Obligatory New Year's Post 2021

 

For every person on this planet, 2020 will be a year that lives in infamy. I honestly don't know a single person that didn't suffer in some way due to the pandemic, and all that it wrought. Today begins a new chapter in all our lives. Hopefully, a much more positive chapter. One we will be a little sad to see end this time next year.

In 2020 there were a few changes in my family. Daughter #3 decided to end her college career for now but stayed in Denton. Daughter #2 moved back home. Our son was officially renamed in the eyes of the state of Texas and we're still getting everyone else officially on board. My husband and I were able to work from home for a few weeks, but for the most part still had to go out in public every workday. We were lucky to keep our jobs and have not forgotten it for a second.

My son's box turtle disappeared, and I had to say goodbye to my beloved cat Cheetoh on the same day my son's tortoise died. At nearly the end of the year daughter #1's girlfriend's cat died of cancer. It was a rough year on us for pets.

In my writing life there were some positives. I finally finished book three of my Gargoyle Masters series. It's being edited and I already have the new book cover ready to go. I'm hoping for a March release date. I won NaNoWriMo for, I think, only the second time of my life, though I've been attempting it for many years. My long neglected blog saw a lot of activity from me in September because of a 30 Day Challenge hosted by Angela James that kicked my writing butt back into gear. Overall, it was the most productive I've been in a long time. 

So, what about this year? Here are twenty-one things (in no particular order) that I'm looking forward to in this new year:

1. Empty Nesting. I love my children with a sometimes fanatical intensity that drives them nuts, but I've been taking care of them for nearly twenty-seven years. In the Fall we will be taking my son to Tulane University and beginning our Empty Nest days. Daughter #2 might still be living with us, but she'll be 24 by then and no longer needs me to the degree she did as a child. I'm looking forward to having a little bit more time for myself.

2. New Orleans. On that note, with our son in New Orleans for school we'll have a lot more opportunity to visit one of my favorite places to visit. We've promised him to remember to swing by and say hi while we're in town, lol.

3. In person book events. I might be overly optimistic, but I have at least four in-person events planned for 2021. 

4. The first is All the Books in March in Houston. Hopefully, it will be safe enough to still have this event at that time. If not, the next is in May. Fingers crossed.

5. The May event is The Lone Star Book Festival.

6. Comicpalooza is expected to also make a return in Houston in May.

7. At some point Copperfield Books will reschedule it's Annual Author Fair.

8. In October, Authors in the Alamo City is expected to still take place.

9. Publishing new books. As stated above I will definitely be releasing the third Gargoyle Masters book this year. 

10. I also plan to rerelease at least two of my contemporary erotics that were previously published by Ellora's Cave. I also have a completely new contemporary erotic romance I'm working to have out soon. It's book three in my Erotic Arts series that began with Erotic Images.

11. Reading new books. With the new year comes new books from my favorite authors. One of the ones I'm most looking forward to is Wild Sign by Patricia Briggs. It's book 6 in her Alpha and Omega series which I highly recommend if you enjoy urban fantasy. Even if you're not sure, Patricia Briggs is one of the best story tellers I've ever come across. Well worth the read no matter which series you try.

12. I'm also looking forward to Nalini Singh's newest Psy-Changeling book Last Guard. Though waiting until July is going to be painful.

13. Christine Feehan is releasing a new book in each of three of her series that are on my auto-buy list, and I honestly don't know which I'm looking forward to the most: Reckless Road, Lightning Game, or Shadow Storm.

14. Seeing family again. I'm really hoping by October it's safe to visit my mom. Since she lives in San Antonio I'm hoping to see her when I attend Authors in the Alamo City. Even if I have to put on a hazmat suit, I want to see my mom in person.

15.Travel. It might still be a while before it's safe to really travel and have a vacation somewhere, but we already know we're heading to Louisiana in August because of my son. He is also having top surgery this year which will necessitate a trip to Austin where daughter #1 lives. Then there will be those in-person book events. One is in Seguin, TX, which I've driven through more times than I can count. However, I don't think I've ever actually stopped there. It will be nice to road trip again.

16. New cat? When our son leaves for college he will be taking one of the cats with him. Claire really only loves him and barely tolerates the rest of us, so she gets to go to Tulane too. That means Jessie will be all alone in our house during the workday. So, we will most likely look into getting her a companion shortly after Claire leaves for college.

17. Eating out. Though we've continued to order food from area restaurants in order to support them, we haven't eaten in a restaurant in a while. There was one breakfast we attempted in an outdoor courtyard a month or so ago where we were attacked by bees. I told my husband it was a sign that we should've continued to get our food to go. I'm looking forward to being able to sit in a restaurant again. Hopefully it will happen this year.

18. Movies, and other indoor entertainments. Will we be able to safely watch a movie in a theater in 2021? I hope so. I'm honestly more concerned with going to a musical performance or play. No matter what it is, I truly hope it's safe to support the arts in person this year.

19. Camping. Before our rainy camping trip in December it had been many years since we'd loaded up the tent and headed into the woods. We all missed it. Being that it's one of the safe things we can do during a pandemic, I'm looking forward to more camping in 2021.

20. Photography. I've been taking photos since middle school when my father bought me a Canon AE-1. It's a hobby I haven't indulged in much the past couple of years. However, I plan to take my DSLR with me a lot more in 2021. There are so many great photographs I've missed because the phone is not always a great substitute.

21. Everything. 2020 was such a dumpster fire that there's just nowhere to go but up at this point. If you follow my social media you know where I stand politically. I can't wait for Biden and Harris to take office. I'm almost giddy with relief at the thought of the changing political climate in the US that is coming. I know things aren't going to improve overnight, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.

Sunday Reflection: A Decision About My Writing

 I signed my first publishing contract in the summer of 2008. Before that acceptance email that completely changed the way I viewed myself when it came to writing, I basically just wrote as stories came to me. I wrote because I wanted to know the rest of the story that was playing through my mind. I wrote for myself. The first time someone told me they liked what I had written I was shocked. These crazy stories I make up in my mind weren't supposed to actually go anywhere or do anything for anyone. Not even me.

Now it's been over ten years since my first book landed on the shelves of Barnes and Noble and I'm completely indie-published. I don't have a company to help me edit, publish, cover, and promote my stories. I'll be completely honest, there are days where it doesn't feel as if all the work is worth it. Does anyone care if I ever publish another book? Is anyone actually waiting for my 3rd Gargoyle book, 4th Archangel book, 2nd Shapeshifter book, or any of the erotic stories I have yet to republish? Maybe, maybe not. I've had to really think about this over the past few months because independent publishing is not cheap. I promised my husband at the very beginning of this journey that I would only spend money I make on my books on book-related things. I lied. Luckily, he's a wonderful man with a great job, and I work fulltime as well. However, I've had to take things very slowly with anything new that requires not only a book cover (of which I am barely capable), but also a real editor rather than a free Beta reader. This, my dear readers, is only one of the reasons I don't have more books available for purchase right now.

At the beginning of the year I had great hopes of having the third Gargoyle book out by the summer. Then Covid-19 happened and I've found it very hard to concentrate on writing. The plethora of blog posts over this past months are my way of getting back into the swing of things. I'm hoping oiling my writing muscles in this way will bring my mojo back. I think it's working. I certainly am not having any trouble writing the blog posts. But even once I get the book done I still have to pay for an editor. A couple of months ago I invested in another beautiful cover from the very talented Kanaxa. I can't wait to share it with y'all, but that's not happening until I have a release date. I have to finish the book first.

So, what was my great epiphany about my writing? What is the decision I've come to as mentioned in the blog title? I've decided to stop worrying about trying to keep up with the expectations other authors have for themselves and to be more realistic in the expectations I set for myself. I've decided to start writing for ME again. I still want to keep my readers happy. I love y'all and am completely humbled every time I sell a book. However, I can't live under that pressure right now. I'm going to once again look at each book as a story I want to tell rather than a possible source of income. Luckily, I have the ability to do that because as mentioned above my husband and I both work. I'm going to stop looking at my author brand as a business (at least for the moment) and consider it an expression of myself I want to share with the world. I hope you will join me on my journey.

Thoughts on Hoarding and Other Things

Calico cat named Jessie

It's Thursday afternoon and I'm in my office trying to ignore the television in the living room, just on the other side of the wall. Kid #3 is home from college and is watching Hoarders with kid #4. I've told them my grandmother might have had hoarding tendencies, but there was a very distinct reason. 

I grew up visiting my Nana in El Paso every summer and Christmas break. I clearly remember her saving food scraps to feed the neighbor's livestock. I remember her making every meal from scratch. So many memories of pennies pinched and things that I didn't understand at the time are much clearer now. Nana grew up during the Great Depression. She became the single mother of four children when my mom was eleven, and worked as a nurse at a hospital near her home for as long as I can remember. 

There are so many things we take for granted when we're children. My kids want for nothing that my husband and I can provide and I've always told them so long as there is breath in my body they will never be homeless and never go hungry. In these uncertain times there are so many people without that family safety net that my kids have always known. It's something I was blessed with myself, and I don't know what I would've done without it. So, I'm sitting here thinking about that and how such things, lack of family and security and/or growing up as a child during a depression, might have effected the hoarders on the show.

I'm not a TV watcher myself. I leave that for my husband and drown myself in books instead. This year I've been more determined than ever to record every book I read in order to keep track. I use Goodreads and am always happy to add a friend to my roll if you're interested. Unfortunately, I haven't been adding to any bookstores myself. I'm almost halfway to my desired word-count for the third installment of my Gargoyle Masters series. Kid #2 (a great artist in my opinion) is working on a new cover for Day Shift. I want it to have more of a comicbook feel to it this time. The sequel is done but needs to be edited and covered as well. Hopefully, by the summer I'll have at least one new release. 

On June 15th I will turn 45. My goal is to release Born of the Forbidden: Gargoyle Masters Book III by that week. Technically it will be my twenty-third manuscript to be published since I started this journey in 2008. The first couple of years were very productive, but the knocks from a thieving publisher, the closing of my favorite publisher, and then be completely ignored by my final publisher, really took its toll on my muse. I'm trying to find it again one sentence at a time. So you may be seeing more blog posts as I work out my writing muscles over the next few weeks. I hope you'll join me on this leg of my journey.

Obligatory New Year Post

Happy New Year! I hope the first week of the year has been good for you. I've obviously procrastinated a bit. In truth, it took a few days for me to decide whether or not to post a New Year post, but since I've been seriously lacking in the writing department I figured I should.

2019 was an up and down year for me. Another one of my kids graduated high school and entered college. We announced to our world that my youngest identifies as male. I asked for the rights back from the last "traditional" publisher that still had some of my books. I self-published for the first time. I wrote probably less than any previous year in the past ten years.

Around me the world is on fire, at war with each other politically and socially, and most people can't even agree on what constitutes human decency. But I am very hopeful that we've seen (or at least come very close to) rock bottom, so now the only way is up. As a human I'm going to keep chugging along and stick to my beliefs.

As a writer, I plan to finish book three in my Gargoyle Masters series, and possibly book four, this year. I hope to have book three published by summer at the latest, and then book four by year's end. I will be attending at least three different events, all in Texas. I also plan to publish a couple of my erotic romance books that were previously published through EC. I'm not sure yet if I will have anything new in erotic romance this year or not, as the cost of self-publishing is a bit of a hindrance.

As a person, I've decided not to create official resolutions this year. It's too much unnecessary pressure when no one really expects anyone else to stick to them. I am, however, going to try to be better at a few things I do, and restart a few things I was doing last year at this time that I never should have stopped. Yes, writing is one of those things.

I hope your year has begun as a refreshing start to a new chapter in your life, and I wish you good luck on making it through the next twelve months.

Writing to Write

I'm the first to admit that I'm a terrible businesswoman. I'm also very lucky and hardworking. The luck comes in the form of a hardworking husband who doesn't mind that I spend money on books. The hardworking part of me takes care of the rest. What does this mean for me as a writer? Well, I don't write to make money.

This might be considered a good thing for most things, but it's a bad thing when it comes to actual production. I feel no rush to get books published. I write when the urge to write takes me, and hopefully I have time to write at those moments too. 

When I began this crazy journey to be a published author I wrote the stories I wanted to read. That hasn't changed. However, now that I'm not under deadline with a publisher I find myself writing those stories in my head more often than on my computer. I can't even list how many different stories I've written in my head. So, lately actual writing has taken a backseat even though I have at least four series to finish. 

I'm also trying to quiet my daily life enough to hear my characters' voices again. I'm going to start carving out more time to concentrate on my worlds. I'm also going to try blogging more because the act of writing in any capacity helps keep the wheels spinning.

I would also like to point out that just because I don't depend on my royalties to eat doesn't mean I'm cool with anyone stealing my books. Piracy sucks, so don't do that.  

Another struggle right now is deciding which stories to finish. I'm decent at starting books and getting close to the middle, but then the ending eludes me. A lot of times that's because another idea pops in my head and takes over before I decide how the first one should end. What I really need to know is: are erotic stories in just as much demand as non-erotic romance? I'm writing mostly paranormal with a medium heat level but I have contemporaries started that are highly erotic. What to do, what to do? I also have eleven books that were with EC and are now fully my property again that are collecting dust. 

So, overall I've been a very lazy author. I very much want to write. I just need to remember to actually publish books too. Maybe someone needs to come over and delete spider solitaire from my computer. Couldn't hurt.

A Romance by Any Other Name...

You may have seen me mention on Facebook or Twitter that I now have a part time job in a book store. Basically for four hours a day I look over books and type their descriptions into a database that is uploaded to Amazon and ABE Books. It's the perfect job for me. I sit mostly alone in a room surrounded by books, looking over books, and writing about books.

One thing this job has seriously opened my eyes to is a whole slew of authors I've never heard of. Why not? I honestly don't know. At the moment I'm working mostly on general and literary fiction. I do read those genres but haven't really read any contemporary authors. I am noticing a trend though. Part of what I do is type up a little summary about the book for potential buyers to read. This means I get to learn about the plot of the books. And I'm seeing a whole slew of romance.

Now, these books aren't called Romance and they're certainly not categorized that way. But why the hell not? And when you get right down to it, don't nearly ALL stories have a romance somewhere in them? As I was looking over the books in my hands today I came to realize that every one was a romance story at it's most basic plot point. However, the author has won numerous literary awards and according to the quotes on her covers is God's gift to the literary world. Well, that's nice. I read the first few pages of at least four of her books. The writing is solid and imaginative...but the story is still a romance.

What bothers me about this discovery is that romance authors still get a bum rap. I mean, even with the hoopla over Fifty Shades... there are still other authors who look down their noses at us because we're not ashamed to admit we write love stories. And God forbid I mention my erotics! So what is it going to take for romance authors to earn equal respect? We earn royalties just like other genre authors. We use our creative juices to make stories that people want to read. We create and destroy whole worlds in our spare time. What's not to love and respect?

Maybe I'm asking for too much, or just being completely naive. And to be honest, I don't care a whole lot what people who don't read my work think of me as a writer. So long as I can still make someone happy with my books I will continue to put them out there. Even if that someone is just me.