New Year, New Focus

Happy New Year! I hope the new year is treating you well. :-)

I’ve just gone through a year - 2022 - with no new releases. I did release an ebook “box set” of the Queendoms Series’ final trilogy, the Queendoms Trilogy, early in the year, but that doesn’t really count. I mean new books... new works.

It’s been a while since I had a year when I didn’t release anything new. The last time was 2017, which was the gap year between Queen of Califia and Second Bond. As I’ve mentioned before, this was because I had to stop and rethink Second Bond when I realized there would be a second and final trilogy coming after it.

Sometimes you don’t know what your process is about until you’re looking back on it afterwards. I think 2022 was a pivot year for me, which I’m only seeing now.

I’ve wanted to write non-fiction for a long time and last year I finally embarked on that part of my writing journey. This year I’ll be releasing The Female Gaze and it’s only the beginning.

The creative process has been made more mysterious than it needs to be, in my opinion. Or maybe it’s not the process itself but what we make of it. We tend to make excuses and lay obstacles in our path to avoid doing our art. Until, unfortunately... it’s too late.

I don’t want to be an alarmist, but there really is a too late. That happens when you are dead (obviously), but it also happens when you keep pushing it off until some fill-in-the-blank event like the kids growing up and moving out or when you are finally retired.

I was a late bloomer myself - for other reasons - but I have ideas as well as life experience to share that might help others, so my next project will be another short non-fiction book, this time on creativity for middle-aged and older adults. I may narrow it down to a focus on writing only as opposed to creativity in general... not sure yet. I’m trying to flow with it as it comes to me.

At the same time, as I said above, I’m really feeling the need to release some of the new writing I did last year. This brings me to where I’m currently at with those drafts.

I saw Women Talking last week and highly recommend it. That also means I have one more movie to discuss in The Female Gaze, lol. So my edit of that draft will be delayed by a bit.

As for Tales of the Queendoms, the final book in the Queendoms universe, I took a little break in December. I’m now halfway through the final short story in the book, the writing of which I’m enjoying a lot. It’s Califia’s post-series story and a comedy of errors. I wanted to end the collection with something light-hearted and I think you’ll enjoy reading it.

So... I’m kind of all over the place to start the year. I’m feeling like February is a good time to start on the creativity/writing book, but I’m also going to edit either The Female Gaze or Tales of the Queendoms that month, whichever draft I finish first, because of that sense of urgency to release something.

But overall - 2023 feels like a year in which I’m opening up as a writer. This is all to the good, as I’ve been doing m/m romance almost exclusively for the past decade or so. I still enjoy m/m romance but there’s more that I want to express in my writing, so now is the time. I hope you’ll continue to be with me as I venture forth with this new focus.

See you in February! :-)