Typos and all..

2023 in an image. Typos and all.

What you’re seeing in that is a list of accomplishments.
They boil down to 3 shorts and 2 full-length novels. Approximately 190K words, give or take multiple thousands that didn’t end up in the books, or are waiting to publish.

But that’s not the full story of 2023.

What this list doesn’t show:
A lot of self-care once April passed, and a little introspection. And heartache when it comes to “having a career as a writer.” If sales vs. expenses are any indication, I should quit.

My biggest FAILURE this year was: I tried to go “wide” with everything all at once, and a hardware issue (my storage drive died, and I lost quite a bit of work, some of it recoverable, other stuff not) that stymied the project. It got in the way of creativity, deadlines, goals, funds, and quite honestly? Tossed my mental energy into a spiral. And I kept that quiet, which was probably not healthy. Taking my books out of KU meant I lost all of those sales/reads. It was a gamble that I lost.

The drive is not even fixed yet. I don’t know what kind of damage waits for me to mourn. It’s with an expert. (cha-ching $$$)

The biggest WIN was I didn’t quit. Even if probably my favorite novel yet didn’t make much, and even if there is “truth” in the saying “a woman on the cover doesn’t sell” I’m proud of the two full length books I put out this year. They have my strongest female leads to date. Both deserve their spot on covers. (Betty Jo and Meghan are right up there with Michelle. Betty Jo being the MOST resillient woman ever.)

I don’t even know if I want to make a list/plan for 2024 because my plan for 2023 got derailed hard. Because of this, I’m focusing on only a few projects at a time. Smaller goals, smaller bites. Reviewing what’s controllable and reasonable, and deferring the worry about the other stuff to another day. (Again, probably not healthy. SMH and meh.)

Projects I’m focusing on now:

Too Fast for Love

Q1 Release (in the anthology: “First Kiss”) A 20k contemporary romance short. Launching on February 29th, 2024.

However, for continuity, before 2Fast goes out, I need to release “Code Name: Brazil” (aka, “All You Need Is Lies“) which means I have to recreate the file from whatever WASN’T on the damaged drive. (cue internal scream) I’m crossing my fingers that I can:

1. RE-create the files for upload (including the cover)
2. Get them into the systems, including ARC system
3. Promote them
4. Get some sort of “traction” on those promotions and work

#4 is the hardest part. There isn’t much time left to get the word out.

“Diner”

Q1 Goal. A full-length Destroyers novel from the Hagerstown crew. Kid’s book, to be exact. Almost done. This one was BRUTAL to write because I’m still making a lot of plotting mistakes – as in, not plotting correctly or deeply enough to know what happens in the sagging middle. It’s a big book (for me) though. 75K written on this project. That’s the stuff that wasn’t cut. (Some day I may do a “director’s edit” of it so you can see all the crap I threw out. LOL… on second thought, no one needs to see that crap, it’s over 50k.)

Ancient Bones

(Q2? Q3?) Probably the last Bones book/story. It’s in planning stages. I am not certain if I want to rolll up the conclusion in it, or release it, THEN release the conclusion story (which had been planned for the omnibus of all the shorts roughly titled “Collected Bones”). Energy and timing are factors in this. It will be a late Q1/Q2 decision.

More Destroyers

(TBD – deferred until “Diner” is in promotion phase) There are at least two Skilletsville stories waiting in the wings. Code names: “Five and Ten” and “Float.” Both are not out of ideation phase. Which means, they aren’t scheduled. It would be a nice-to-have to get one of them done in 2024.

Hagerstown is/should wrap up, but the more I write, the more side characters step forward and say, “could you write my HEA?” What do I do? Say YES of course. Nickel wants one… TomTom has a whole lot of trouble ahead… and Ashley and “someone” are circling each other brutally. That last story sprung out of all the rewrites on Diner. Deferring the decision on which one gets my attention until Diner finishes, is in edits, and hopefully, I can then create a project plan for its release and the next follower.

Paranormal – not Bones

While I had so much personal enjoyment writing the Bones books, they didn’t hit the mark. That’s okay, I’ve two short stories to write this year which aren’t in that universe. The first, (code name: “Gods Dammit“) comes out in September, and the second with a shifter Christmas theme (no code name yet) due in November for a December 2 release. Watch for more on these soon. I’m going to have to dig deep in Nordic/Celtic and Greek/Roman mythology for these. Shape shifters and gods OH MY!

With all of those projects, I have enough to keep me writing for a while.