Monthly Update

Hey peeps!

Well, it’s a new year and and here we are again. I’m facing my 64th birthday this month. The number doesn’t bother me quite as much as it did a few months ago, as long as I can keep up with my goals and plans for this year. It is somewhat astonishing to realize I’m now in my 60s — even though I have been so for the past three years. I think that we sometimes don’t notice the passage of time until something reminds us and we suddenly sit here going, that escalated quickly.

So this year I’m planning on making some fundamental changes. They aren’t necessarily huge in the scheme of things, but hopefully they will help keep me on track because right now what I want most is focus, health, and to bolster my career again.

In terms of career, I’ve often said over the past year or so that going into KU dragged me down, it cut my sales drastically, I didn’t find the readership there that I hoped to, and it just didn’t feel right because it cut off some of my readers who read on other e-platforms. So this year my big focus is on rebuilding trust with my readership on the other vendors, and finding my way back to where I was a couple years ago.

Another part of the problem was for the past year and a half, I decided to try and switch genres. Paranormal romance generally sells better than urban fantasy, and Romantasy is big right now. But what I forgot to take into account is that my readers love my urban fantasy and my paranormal women’s fiction. They want more of both — and so as I strayed from what I do best, I sort of floundered out of place.

Now, I’m proud of the Starlight Hollow series, and of my Winter’s Spell books, but to be honest I wasn’t that comfortable writing them because they didn’t have the elements that I do so well. I think I needed a palate cleanser from both the UF and the PWF, but what I should have done is stick to a couple novellas and that was it.

But it’s a live-and-learn experience, I suppose.

As for Starlight Hollow series, I am seriously considering revisiting that in the future. I can turn it intourban fantasy now that Elphyra’s love life is settled. I can easily see expanding it that way, and I do love those characters.

With regards to the fantasy romance, I don’t know if I’ll try to write more. If I do, it will be in the future, and perhaps one book or a series of short novellas.

I have exciting plans for this next year:

• I’ll be writing more of the Shadow Blade series, which I’m enjoying greatly and which my readers are enjoying. I can see this series going as long as the Moonshadow Bay Series.
• I’ll be writing a new paranormal women’s fiction series — Married at First Bite.
• And I will be writing one probably-final Moonshadow Bay series book. However, as I’ve often said, never say never. If that sells well, I will happily consider writing more of January’s world.

One of the problem with long series is that there’s definitely reader drop off after a certain point. And that drop-off point differs with each series. It’s a difficult call to decide when to end a series that people like, because it’s always hard to tell when it’s getting ready to nosedive and each reader has a different point when they’re done with the series. It’s a tricky thing, and one that I think every series author has to navigate.

Another focus this year is my health. I’m doing better than I was last year, but we’ve had a number of things crop up in 2024. And I’m just tired of feeling tired, and I’m tired of all these chronic illnesses, so I need to find the best way to live with them, while still bolstering my health as much as I can. I’m working with my doctor with regards to that, and trying not to feel too impatient.

This is a long update, but I just wanted to talk to you a brief time about where I’m at, and what I expect to be doing over this next year.

I’m also considering something else, and this is not set in stone yet so don’t quote me, and that is to re-cover the magic happens series and perhaps later on write more in it. The covers do not match the books and it makes it difficult for me to write.

I also had some expectations for Marquette, the main character, that I need to let go of in order to be happy writing her. I didn’t listen to her as well as I should have, and you’d think I would know better by now, but eh…it happens.

Those changes have nothing to do with her disabilities. Those disabilities are part of her. But her insistence on not getting in a relationship was ME trying to write for a subsect of readers–just like I tried to write PNR instead of UF with the Starlight Hollow Series.

But eliminating romance from my books no longer feels comfortable, and it didn’t feel true to her nature. So if I write more in the Magic Happens series, there will probably be some romance coming in. Just because Marquette is older, doesn’t mean she isn’t interested in love and sex.

I’ve got some changes coming up to my Patreon as well. Among other things, I have created a tier — one above the Moonicorns, where I will post chapters as I write them and members will be able to read the books as I write them.

Now, I wouldn’t be doing that to ask for suggestions. As you know, I don’t write by committee and I don’t entertain suggestions from my readers for what I write or how I write it. BUT…I know that some readers love reading books as they are being created and this will allow you to see my process going from the rough draft to the final product.

And I have another secret project on Patreon that I’ll be unveiling in a couple months–I guarantee some of you will love this.

As for 2025, you may know from past discussions that I always choose a word or phrase for the year. And for 2025, my phrase is: Regroup, Reboot, & Refresh. So, have you made your plans and goals for 2025 yet? Do you have a word for the year? Tell me in the comments.