Publishing Announcement! (#02)
introducing: Sunset Year (2025)
Surprise! I’m self-publishing my novella, SUNSET YEAR, coming this August!
This might seem out of the blue for a few reasons, if you’ve been following my writing journey on other social medias for a while, you may know:
I mainly write romance novels
I have been pursuing traditional publishing
I have not talked about this project online—at all1.
So, let’s talk about it!
Sunset Year
C.J. Ellison’s SUNSET YEAR, a novella following a trans college hockey player, experiencing suicidal thoughts after a season-ending injury, and a music student, grappling with the sudden death of her sister, as they form a friendship, a bond only renewed each night at sunset.
Will Grześkiewicz believes his life is over. Magnolia Castillo knows her sister’s is. Feeling that the world is crashing down around them, individually unsure of what else to do, Will and Maggie both retreat to watch the sunset in a place they’ve previously found solace, a park settled on the river a few minutes’ drive from campus.
What starts as an attempt to get away from it all becomes an evening routine to watch the sunset with a new friend, and Will and Maggie realize that simply showing up—for themselves and for each other—might have the power to change everything.
what happened to Raising the Bar?
No need to worry, my main work in progress RAISING THE BAR2 is still in the works. It needs a whole lot of rework before I am comfortable sharing it. It was the first draft I wrote after deciding to seriously pursue publication, and I’ve learned a lot since then. It simply would not be fair to the characters to push that story out before it was ready.
Though, while I’m speaking candidly, I don’t know for sure if RTB will be the first full-length novel I publish. I have a shelf full of full-length ideas that are vying for my attention, so we’ll have to see which one is louder.
are you self-publishing from now on?
Maybe! As of right now, that’s not the goal, but it’s also not completely up to me. Traditional publishing requires a lot of time, patience, and professionals with other clients and projects to agree to take on additional responsibilities. If things worked out exactly as planned, I would continue to self-publish future projects that don’t fit the traditional market—novellas, short stories, unnecessarily long serial novels, etc.— and traditionally publish my sports romance novels.
This one in particular I decided to publish with advice from other indie published authors and trad pub professionals, who explained how difficult it is to sell novellas, even with an established reader base.
what should I expect when ??
Great question! I’ll let you know when I know! But for now, the plan is to publish the novella in late August, and ideally ARCs3 around May.
that’s all for now! thanks for tuning in!
also, as a side note— happy new year!! I hope 2025 is a wonderful year for us all.
okay, there was one time I posted a mood-board on twitter, but I didn’t reveal any details and deleted it a few days later. so that doesn’t count.
A queer adult romance novel, pitched as THE PROSPECTS meets ICEBREAKER, following a non-binary pole vaulter’s journey at the Olympic Games, complicated further by their rival’s exceptional skill and infuriatingly handsome face.
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