Okay, so I started out my writing career thinking of it as a career, and pursued it that way. Then, after selling a handful of books to Harlequin/Silhouette (the old Silhouette Bombshell line), I felt like writing had become a chore. It was a job. It wasn’t a job I necessarily wanted to do full-time. So much for the career part of “the career.”
After a while I went back to a full-time job, working my way into a product management position at a Fortune 500 company. The work was rewarding, infuriating, stressful, and time-consuming. Now, after almost 5 years there, I’m drawn to the writing again.
I’m not sure why that’s the case, but I’m being gentle with myself. It’s important to me these days to honor my processes and work with what works best for me.
Yes, I’m still employed full-time, but the stories continue to lurk around the edges of my consciousness — and in some cases they’ve intruded upon my thoughts while I’m at work or most recently while I was on vacation, camping in Arkansas.
I have a long way to go to build back even the small career that I had before, but I’m open to doing things in a different way, maybe thinking and writing outside the box, trying on different paths to publication, and exploring the ideas that come to me.
So, what’s on tap? I’ve started an urban fantasy that I’ll be posting snippets of on another site. Summoned is, roughly, about a woman called to be the protector of a town’s leader when demons unleashed from their slumber begin to terrorize humanity. Aisha’s sole purpose is to keep James Dunvale alive even if it means she must die in his place, over and over again. James, who watched his wife torn to pieces in front of him by these same demons five years ago, finds himself in anguish at her sacrifices, especially as he discovers a latent and powerful attraction to her.
Watch this web site for the link when those snippets are ready to go live.
And I’ve started another project — a historical romance — that’s been poking at me for some years. If you read Sense and Sensibility carefully, you’ll see that Colonel Brandon (everyone’s favorite silent hero) never actually speaks to Marianne Dashwood throughout the entire novel, and yet in the end he’s the one she ultimately marries (after it “bursts upon her” that he’s been in love with her for years). Marianne considers him purely to be a family friend, and it’s almost as a duty that she throws herself into her marriage and pleasing him, but I want to know — what happened? What really happened between them after they said, “I do”? No Heart More True is an exploration of that story, and my vision of what could have happened. With apologies to Miss Jane Austen.
Again, a link to snippets will be posted here.
There’s more going on as well: A Bombshell that was bought by Silhouette but never published due to the line’s closing. Full rights were returned to me, so I’m playing around with publishing that story. It needs a bit of work, but is close to being ready to go.
You got it: There’ll be snippets to Intended Victim.
So hang tight, visit often, and if you’re a writer, be sure to visit my sister site, Book of Your Heart, where I share craft and motivational articles for the aspiring author.
Take care, and I’ll see you again soon.
