Branching Out

It's funny how things turn out.

Newsletter subscribers already know I've been writing some contemporary romance--it started as a just for fun, and just for me project that I poked at during my downtime while I was working on By Helen's Hand. An idea that just wouldn't let me go, with characters who were electric and alive, and I couldn't entirely ignore.

Well, nearly three years later, I finished that manuscript, finally and at last. It became my burn-out recovery just for fun, just for me project--the project that I kept returning to, that kept calling to me, because it was just so much FUN. And after Daughter of a Thousand Years, I needed something fun. Something just for me, without any pressure or expectation.

In a lot of ways, writing Daughter of a Thousand Years felt like ripping myself open, but writing Kate & Sully, my first contemporary romance, and poking at its sequel, has been like stitching myself back up again. Healing the wounds that had been left open to fester.

I'm SO PROUD of Daughter of a Thousand Years. I worked HARD on that book, and I'm glad that I wrote it--definitely I think it is one of the most important books I've written, and it was valuable to me personally if nothing else--but I am LOVING writing these contemporary romances.

I forgot how much fun writing could be, and writing romance gave that joy back to me.

But never in a million years would I have thought I'd be here, deriving so much pleasure from writing in a genre that was so divorced from the things I loved--mythology, history, fantasy. If you had asked me in 2013 if I would ever consider writing a contemporary romance (without any kind of fantastic element) I would have laughed at the idea.

But when I look at my other work--Postcards from Asgard, Fate of the Gods, and Daughter of a Thousand Years to name just the ones that are published--maybe it isn't so strange. It's not THAT big of a jump from writing contemporary stories with mythic and fantastic elements to writing contemporary stories without them, after all. And I can't deny that Postcards from Asgard is absolutely a romance. I can't deny that Fate of the Gods has an epic love triangle at its heart as well as a significant contemporary story. And Emma's half of Daughter of a Thousand Years is unquestionably contemporary, too.  So maybe it was only a matter of time before I found my way here.

This doesn't change anything in regard to Orc 3. It doesn't change anything about my plans for this year, really, except that a little bit more is happening in the background while I try to find the path forward for this new side of my authorself. It's just going to be another facet--because I still love myth and fantasy. I still love Bolthorn and Arianna and the world I built for them. I still love all the things I loved before, and I imagine I will absolutely want to come back to them, that I will never actually leave them at all, judging by the number of projects that are not contemporary romance in my writing spreadsheet right now.

But I have found something new that I love. Something new that is feeding me something I desperately need right now. And I hope that maybe, when and if, it might be something you'll love too.

The author journey is always evolving, for me, it seems. And I can't tell you how grateful I am for all of you who have been journeying, all this time, alongside me! I hope you'll follow me on this new adventure, too.

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Amazon | Barnes&Noble 

Amazon | Barnes&Noble