Updated on What I’m Doing

Here is the video to go with the post if you’d rather listen to me ramble.

First things first, I am happy to say The Hero Least Likely is FINALLY (and for real) done!

This is Book 2 in the Love Under Desert Skies Series.

(Book 1 is Tagalong Bride.)

You’d think about writing over 100 books that it would be easy to finish one, but this was one of the most challenging books I’ve ever had to wrap up. The good news is that the main characters survived. I was tempted to send an asteroid at them for giving me so much grief. That would have meant killing them on the spot and relieving me of having to write the ending. But since this is a romance, I resisted the use of the asteroid. (This method could have worked for any other genre. But it will never work for romance. First rule of romance: main characters stay alive. Second rule: they are in love and happy.)

Now, I did plot the last two chapters. This involved the gunfight scene. I thought this plot thing was going to work all the way to the end. I only had four pages of plotted content. Well, halfway into the four pages, the characters went in their own direction. I didn’t mind. At least they were telling me what to write. The main thing is that the main characters survived the book, and we can move on to Book 3 in the series. Book 3 won’t be out until next year. I have too many other projects going on for the time being.

Things are heating up in The Earl’s Bluestocking Bride

This is Book 1 in the Marriage by Chemistry Series.

I’m happy to say that the progress is going smoothly here. (Let’s hope that continues. Given what happened with The Hero Least Likely, I’m not taking anything for granted.)

We are finally at the “big blow up” moment. I’ve been looking forward to this since I started the book. Adam (the hero), if you’ll recall, has an alias who is Jefferson Crowdy (an actor). Emma (the heroine) is using her brother’s name for the plays she’s writing. At the beginning of the book, Adam rejects Emma’s play. The two don’t know their real identities when they meet and fall in love. Well, at long last, the wait is over, and they are about to discover the truth. I’m really looking forward to watching the sparks fly.

The Preacher’s Wife is on hold. I have to work on Masquerade Bride.

Masquerade Bride is a Halloween story for my Regency holiday series. It needs to be out this fall. I’m hoping for a September release but will accept an October one.

I’m finding that I can’t write books as fast as I used to. My guess is that this is the result of the burnout I went through. The plus side is that I feel like my storytelling and the characters are stronger since I am allowing myself to take more breaks. I’ve also noticed my stories are longer than they used to be. That does add to how long it takes to finish them, of course.

For Masquerade Bride, I had debated swapping Marie (the heroine of this book) with the heroine of Book 2 (Diane), but that didn’t feel “right”, so I am going with the “what if Marie had been born socially at ease with others, beautiful, easy to get suitors, etc.

The reason why The Preacher’s Wife is on hold is due to some fan fiction I started writing.

My brain does not seem to have the capacity to focus in on one story at a time. I usually have a few stories going on inside my head all the time. The exception to this was when I was in the middle of burnout. That was the only time I can remember where I had no ideas at all. But since coming out of burnout, I am finding that ideas are just popping up left and right, and it is hard for me to pin one down to work on that. So I have chosen to pick three ideas and write those. I have tried two. I have tried four. Three seems to be the sweet spot since I naturally lean into that amount. I’m not going to fight it. I’m just going to accept this is how I am and run with it.

(As an aside, I would recommend any author who might be reading this to embrace how they are wired. We are not all meant to write books the same way. We each have our process, and that’s okay.)

I’m just going to come out and say it because I’m sure someone is going to ask. The fan fiction I started is based on the Hunger Games series. I love the series. I have loved reading the fan fiction already out there based on this series. I’ve been exploring different “what if this had happened instead?” ideas, and while most of them fizzled out, there was one angle that took root–and it is NOT letting me go. I have tried playing out this scenario in my head when I’m drifting off to sleep. The other “what if” scenarios I’ve ever done based on other books/movies/TV shows have been successfully snuffed out by this method. It is why I have never felt the urge to write fan fiction before. But this time is different. I have not been able to write anything in The Earl’s Bluestocking Bride or Masquerade Bride. I thought the hang-up was because I couldn’t finish The Hero Least Likely, but I have finished it, and the fan fiction idea is still nudging me. It wasn’t until I started writing the first scene to the fan fiction that I could finally write in The Earl’s Bluestocking Bride and Masquerade Bride. So, I will run with this fan fiction thing. Don’t worry. This is not going to be something I’m publishing and claiming as my own. It will probably just go on Archive of Our Own since that is where I’ve been reading fan fiction. I like that site because you don’t need to create an account to read the stuff on it. I don’t know about anyone else, but I am tired of keeping track of usernames and passwords for every single thing I do.

The Progress of my YouTube and Rumble audiobook adventures.

Tagalong Bride Chapter 17 is now up. It’ll be finished up by the end of this month. I am currently working on Eye of the Beholder since a lot of people seem to like that book a lot. If anyone has a book they would like for me to put up on those sites, let me know. I’m up for suggestions.

I am reading these myself. I am not hiring someone to read these books for me because I know where to take out the “spicy” content better than they would. I can also afford my prices (free). I also don’t want to take the time to modify AI narration to remove spicy stuff because as I’m reading the book, I can just adjust things as I’m going along.

At the end of the day, I have decided I will only do things I enjoy

Worrying about making money led to my burnout. For other authors, thinking about the money might inspire them and make them better at this stuff. It’s not like that for me. I am tired of trying to be a circle that needs to fit in a square hole. I need to do the stuff that best aligns with how I operate. When I started writing and publishing in 2009, I was doing things I enjoyed. Then everyone realized there was money in this business, and over time, I think it sucked the life out of me. I’m not saying the money isn’t nice. Of course, it’s nice. But I’m learning that it can hurt some authors (like me) to focus on the money part of things.

I have discovered that I love making these videos. I love reading my books. I love rambling on about things that I’ve learned or things I think about writing, publishing, and marketing. (With any luck, I have helped other writers like me.) I have learned I even enjoy sitting down and verbally saying what I’m working on as if I’m sitting in someone’s living room having a conversation with them. Very low key. I’m not into the bells and whistles that some videos have, but my goal isn’t to be “professional”; it’s to have fun.

An update on my eyes

I can’t believe what a difference avoiding stress has done for my eyes. A large part of it was the “fear” factor. I swear, the news runs on instilling fear in people. Another big part was worrying about making money with my writing. Focusing on factors I can’t control (like whether people buy my books or even see them) don’t help my eyes at all.

This is why I’m focusing on things I enjoy. Ever since I’ve made this mental shift, my eyes are normal again. The only things I struggle with are reading paperbacks and magazines. I suspect it’s because I have a Reticare screen on my computers and my iPhone. But who knows? I’m just happy to feel this good again.