Last year at this time I was a happy camper. The first book in the Salt Box Trilogy, Finding Mr. Right Now, had just been published. The second, Love In the Morning, had a publication date, and the third, Running On Empty, had been contracted. My first books set in Colorado had become a reality. In January 2016, Love In the Morning was published with good reviews (currently it has a 4.6 star average on Amazon), and I signed the contract for Running On Empty. Everything was looking rosy.

Of course, that was then.

Earlier this year, Samhain Publishing, which bought my very first book, Venus In Blue Jeans, and kept me going with the entire Konigsburg saga, announced that they were closing down. Like most of Samhain’s authors I was upset by the news. I knew many of the people who worked for Samhain, as well as many of its authors—they were a very talented bunch, and I was sad to see them go.

But Samhain’s closure also had a more immediate effect for me personally. It meant that Running On Empty was no longer scheduled for publication since it hadn’t been edited or given a cover at the time the closure was announced. I had a few choices for the future of Running On Empty. First, I could have tried to find another publisher, but the chances of anyone wanting to take on the third book in a trilogy where the other two books belonged to Samhain were slim at best. I could have let it go, leaving the last book of the trilogy up in the air, but I didn’t want to do that.

My third choice—and the one I decided to go with—was publishing the book myself. Gleep!

Self publishing (the industry term is “indie” publishing) is an increasingly widespread phenomenon. An entire industry has sprung up over the last five years for authors who want to bring out their own, professionally produced books, including cover artists, editors, and formatters. I’d already had a little experience in self publishing when I took part in the Sapphire Falls Kindle World series with Going Up In Flames.

I needed to get my publication rights back from Samhain, but that didn’t prove to be a problem. Since they wouldn’t be publishing the book themselves, they were perfectly willing to give me back the contract. Rights in hand, I was ready to pursue an indie published version of Salt Box Trilogy, Book 3.

How hard could it be?

I’ll be pursuing the answer to that question over the rest of the summer, and talking about my experiences in this blog as I do it. All I can say for sure is this: Running On Empty will be coming out, probably in late August.

Stay tuned, gentle reader. Stay tuned.