Today I pulled Crazy Beautiful from Amazon. I wrote CB two years ago, back when I knew nothing about indie publishing. I wrote a book (because I loved to write) and then hit the publish button.

Like I said, I knew nothing. Hell, I didn't know if anyone would even read it. And then something beautiful happened, people did read it and a whole new, exciting, beautiful world opened up to me: the community of indie writing. And I love it!

Then another set of characters walked into my world and I wrote Beautiful Dangerous. At the time I knew I should be working on the second book of the Crazy Beautiful series, but the characters of Beautiful Dangerous were pretty demanding and 6 months later I released my second book. When characters and plotlines reveal themselves to you, you kind of have to take notice . . . because like I said, they are pretty insistent.

Then I hit 12 months full of personal shit. I’m not going to go into it because I don't even know how to put it all into words. But please trust me when I say, it was a really hard time for me and as a result I stopped writing. I tried to maintain some kind of presence on social media, and I tried to work on Crazy Wonderful, but damn, I was having a really hard time and living in a fog. My focus was on putting one foot in front of the other and getting through each day.

As a result, Crazy Wonderful was put on the back burner. And when I was feeling better, I didn’t go back to it, instead I started on a story that had slowly formed overtime during my sabbatical. Because this story was about someone who felt broken and emotionally spent, and who was trying to put one foot in front of the other. The ironic part—it is a romantic comedy.

Now I am back, finishing up my third book and feeling hopeful. Actually, I feel better than just hopeful . . . I feel stronger having gone through the rockiest time of my life.

But Crazy Wonderful remains unfinished. And because it is a part of a series, I feel I should remove Crazy Beautiful from Amazon until CW is ready to release. I have disappointed a lot of people by not releasing it, and for this, I am very, very sorry. It was never my intention to keep people waiting. Again, I apologize. But I am human and life happens.

So to avoid upsetting further people, Crazy Beautiful will remain unpublished until Crazy Wonderful is ready. I also don’t want to write a book because I am feeling pressured. I want to hit the publish button on something I enjoyed writing—something I loved creating—not something I was forced to finish.

I love the indie world. I love writing. And I love, love, love my readers. I thank everyone of you for your love and support. You guys rock!

So I am getting back to basics. I am writing what I want to write, when I want to write and because I want to write. And that feels pretty damn good!

Lots of love,
Penny xx