Eighth Year – 2020

It’s already late into the year. Freaking COVID is going on. We’ve scrambled to get our oldest, GirlChild, back home when college shut down initially back in March/April. She’s back in Virginia again for her senior year. The whole thing is a mess as they were a weird hybrid and then the college students started getting sick. She planned for going back to online but still.

I’ve had one release this year. I think it was back in 2014/2015 I was invited to take part in a box set filled with curvy girl and delicious heroes. I could pull it off. Full Bodied Ink sat in my WIP pile for a long time. This year I made the decision to sit down and get it done.

No, I didn’t need to start a new series, but I did. No, I didn’t need to try out 1 person alternating POV, but I did. No, I didn’t need to try my hand at contemporary again, but I did. I said yes to all of it. I’m not sure if its going to pay off but you know what, that’s okay.

It got me writing again.

Full Bodied Ink released on September 8th. Want to know what I’m doing now…freaking writing the rough draft of the next Tiger Bite World. I’m writing. Slotting a hour of (partially) uninterrupted writing time to get this book done.

I feel great about it too.

The things is, I’ve been doing a lot of mulling shit over the past couple years. I’ve done a lot of, “well, it just isn’t working” while not actually working. That’s not the way to revive a career, if it can be revived at all. I’m willing to try though.

I like writing. I like putting stories to screen and creating some cool magical world. I think I’ve finally realized my world is the paranormal world. I’ll finish up the Caffeine & Ink series along with the Freefall series, but as of right now, there will be no more contemporary from me. It isn’t where I belong. (Now watch, I’ll get some great contemporary idea.)

I’m finally figuring out that my career is not and cannot be the same as others. I can learn from them. See how they do things. But my path isn’t the same. I’ve kept myself apart from most of the other authors out there (for reason we won’t get into) and I’m freaking lonely. There are 3 people in my life that I talk to writing about: hubby (he just doesn’t understand), my mom (she gets it and is super supportive), and my BFF (she’s busy running her career and doesn’t need me being clingy but she’s still there when I need her). That’s it. That’s the extent of my writing support system.

People talk about romancelandia being this huge accepting, “go girl, we got your back” environment but I haven’t felt that. My fault? Most likely. I don’t connect well with people. It goes back to my military upbringing and figuring out that it’s better to sit back and watch instead of diving in head first and getting your heart broken when you move away and your “friends” forget about you. My definition of friend and acquaintance is very clear. I have a lot of acquaintances.

My group of friends that I can be myself with, can be counted on one hand. Would I like to get over it? You betcha. I’d love to have critique partners who don’t mind that I get needy and clingy (this is something I’ve recently discovered. Oh my poor accountability group – which is a new thing for this month too). I need reassurance that I’m not shit at things. Some praise every once in a while (that isn’t from the 3 I’ve already listed) would be fantastic.

So what was the point of this 7-part blogging series? Well, it was mostly to get my thoughts out there. If someone reads it and wants to get into writing, that they don’t do what I did and go in without a master plan and end goal. For someone to see that no one has the exact same path. Even if you duplicated someone’s path down to the letter, there’s no guarantee you’ll get the same results. Also, to say, don’t let someone else’s biases and opinions dictate your own. Try new things but do it with thought. Make friends when you can and if they part ways with you, look back on it with fondness, not anger.

I just wanted to put out there that even though this is my 8th year in publishing, that you can still feel like a newbie. There will always be something new to learn.

Thanks…B