I am a creature of habit.

And I'm not. 😁

My neurodivergent self likes to have certain things I know I can trust daily. I wake. Change clothes. Cereal. Meds. Ice water. Work.

Tuesday-laundry

Wednesday-groceries

Every other week is therapy. I do love to chat.

Once a month or thereabouts, my wonderful stylist gives me rose gold hair. I love you, Penny! 💗

But writing?

Writing is everything wonderful and different.

I love romance. Romance lives in my soul. While I'm late to it in real life, I'm the precocious young girl reading Harlequin when it was all "clean." But you can bet your ass when Silhouette Desire came along, I was ass-deep in those pages. 😌

I was the high school girl sending off for honeymoon information for the Poconos because in my little romantic heart, THAT was the place to go after marriage. At this point, I hadn't even dated anyone. But the brochures fed the part of me that dreamed of romance. And I'm a big dreamer. Anyone will tell you. 😍

I thought I could simply write a billionaire romance or two and then shift gears. I have four planned out. BUT...I don't want to. 😮

What the what?

Yeah. That's right. Catch that. I simply don't want to. Not where my interests lie. 

Because the whispers started about a month ago. And I always listen to the whispers. 

Not a romance. Not hardly. Another fantasy. Young woman. Fighting. Experiments. Rage. Murder. Oh. And redemption. 

I started her story.

Nearly 12,000 words right now. I feel her beating on the walls, aching to tell the rest. 

I listen.

There are no hugs and kisses. No sweet words of encouragement.

Only her. Only pain. Only...her story.

You see, I've found I have a soft spot for the damaged female. The cast-off. The counted out. The used. 

She's found her champion. 

I've found my inspiration.

Aren't we both...fortunate?

Always writing*

Yahtzee

Before I started writing this morning, I wanted to blog. Wasn't quite sure of my topic until I opened PublisherRocket to do research on a couple of books.

I'm writing a book that isn't a romance. Not remotely. I think I've found my niche, and I'm excited about it. Caveat:  I will always write romance. 💖

PublisherRocket is a tool for looking at books, keywords, sales, insights, and various other back-end items I never thought about before but make a HUGE difference now. I wanted to see how many authors write what I'm writing now.

Not many.

I looked at some of the successful ones. Looked up their keywords. Then I had a moment of...hold on.

What's the difference between Fantasy and Supernatural? Am I getting this all wrong?

For those unsure, I give you this:

Fantasy usually takes place in another world, where fantastical creatures or magic are normal. In supernatural fiction, though, magic and monsters are not the norm and the mystery of such things is usually closely intertwined in the plot.

Makes perfect sense. Love that. But I also found in some of these keywords that authors used both on some books. That line in the sand disappears, I think, for some readers. I'm going to go check my keywords and make sure I'm utilizing them as best I can. Another tool. 

Always writing*

...oh...and I watched some season 4 Stranger Things in preparation... 

Damning with faint praise

I subscribe to Publishers Weekly. I think I need ALL the book news, and goodness knows, they cover most of the big business of it.

I like to keep track of the bestsellers. And I love to know Dr. Seuss is still killing it. New authors. Old authors with new deals. 

And some reviews.

Print edition has over 17,000 subscribers and is read by over 68,000 booksellers, publishers, public and academic librarians, wholesalers, distributors, educators, agents and writers.

Back to reviews because I read them when my magazine arrives in the mail. I SAVOR Publishers Weekly. I treat it like Reader's Digest back in the day. There is a system in place.

PW is:

cover story

top ten this week

bestseller lists

book reviews

book life

whatever story caught my eye

advertisements with new books

The reviews? Some are a bit salty:

"the author fumbles the ball"

"this ambitious swing for the fences connects more than it misses" yay?

"her plot has grown too tangled to satisfy"

Now I ponder, is a review in PW worth it? If the review comes out to a 4 or 5...does that hurt your book? Or, is the clout from having the review in PW high enough to overshadow the rest?

I realize reviews are a hit and miss. Because books and people are subjective.

Some people will love the offering, and some will hate it because it's Tuesday. It is what it is.

But...is damning with faint praise worth hopping in that car?

Always writing* 

Enneagrams

The Enneagram of Personality, or simply the Enneagram, is a model of the human psyche which is principally understood and taught as a typology of nine interconnected personality types.

Sounds a bit woo-woo, doesn't it?

But not really.

Any personality test gives a set of questions and narrows down answers into different personality traits. Makes sense. Then the answers are grouped together with a cool name that shows how these different personalities handle situations and how they respond in general.

I'm a sucker for these. 

But I hadn't thought about the enneagram much until a fellow author posted about reading Reclaim Your Author Career by Claire Taylor. Into the cart and onto the van it went.

Received it yesterday and am almost finished my first read-through.

Writers should also have Continuing Education. We need to keep our minds as well as our pencils sharp. You cannot keep cranking out books without also working on improving your craft. Writing evolves, and writers must evolve, also. Nothing in this profession is one and done. It's not a cookie-cutter business. Writers must keep reaching. Readers will appreciate the effort.

I'm excited to put what I've learned into my writing to make it better. And that, my lovelies, is ALWAYS the point. 💖

I'm a 5...apparently it's the most difficult, because of course it is...😶

Only a dozen or so...

I have a problem. Not exactly a BAD problem, per se. But it may be getting a tidge out of hand. Or this could be a good problem, and I should simply go with it.

Okay.

Here's what's what.

I have professed my love for Microsoft OneNote. Online notebook I use as my creative post-it notes and author board (correct word?). I use a page as a person, place, or thing. I can pop in text or images and use to go back and forth. Each notebook is a piece of work. The pages inside detail my research with my notes.

Simple.

I open OneNote as I'm not sure whether I'd like to continue with my billionaire book, Liam, or now Jackson has entered the fray. On the other hand Ray, I love her with my soul, has been making noise about finishing her story in Canary: Out of the Shadows. That's easily an 80,000 word endeavor. 

Decisions, decisions.

I decide, as I don't value my sanity (we all know this), to count how many stories I have notebooks for that I've researched and/or started writing. You know, on a whim. 😑

There are a dozen on OneNote.

ONE DOZEN books I've put notes on, and I've probably started 80% of those.  😶

I'm torn between wanting to cheer and checking myself in somewhere safe. Because I also have a list with around eighteen titles with ideas for books and at least half a dozen stories I started that aren't on my OneNote pages. 😳

And I KNOW that I'll keep having ideas as I work through the process of writing the next two or three books. My list won't be going down. If anything, it'll probably remain steady. 

Contemporary Romance, Paranormal Romance, Fantasy Romance, LGBT Romance, Fantasy, Paranormal, LGBT, and more. 

I believe diversity in writing only helps readers and authors. We are all made of so many different things. As long as we keep writing these stories, we will have readers to connect with. 💖

Always writing*

...like...literally...