Sexy, Sassy, Kick-Ass Romances!
1 – Write whatever books I feel like.
2 – Do the half-yearly catch-up, which won’t really be much.
3 – Do my yearly Jackie Collins post.
4 – Release a novel, blog about it here and across @tiarakinghq, and @royalstarpublishing.
5 – MAYBE upload a new theme and logo.
6 – Do a full year catch-up.
And that’s it.
Simples!
See you at the half-yearly catch-up.
Unlucky for some, and time for me to cut back, or cut it out.
After the revolting effort 2020 and 2021 put on, I came to the conclusion that in late 2019 I’d hit burnout. And it took me those two years to figure it out.
Don’t mistake that for writer’s block, though, that stupid bitch doesn’t exist.
I had burnout after writing over 1 million words in The Porn Star Brothers family saga, and releasing a book every six months until 2019 when I not only had to write an extra 67 pages for DeLuca, but then write Spiros & Jenny as well. In 2020 it was an overwhelming effort to write the final book, And Always, from April until August, with a September release, no less, run the PSB website, plus this one, and then try and do other things.
A LOT of other things!
I ground to a mental halt and needed a break.
From EVERYTHING!
In January 2020 I had a brilliant idea for a novel, or two, but pushed that insane inspiration aside to try and focus on writing other stuff, namely that final PSB novel. In January 2021, I still hadn’t even attempted to write those new novels.
Why?
Burnout!
Not that I knew at that time.
I battled on trying to get my hardcovers and large prints done after they were delayed from 2020. They were finally released in March 2021. They, for the most part, were finally done.
In September 2021 I had ANOTHER awesome idea for a novel, but had to put it on the back burner for other things, thus extinguishing the inspiration for it. This novel is something else; it actually made me rub my hands together at all of the twists and turns my brain was coming up with. That has NEVER happened with any other book I’ve written.
And so, after small ideas had been percolating in my brain, simmering away under the surface like a volcano ready to blow, I took time off from the gym, wrapped up a few other things, and wrote copious amounts of notes on WHY it wasn’t working anymore.
Why what wasn’t working?
My writing life, that’s what.
I wrote note upon note, had thought upon thought, and came to the decision to change how I do things moving forward. And then over the last month of 2021 I had more thoughts, and changed things again.
But that means changing EVERYTHING moving forward.
Including at this blog.
1 – There is no longer a newsletter.
2 – I’m no longer posting to other social media because some of that social media will be closed down.
My Twitter and Pinterest accounts will be closed, but my Instagram account and Facebook page will go silent and private. FOR NOW.
For those who don’t know, L.J. Diva is the adult author pen name of Tiara King. Any posts here will be posted to her/my social media at @tiarakinghq, or on the publishing house’s social media at @royalstarpublishing.
3 – I will no longer be posting at this blog monthly. The only posts throughout the year will be the yearly plan, the half-yearly catch-up, the full yearly catch-up, the yearly Jackie Collins post, any book releases, and Christmas and New Year’s. So when a book is released, there will be book quotes, character lists, cover reveals, header images, etc.
This blog has been happening for thirteen years. It’s time I stepped back and made more time for myself to once again be creative. To once again write what I want, when I want, how I want, and not set myself ridiculous deadlines that I can’t possibly meet. Because that’s been the main problem. I’ve set myself deadlines and have not met them. I’ve spread myself across too many outlets and the inspiration and motivation has disappeared. I’ve written millions of words across three names, multiple genres, stories, non-fictions, stand-alone novels and a family saga that burned me out, and it’s time to go back to “before”. Before having all of this, before doing all of this, before when I wrote with no stress and no publication date.
THAT is what I want to get back to. Regardless of wanting to release something every year on the anniversary of Jackie’s passing, that is a date that will always be a year in the future. If I can start writing “something” on the 1st of October every year, or just write for a full year whatever the hell I want, then there will be “something” released on September 19th for years. It’s just a matter of letting myself write whatever my muse gives me as inspiration.
Getting back to free writing. My way. Not my brain’s way.
No more monthly post, and this site simply becomes a website which may get a new logo and a new theme at some point.
Thanks for being here for thirteen years if you have been. Thanks for stopping by to read about my posts on publishing. Thanks for buying my books and the support you gave, even though you have all left. But then again, I did too when I moved on from following and commenting on other people’s blogs and moved from Blogger to WordPress. It has been thirteen years, after all.
It’s time to reduce the weight of work and get back to BEFORE, which is now my word for the year.
See you next blog post.
On the first anniversary of Jackie Collins’ death, I released the first book in a series that was to become four novellas and seven novels long.
Starting with the release on September 19th, 2016, was Carlos, the eldest brother of the family.
On September 26th, 2016, came Pedro, the youngest brother in the family whose story starts where Carlos’s left off.
And on October the 4th, 2016, what would have been Jackie’s 79th birthday, came Tomas, the middle brother of the family, whose story picked up where Pedro’s left off.
What followed was the fourth novella of Retribution. All four novellas were turned into the novel of Porn Star Brothers and was followed with six more novels, Forever, Love Never Dies, Stefan:The New Generation (a nod to Jackie’s Hollywood Wives:The New Generation), DeLuca, Spiros & Jenny, and the final novel, And Always, which was released on September 19th, 2020.
The entire series is dedicated to Jackie, and you can see the dedication, with a fabulous leopard print-clad Jackie, here on this page. Just scroll down to the bottom.
I hope, in the future, to release something each September 19th as an ode to the woman I call author mentor and inspiration.
She was ballsy, rollicking, a fabulous dresser, and a woman who made her heroines tough and ballsy like her, as well as fierce ass kickers, and I hope to be like her when I grow up.
I still can’t believe it’s the start of ten years of self-publishing…
You can see my very first blog post about self-publishing here dated 3/4/2011 (click link)
I’m still on a bit of a weirded out high from that. Ten years is a long time to be doing anything. And considering that I used to think the only way to be published was to be “traditionally published”, well times have certainly changed.
It was ten years last month that I signed up to Smashwords, ten years since my first step into something that would take ten years of my life.
Who knows where they’ll be in ten years? I mean, hell, I didn’t know thirty years ago I’d be here doing this. Or twenty years ago for that matter. and the only other thing I did for ten years of my life was school as I left after year ten.
Don’t they say people find success at the ten year range? For some it’s the 10,000 hour range. But if one equates to the other…then my ten years/10,000 hours are here and I’m ready for success!
But now…
What anniversary could I possibly be talking about?
That’s right. It’s ten years this month since I first signed up to Smashwords, a book website where you can sell your e-books to voracious readers.
It was ten years last month since I first found out about self-publishing, and now it’s ten years since my first step into something that would take ten years of my life.
A little back story: I wrote my first novel, The Road To Vegas in 2006, the second (at that time called How I Won Lotto, Moved to L.A. & Married A Really Huge TV Star!) and now called Hollywood Dreams, in 2008. In November 2010 I wrote my third novel (then called Life And Death Adventures in London) now called Falling for London, and that’s when I received the call. Yes, THE CALL, the call from a publishing house wanting Lotto. But after much thinking, and crying, and decision making, I decided to say no. So, in 2011, I found a blog post by an American agent I was following about Amanda Hocking who was massive in self-publishing. Via her I found Joe Konrath and the rest is history. I’ve been self-publishing ever since. And in 2017 I set up my own publishing house, Royal Star Publishing, to deal with all of the novels, novellas, non-fictions and stories I write and release.
So, back to now. It’s now ten years this month since I took my publishing career into my own hands, and my ten year anniversary.
They say people find success after 10,000 hours or the equivalent of ten years, don’t they?
Now, onto other things…
Last year was an absolutely fucked up year, and shit has already been happening this year, personally, BUT, to bring this back around to blogging/writing/publishing, I found that posting monthly was a good fit for me, so I’ll continue doing that this year.
I’ll still be talking about what I’ve done in the last month, and what the plans are for the coming month. Post about the release of the Porn Star Brothers books in hardcover (finally), potential new books, and the odd post about other things, such as the anniversary of Jackie Collins’ death, and anything to do with legalities where writing and publishing is concerned. Or I’ll post something just for the hell of it. There are also some anniversaries coming up this year so I’ll be talking about those things as well.
A lot has already happened, as you’ll soon see. Something I decided in late November 2020 was to close down the Porn Star Brothers book series website to make life easier for myself. And as much as I loved it, and thought it was so freakin’ awesome, again, I needed to make life easier for myself and not have an extra website to upload a whole pile of details to. And also, the series has come to an end with And Always, so it’s not like the website would be added to in the coming years.
To get this party started, let’s launch into February 1st’s post containing what I’ve already done so far this year, and what I hope to get done this month and what I have planned for the year.
Green is for done, orange for in the process of, and black is what is yet to be done.
So let’s get into it.