The Hollow Queen Series

I’ve given a lot of content so far about the world of The Hollow Queen, but now I’m going to talk about where I am currently in working on it.

I have set the release date for DEC 2, 2025. I think that will give me enough time to do what I need to do with the text and the formatting. I’m also focusing on marketing, which I felt very lost in years ago and never made much effort toward. But I’m trying to grow a bit more on social media before the book is released.

I said the book was done, but I always proofread all the way until release day, and I usually change something every time.

That said, I decided to add a couple of sections that change a bit of the material later on in the book, but for the better (of course I believe that).

Another major change is that I’ve decided to ‘dissect’ the book by making the chapters shorter – just dividing them differently This will nearly double the amount of chapters but I think it will help propel the story forward at a faster pace. Instead of reading a 6-8k word slog, it will be a 2-4k…brisk…adventure? (no clue what my wording was trying to do there.)

If you read The Shadowed Bride, the chapters will be more along those lines, but if you read the 3 free chapters after that, those will not remain as they are. They will be divided up. So likely you read more like 6 chapters.

So that is my current task. There are a couple of other sections I still want to add as well, and then formatting for ebook and print, while trying to keep the word count presentable.

Right now, it’s around 250k, which rivals the longest book I have ever written! To be far, it’s a lot of spicy parts, and I can get carried away with those. But I hope there is enough diversity in the scenes and character/relationship building to make it enjoyable. I don’t want readers rolling their eyes like ‘they’re at it again SKIP’. Then again, I’ve done the ‘fade to black’ before and also had readers say ‘why did you stop??’ So…

Also, I’ve gotten a small amount of flack for using AI images in my marketing. And I just have to say that I used to be a snob like that too. Everything had to be pure. Well, AI images are what I’ve got and I think they’re amazing! (If you’re an artist, I can see the issue. It’s like being a writer and suddenly anyone can write a book with AI and they think they’ve really done something. But, as I have learned, you still have to learn how to use these tools well. (I have to repeatedly instruct ChatGPT about the art style I want and the way I want my characters to look.) But yes, I am using AI art, and no I don’t have any regret. I really like the anime realism style I have going.

So, you will continue to see posts from me. I mostly post on Instagram. That’s where my focus is currently.

@authorlanilenore