A Year in Review - Goodbye 2019, Hello 2020 ...

Goodbye 2019, Hello 2020…

Welcome back to the blog, loves!

And yet another installment of my year in review for the BK-verse and what to expect in the coming new year from me writing-wise. I have tried to do one of these for every new year that I have been in this game, if that’s what we wanna call it, but this was the first year I really considered not doing it.

Not because 2019 was a bad year on my publishing/writing side of things. Quite the contrary as this has been the best year, on paper. All this work I did, it led me to a year beyond my wildest imagination and I am more grateful than you will ever know because I can’t form the right words to express my gratitude.

But thank you.

Before I say anything else, thank you for getting me to where I am right now. My readers are the best readers – I will say it until I no longer can – you are the best readers.

Thank you for being mine.

So, this post might get a little long. Or it might not.

Who knows?

I never do.

Sorry, not really sorry.

A few things I am gonna touch on for this post – because these end of year posts are always focused on my business/writing/books:

2019 releases.

The Commission World.

Continuing themes in the BK-verse with my readers.

2020.

What’s happening with me right now.

So, let’s get to it, shall we?

What books I released in 2019:

Privilege

Harbor

Contempt

Forever (companion novella)

Cross + Catherine (collection boxset)

Dirty Pool

Cara & Gian (duet boxset)

Corrado

Alessio

Chris

Beni

Bene

Marcus

10 full-lengths, one companion, and two boxsets of previously published material. Not too bad, considering my usual track record.

2019 also saw the ending of the major series(es?) for my Commission World with the Renzo + Lucia trilogy and the Guzzi Legacy saga. Which I know saddens a lot of people, but at the end of the day … nothing stays the same. Nor do I want it to.

Something people, or mostly my readers—because I’ve never shared—don’t know about me is that I have a compulsion to finish things I start. It’s really something that I struggle with a lot. I never want to start something I can’t put an ending on, and if I do choose not to end something, trust that it followed, triggered, and dug into my mind for longer than I will ever admit.

Even to the detriment of myself or my business, I try to finish everything I start as quickly as I started it. Or in as timely of a manner as I can. For example, I finished writing specific series (I won’t name which ones) even though they put me in the “red” financially simply because I started something, and I had to see it through to the end.

Let’s touch on the continuing theme with readers in the BK-verse:

So, when people constantly ask me for “more” Commission World books … my response is always the same in that, “I want to write something new.”

Because this is coming to an end. I can’t help that the stories for this world have culminated to this point where I found myself with 2019-2020 Commission World books. That’s the process. A beginning, a middle, and the end.

I have finally started to reach an “end” in this journey of starting this HUGE project – please, go back and count how many books were in this world. It is massive. It has consumed 5+ years of my life.

Day in.

Day out.

It is also one of my most prideful creations. Look at that world – it’s amazing. That all came from my head. Holy shit – that came out of my mind.

Back when I thought I was reaching an end with the world when I finished the first original Guzzi Duet, a half of a dozen MORE couples were like, “HEY, hey, hey you, hey, your face—yeah, you! Write us, too.”

Of course, I did.

Of course, I’m glad I did.

I have also reached the end of whatever this world turned out to be, and am ready to move on.

Aren’t you?

No, people tell me. No, we want more. No, we want the next “gen.”

And I get it. Totally get it.

You’re attached—you love these characters and the world they live in. They’re familiar and comfortable and everything you’ve immersed yourself in for as long as I have been writing them, in many of my readers’ cases.

I still say that should be a good indicator of what’s coming next for you. Not what’s already here. And I can’t wait for that.

That’s not to say I won’t come back to the Commission World to write more books over the next few years – because I will. I still want to write Abril and her cartel in Mexico. I still want to delve into The League. However, when these stories will come … who knows? It could be 2022, it could be 2023. It could be one series a year in between new worlds and new books and new people.

But the run of Commission World series after book after duet after family is coming to an end in 2020. And that’s sort of why 2020 is really packed full of a lot of things I hope make the superfans of the Commission world happy to see.

So, a peek at what’s to come in the coming year, 2020:

The Hunted (Fantasy/Paranormal) - January 6th, 2020

John + Siena: The Complete Duet (with companion novella) - Feb 3rd, 2020
John + Siena: Extended (companion novella) - Feb 10th, 2020

Pretty Lies (Cory Rossi; standalone) - March 2nd, 2020

Andino + Haven Boxset  - April 6th, 2020
One Last Time (Andino + Haven Companion) - April 13th, 2020

Pink (standalone) - May 4th, 2020

Renzo + Lucia Boxset - June 8th 2020
Cusp (A Renzo + Lucia Novella ft. Diego) - June 15th, 2020

Luca/Penny (Untitled) - July 6th 2020

Fractured Ties (Kolya), Boykov Bratva #1- September 7th 2020*

The Guzzis: Part One (Boxset featuring Corrado | Alessio) - October 5th, 2020
The Firsts: Pt 1, a Guzzi Legacy Novella - October 13th, 2020

Essence of Fear (Viktoria), Boykov Bratva #3 - November 9th 2020*

The Guzzis: Part Two (Boxset featuring Chris | Beni | Bene | Marcus) - December 7th, 2020
The Firsts: Pt 2, a Guzzi Legacy Novella - December 14th
​

*Boykov Bratva books #2 and #4 will be written by London Miller and will release in and around Kolya and Viktoria.

13 Commission World books.

3 of which are full-length novels.

5 boxsets.

5 companion novellas for your favorites.

I’ll also be utilizing the blog for my creative outlets because you know what? I really don’t like to say goodbye, either, and often … when I want to be inspired elsewhere, I go back to the characters and stories who inspired me in the first place to write again.

So, expect lots of outtakes. Blog series, etc. We’ll have votes on who you want to see get extra special attention.

I honestly feel, because of the amount of love and messages and readers just asking for please, one more book for “so and so”, that I have to kind of do this. Prepare everybody for the inevitable end of this major world. To make sure every reader of mine who loves this world knows it’s never really over. It’s just not going to be like it once was.

Get ready for the next wave.

It’s coming.

So, what else is coming in 2020?

Next week I’m opening the 9INE REALMS. A fantasy world full of mermaids and creatures out of my wildest dreams. Full of murder and pain and war. And love. As of now, I could only say and fit in one for sure book from the 9INE REALMS this year – The Hunted. If all goes well, and I won’t say that it will, we will see a second standalone and/or series toward the end of the year for the 9INE REALMS. It will feature someone we meet in The Hunted, but I won’t say who just yet.

Nothing is as it seems in that world/book. Get ready.

London Miller and I are also finally going back to revisit our world, The Undergrounds, to bring you the Boykov Bratva. We’ve worked on this series differently from out first where we wrote the previous one together, scene for scene. With these books, we picked which ones we wanted to write and went ahead and worked separately to create standalones within the same family, though we will release them close together, as you can see by the dates above.

In total, I plan to release 16 books next year. Sixteen. And if I add in a standalone or series for the 9INE REALMS toward the end of the year, it’ll be a larger number again.

It’ll be the largest number of books I’ve released in a single year since beginning this journey – please don’t expect it to be a regular thing, haha, but I really did want to make 2020 special for my readers.

80% of my 2020 projects are finished. Like, actually done. Already written, edited or in the process, and could be published next week if I wanted to kill myself to get them out. They even have covers. Yep – for real.

I have yet to write Pink and Penny/Luca’s book(s). Pink I start on the 6^th with a deadline of February 3^rd, and Penny and Luca … well, more on that when I get to them and can finally really decide what I want to do with them.

2019 was a great year, right?

So many books.

My highest-grossing since I started publishing.

Huge for growth.

My best year yet … on paper.

It was also my worst privately. I lost my grandmother. I learned what it meant to be lonely beyond words. I stepped into a depression—not for the first time, but the first time that hurt my writing—that took away my desire to write because the grief was constant and heavy, and it drowned me for months.

Believe it or not, this latest bout of depression was the only time I have not obsessively written 1000s upon 1000s of words every day while in a depressive episode. It took months to finish books instead of weeks. Days to write chapters instead of hours.

I didn’t want to write or talk about 2019 before it was gone. I was ready for it to be over.

I’m ready to just move on … in a lot of ways.

For those who wanna know because they asked on Instagram:

Roman Avdonin and his family are coming back.

So are the Astors.

The Hunted is a standalone.

My fave books of 2019 include London Miller’s Kingmaker Saga—I know the amount of heart she’s put into her world and that saga specifically, and to see it finally come to fruition felt like a victory for her. Bird Box—the book, not the movie, fuck the movie. The History of the Mafia—a gift from my reader, friend, Ari Reavis, that I’ve taken to bed with me to read a page or two at a time just to savor it. A still unreleased novel from Nina Gooden, Collared (title may change, as it is unreleased) that has stayed with me in the months since I beta read it; I can’t wait for it to make its way into the world. VC Andrews’ Landry family series. A good as gold re-read for me that still gets me every time. And that’s about it. 

Here’s to 2020, loves.

The books it’ll bring.

The goodbyes we’ll say.

And to all the unknowns.

Welcome to 2020.

Let’s get on it.

XO,

BK.

AND – subscribe to this blog at the top of the page where it says SUBSCRIBE. That’s the only way I can promise you’ll see every outtake or chapter update for blog series.

Later, loves.

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