If the person we're talking about is I, the answer is quite slow, indeed. Not by choice. Not because I want to be the slowest writer on the face of the Earth. Not because I don't care that there are readers who want Kat's story now and Connor's story now and Lord William's story now and Joseph's story now. And what about Ruaidhrí and Emma Rose??? Won't I write about them, too???
Yes, I get your e-mails, and I, too, want these stories to be written. I want to lavish you with prose that inspires you and characters that delight you and make you fall in love. Here's the catch:
I'm very, very picky, and I'm very, very busy.
I'm very picky because I don't ever want to put a book in your hands that disappoints you. A fool's hope, perhaps, as I know that has happened. Still, I make it my goal to write books that satisfy with no loose ends forgotten, no chance for heightened emotion overlooked.
I'm very busy because I'm a single mom with a day job. If I could find a corporate sponsor to enable to sit at home and write all day every day, I would gladly wear their T-shirt and paint their logo on my house. Sadly, no one has offered yet, which leaves me in my current situation.
The image at top was taken back when I started Naked Edge. You'll notice that in those days, writers were made to be content with quill and parchment — vellum, mostly.
Time passed, and the quill fell into disuse. Some fellow in Germany came up with the idea of moveable type. (Imagine that!) And my entire manuscript — all 20 pages that were written by then — was printed onto paper using wooden block letters like these.
And still I toiled and labored and worked, hoping to bring you all the best possible story I could, listening to my characters when I ought to have been sleeping, looking at the most intimate details of their hearts and minds, foregoing fun and dates and food and personal hygiene to focus my energy on Kat and Gabe's story.
The seasons progressed, springs and winters without number, and then God created the typewriter. I'm not certain it actually was God — I wasn't looking at the time — but when I saw it, I saw that it was good. It enabled writers to type into the wee hours of the night in their own homes, where they could be have as writers behave — wearing pajamas, drinking too much coffee in the morning and too much wine at night, having conversations with non-existent people, and behaving strangely.
Then, of course, there were "word processors," and now I own a laptop. Yes, a Mac.
The point is that I have been writing this novel for a very long time, and you all have been very patient. I am making progress, and I am working very hard on it. I will be taking time out to see Star Trek because I must, but that's the only real break I'm giving myself. So I am sorry the publication date has been bumped back to February 2010. I hope to turn it in on time so the date doesn't need to be pushed back once more.
I promise to write as fast as I can!