Post-Pandemic Publishing Goals Commence!

After a couple years of creative stopping-and-starting (thank you, coronavirus), I am finally getting back on track with my publishing goals.

First up, an update on a novella I’d planned to publish this year–The Watchers. I put it up for pre-order, and honored all of these early sales, but promptly removed the novella from Amazon for a rework. The novella is acceptable as is, but apparently acceptable enough that I’ve been encouraged to expand the world into at least one, maybe two more novellas. I don’t want to disappoint readers hoping for more story, so I’ve put this on the back burner now. My plan is to return to it between books in my mystery series.

Speaking of my mystery series, The Frontenac Sisters: Supernatural Sleuths & Monster Hunters, I spent the majority of the pandemic writing the fifth book–which was called The Joyful Damned–but it ended up being this mess that was more about the anxiety, isolation, and sadness of that time than an actual novel. It was written because I had to keep writing, basically. I scrapped it.

Right now, I’m halfway through the initial planning stages of the new fifth book in the series and, while I’m quite agitated about the delay in my publishing goals, I’m very excited for this book. It’s called Black At Night and it’s an homage to imagination and storytelling and is set in one of my favorite places in the whole world–Fair Haven, New York and the Sterling Renaissance Festival. I hope to start writing it around late April, early May, depending on editorial feedback of my first outline.

On the shorter side of things… Back when I first started out writing fiction, I wrote a lot of short stories and got a few published. When I started working on novels, I kind of forgot about short pieces, but no more! I’m working on two shorts at the moment–one completely new (based on my first time out in the world after the first pandemic winter), and the second a longer piece that I’ve decided works better as a short (about a lady werewolf and the man who loves her). When finished, I’ll pursue publication for both.

I’m excited for this new chapter in my writing life—and that my writing sessions are no longer interrupted by reading covid news. Hopefully my next update will be to announce one of my stories will be published!