanks for reading and God bless! :D

5 comments:

Catherine Hawthorn said...

Oh my gosh, that's so exciting Emmy!!

I don't blame you going the self-publishing route. I love to support books that are clean (anti-smutty, anti-language, etc.), and I'm working with an advocacy group to help bring more support for clean reads in YA/NA. I'll definitely check out your other books :)

Catherine
catherinesrebellingmuse.blogspot.com
frugallyfancyfarmlass.blogspot.com

Melissa Cecilia said...

Thank you, Catherine!

Sign me up for that clean book group; I'm sick of seeing/reading what's currently popular.

AnneMarie said...

Happy Easter! Great news about the book and oblate-ness and everything! How exciting :)

Melissa Cecilia said...

Happy Easter to you, too, AnneMarie!

Catherine Hawthorn said...

Wonderful! The advocacy group is called Rebellious Writing. We have a website (www.rebelliouswriting.com) which also has links to all the social media connected with it. We do everything from writing tips, to book reviews.

As a disclaimer though, I can't vouch for every single book review or recommendation that comes through our hands (our last one being a case in point) because of the fact that we are made up of a mix of Christians (Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox!).