What’s on the way…

So, it’s been seven years since I last published something, back in 2016. What am I up to now? Am I still writing? Still writing epic fantasy? Will I still be publishing? Self-publishing?

Let’s take those one at a time.

First, what am I up to—well, first of all, I’m not in high school any more. I’m married now, a mama, with a full-time legal job and (hopefully someday full-time) still doing book design for indie authors. So I’m fairly busy!

If I’m that busy, am I still writing? YES! I took a long break through university because I was doing too much writing for school to feel like writing for fun. In 2020, after I graduated, I picked up a Beauty and the Beast retelling that I’d briefly started back in 2017. It has changed a huge amount since 2017, and also since 2020, and 2021, and 2022. I’ve restarted it at least four times, hence the slow going. But in February 2023, I finally found the right direction for this book. Without further ado:

Project #1: A reimagining of Beauty and the Beast, set in Regency England with highwaymen and a dash of magic

My heroine, Jacinta, is an unconventional Belle who isn’t particularly pretty, struggles with anxiety, and looks for validation in all the wrong places.

What else can you can expect from this book?

• Mental health rep
• Finding your worth in who God created you to be
• Learning to forgive—yourself and others
• A musical bookworm of a heroine
• A handsome but bitter highwayman and his crew
• A sprinkle of magic

It’s told in first person present by an introspective narrator. It’s almost purple prosey.

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That’s Project #1. However, I also finally gave in to a 🌌shiny new idea🌌. Here’s a sneak peek:

Project #2: A dystopian fantasy set in a Regency-inspired world with royalty, seamstresses sewing magic dresses, and 🎶romance🎶

The vibes: The Selection meets Jane Austen meets maybe The Wonderland Trials meets possibly The Herbwitch’s Apprentice (but I’m not certain because I haven’t read that one *yet*)

The emojis: 🎼👑🌌🧵👗💖✨🏰

The origin: An epic fantasy I wrote maybe 2000 words of near the end of high school. I had no idea where it was going or how the main characters were going to solve the problems but I still loved it. It’s not epic fantasy anymore, but it’s going to be so. much. better.

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That kind of answered the question “am I still writing epic fantasy”. The short answer is no. The long answer is that I’m no longer a 15-year-old who desperately needed to live in Middle-earth. That’s why I ended up writing epic fantasy, because that’s what filled my mind all day, every day for a period of about five years.

But then I went away to college, made friends, lost friends, met a boy, fell in love with the boy, battled severe anxiety and ROCD for three years, conquered anxiety, took a job, reflected on my college experience, got married, had a baby… and, in short, just grew up.

So now I’m writing character-driven, introspective stories about characters finding their own places in the world, fighting some of the same battles I fought (or saw my friends fight).

I’ve also come to love light fantasy, set in worlds more similar to our own, without the epic swathes of geography and non-human races to grasp. If you read offerings like Vivid, The Wonderland Trials, Sky of Seven Colors, or Dust from Enclave Publishing, or historical fantasy, that is the kind of vibe you’ll get from what I’m writing these days.

Publishing Plans

The Beauty and the Beast reimagining, I will certainly be self-publishing. I was planning to all along before coming across a small press I thought it could fit into, but when I thought about it more, I realised I had come up with a perfect cover concept that I was not open to changing, plus I wanted to be in full control of publishing this book. It’s so extremely personal and mine that I want it to be mine beginning to end.

Project #2, however, I am open to querying. Specifically to one publisher, because I feel like they would be a great home for what I expect this novel to be. I may change my mind on that, though, and in any event if they didn’t want it I would default straight back to self-publishing. I don’t personally find any sense of worth in the accomplishment of being traditionally published. In this case, it’s more that I love what this publisher puts out and think their readers might like my book too. But if they don’t agree, that is 100% fine and I will more than happily do it myself again.

How about timeline? It’s very hard to say. This summer I was hoping to finish Project #1 and publish it in late 2023 or early 2024. But then I wrote essentially nothing for months. (I have very little energy these days, okay? 😅) I’m 15,000 words into it and expect it to be more like 70,000 by the time it’s finished.

That said, I do suddenly have inspiration for it, as well as the drive and motivation of wanting to finally see this book into the world. So, if I can discipline myself to write daily from here on out, we might get somewhere. (If you want to be certain of hearing updates, subscribe to my newsletter here!)

And I do have two projects on the go now too, so it might take longer to finish either one of them.

But I am determined.

So we shall see.

If you want to inspire/motivate/threaten me to get either or both of these books done sooner, please leave a comment below. I promise it makes a BIG difference 😂

(My sister-in-law has already threatened me several times.)