I begin a story. And it grows, seemingly of its own volition. I am often surprised at how it swells, and weaves, knots, and eventually resolves. After writing twelve books, I still can’t guess what will happen along the characters’ journeys and how each story will turned out.
I thought this one was going to be a second chance romance, but Captain Broadbent just wasn’t right for Philippa. Then I discovered the captain had a brother.
And the lost heir plot line in this epistolary novel took me by surprise.
I could tell at least one surprise from each book if I had time and space.
And I love the whole difficult, exhilarating process, but after I’ve done the best I can do with the story, I want to share it. I want to find the readers who will enjoy my stories.
So I send each out into the world. I publish it. I share about it on social media. When I can afford, I advertise. And I find a few new readers. With each book, I find a few more. And it doesn’t feel so very solitary anymore.
Even better is when I get to talk to someone who has read one, or more, of my books. I love that feeling of sharing something of myself with you. It is a connection different from any other.
So, I’ve begun to look for opportunities to go to places where I can talk with readers, face to face. And looking for other ways to share and communicate. I’d like to know you.
So contact me, or comment here, private message, or come to author events if you are nearby. Let’s connect.
“The word is mightier than the sword.” (BTW: The Assyrian sage, Ahigar, said it this way. Edward Bulwer-Lytton rephrased it as, “the pen in mightier than the sword in his 1839 play, Richelieu: Or the Conspiracy).
(And yes, I am that much of a nerd that I looked that up).
We use words to communicate, create connection, persuade, uplift, inspire, describe, evoke emotion, and entertain. And we try to find the best words, hoping to say exactly what we mean or what we feel in a way that you will understand. Really understand.
But I can’t deny there are definite limitations to spoken and written language.
The most important things in life are abstract. They defy being encapsulated by a mere word. Love. What does it mean? How does it feel? Is it always the same? Always the same for everyone?
Beauty, Honor, Compassion. Anger, Hate, Despair. Can words really hold so much meaning? Can they really communicate?
What does a writer do when words won’t capture and express meaning?
We try harder. We describe common experiences or use symbols that speak beneath words. We look for devices like metaphors or similes to compare the unspeakable to something concrete and understandable.
We play with the sounds of language so that the words mimic the experience.
We search for stronger imagery. Or reference the works of other authors or universally familiar stories, myths, or legends.
I can only speak for myself, but I practice and refine my craft. It is an endless quest and hope to master the impossible–to speak to your heart and soul, beyond words, so that you feel what I feel. So that we understand each other and, perhaps, realize we are not really alone.
I began the year publishing two regency romance novels. Dear Lord Wycliffe, Book 2 of my Rebel Hearts Series.
A month later, I released Under a Honeyed Moon, a stand alone novel, only slightly related to my first series, Illusions.
Such a good beginning to the year, right?
I immediately went back to work on Brothers’ Tangle, Book 3 of the Rebel Hearts series. I planned a May release.
DETOUR #1. I accepted an invitation to submit a novella to an anthology. So I paused Brothers’ Tangle and began a fantasy pirate story. (Let’s call it Captivated. It became part of my secret historical fantasy romance series).
I fell in love with these characters, but soon realized that story wanted to be more than a novella. So I paused Captivated and started a whole new historical fantasy romance novella for the anthology.
And The Lily and the Hawk came into being. (Part of Treasures Untold Anthology, releasing December 2. Available for Preorder on Amazon).
Whew! Back to Brothers’ Tangle, which I finished the beginning of May and released the first part of July!
I was on a roll, so I began Book 4 of the Rebel Hearts Series, let’s call it Delia’s Story for now.
I planned to swing back and finish Captivated right after.
DETOUR # 2. An idea came out of the blue. What if I wrote a new, stand alone regency romance to pitch to an editor at the writers’ conference in August? I only had 2 1/2 months. It would be difficult, but I wanted to try. I wrote 1/3 of what we’ll call Angel. I was giddy.
Imagine an embarrassed emoji here. I love Angel. It’s so fun. But as I wrote, it became book 1 of a very tightly interwoven trilogy. I couldn’t use that for my first pitch. So I paused. That makes 3 paused books.
Captivated (fantasy romance)
Delia’s Story (regency–final Rebel Hearts book)
Angel (Book 1 of a brand new regency series)
Instead, I began an entirely new novel (Let’s call this one, Huntley Hall, for now). I wrote frantically through June and July. I had only a few chapters left to finish.
And DETOUR #3 happened. My brother-in-law passed away after a long battle with cancer. I put all writing aside for funeral and family time. I also missed the conference, but the most important things must come first.
DETOUR #4. With the time away from writing, I had to leave Huntley Hall unfinished. I had to move on to a multi-author project I had been invited to write in. It’s just a small novel. And something a little different and special.
The challenge? It must be submitted by October 2. (I can’t say much about this project–Sorry. I’m under contract). For now, we’ll call it Medieval Tale. And it will be released at the end of 2026.
What this means, as of today, my list of partially finished books now number 5–
Medieval Tale (part of multi author project)
Captivated (historical fantasy romance with pirates),
Delia’s book (final regency in the Rebel Heart’s Series),
Angel (new regency romance series, book 1), and
Huntley Hall (my nearly completed regency to be pitched, likely in the spring at another writer’s conference).
Now the Promise part of the post:
Because of detours, the summer of 2025 looks like a writing fail. Do not be deceived. I am primed for a fabulous end to 2025 and an exciting beginning of 2026. I promise these 5 novels will be worth the wait.
I set a goal. It was challenging, but doable if I could just write 2000 words a day, five days a week for all the weeks of June and July. I would have a new Regency Romance novel to pitch to agents and editors at an upcoming writers’ conference.
I did set the week of July 4th aside. That’s a big holiday for our family, and I knew I wouldn’t write anything while we celebrated the birth of our nation.
That left me eight weeks to write a full-length novel, and a week and a half to polish it. It would require everything I had. And until this last week, I was on target.
Renovation setbacks, a death in the family, family birthdays and parties (at my house), out of town guests. And more.
My writing slowed down. Way down. Even though I’ve written more than 3/4 of the novel, I only have eight days left. Can I write five chapters in that time?
Yes. If that’s all I did, I probably could.
But the obstacles and interruptions of my life must still be addressed. And even if I finished, it wouldn’t be a polished manuscript. At least not to a standard that I would be proud of.
I am sorry to say that I had to readjust the timeline of my goal.
I will finish this novel, and very soon. Then I will take the time I need to polish it and have it editing until I feel it is ready for you to read.
After that, I have a few options. 1. Publish independently. the first novel in a new regency romance series. 2. Save the file until the next writer’s conference and pitch it then. 3. Go through the query letter process and see what happens.
I’ll decide after the romance is 100% written.
It would be easy to get a little depressed about not reaching my goal in the time I set, but I choose to look at it through a different lens.
I wrote nearly an entire novel in six weeks. For me, that is unprecedented! And I love William and Christiana’s story.
I tried a different writing process, and honed my craft a little more .
I also have a whole new series, with at least two additional books, to look forward to.
And I’ve discovered some things about myself as a writer, about why I write, what I love about writing, and how I measure my success as an author (I’ll blog about this another time).
I’m sorry to disappoint, but I hope you will bear with me as I finish this project, and bring William and Christiana to a happily ever after.
Then I will write my short Christmas novel (part of a multi-author project),.
And before the end of the year, I will finish writing the fourth novel in the Rebel Hearts series, Lord Harcourt’s Heist.
I have to slow down my writing for a minute to take care of some life things, but there is still a lot of romance coming your way in the last few months of 2025.
It’s secret, but since you’re reading a blog post, I think you deserve to be in on it.
So, here’s the story.
In April, I finished Brothers’ Tangle, Rebel Hearts Regency Romance, Book 3. (Available on Amazon)
You’d think the obvious next project would be the 4th book in that series. But apparently, I can’t pull off predictable. So, I started working on a novel I began more than two years ago. It’s an entirely new regency romance series. The Heavenly Honeywells.
And I am so excited about these three sisters, one of whom must marry well. (Read that as he must have money).
Anyway, I began at the first of May with Sebastian and Angelica, and I was loving these characters and their story. All was well.
But then I looked at the calendar, and the scheduled writing conference I am attending the first week in August. Out of the blue, I had a thought. “What if I took a completed manuscript to that conference and pitched it to some agents and editors?”
At best, that would be an exciting new opportunity. At worst a good learning experience. Suddenly, I knew had to try.
But when I looked at Angelica, I decided the entire series needs to be finished before I should attempt to pitch it (if it’s even right for traditional publishing). So, I decided to start something totally new. (Yes. I realize that now makes three historical romance series and one historical fantasy romance that I am working on).
Writers are crazy.
I went to bet one night, the last week of May, wondering what I should write and woke the next morning with an idea.
The only hitch was that I only had two months to write an entire novel. I have never written a novel in so short a time. But, I began.
Can I do it?
All I can say now is that I am working like crazy. And in 5 weeks, I have written 3/4 of Christiana and William’s story. Both these characters start in pretty difficult circumstances, but together I think they’ll transcend all the challenges and find true love.
Cross your fingers that I can finish and polish this manuscript in the next three weeks. And send good vibes my way. I’ll keep you updated.
And thanks for reading and for encouraging me. You are the best!
When my son, Tristan, was in High School, he and some of his friends on his Lacrosse team had a “game.” They used a scale from 1 to 6 to rate each other’s word usage. If one of the boys used an unfamiliar or seldom used word, the other boys would rate it. To receive a 6 was the highest compliment.
I don’t have a rating system, but I admit when I hear such a word, I savor it for hours afterward. I roll it around in my mouth like a delightful piece of candy.
Do you?
Now, I don’t believe that the biggest, most unique word is the best choice when I write. In fact, the opposite is true more often than not. I don’t want to try to impress readers with an overblown vocabulary. I want to communicate. I want to tell stories.
And I want those stories to resonate in your hearts. I want to capture and share the characters’ lives, struggles, hopes, interactions, and mostly their journey to true and lasting love.
I’m looking for the “right” word, even the “best” word. That’s the one that is going to carry meaning from my heart to yours.
When it works, it’s magic.
Do you have a book that has been that kind of magic for you? One that has made you feel what the character feels? Once that has drawn you into their world?
Do you have a passage in a book that took your breath away?
I want to hear about it, find it, and read it so I can feel the same magic. Let’s talk about words.
Is it possible to be passionately involved in an endeavor and also be calm? Can you challenge yourself to do something new, to strive, to improve, to learn, to risk, but also be tranquil in your soul? Should you expect that?
Maybe if what you’re passionate about is yoga or meditation, and doesn’t include other people’s choices and preferences, there would be total ease. But how often in life are you totally separate from other people’s input and actions? And how often should you be?
I honestly would like to hear/read your thoughts and experiences about these questions. You may or may not write, but everyone has something they want to do and do well.
Since I hope you’ll share your thoughts, I’ll start with my experience.
I started writing (romance) seriously, with the intent to publish, three and a half years ago. By the fourth anniversary of my first book, I will have written twelve books. It’s simple math, but I’m still surprised by it–that’s an average of three books a year. And that doesn’t count the short stories and bonus epilogues, etc. that are free (one for every book, plus a few more stories and writing experiments that I offer here on my site).
Now, I haven’t published all of those twelve books, only eight as of this week. A ninth is free (available to you on the welcome page). The tenth, I’m holding in reserve until I’ve written a few more books in that series (my foray into historical fantasy romance). Another regency romance (11) is halfway written, and the twelfth (regency romance) is conceptualized but not written yet. (I anticipate a May release).
If I continue at the pace I’ve been writing, I may sneak in one more this year (another in the fantasy romance series). And I have been invited to write two shorter novellas for anthologies, so add those to the math.
I love writing these romances! I feel invigorated and excited, engaged and stretched. I have felt alive in a whole new way. And I love to finish a book and share it with you. It is such a thrill, such a sense of accomplishment. I can’t stop writing (and writing romance). On one level, writing is incredibly rewarding.
On another level, writing is agonizing. I want to constantly improve my skill. I don’t want to write the same thing again and again, so I push myself with new ideas, new forms, tighter prose, better characterization, plotting, pacing. And on and on.
And I won’t even discuss promoting/marketing here.
Because I love romance. I love writing.
But I admit that it brings with it an almost constant low-grade anxiety.
Is this a bad thing? Is it normal? (I think it is. You tell me what you think). I’m just not sure we’re meant to glide easily through life, as tempting as that may sound.
My questions are: Can we care deeply, can we challenge ourselves to improve, can we try something new, can we accomplish a goal, can we share our work without an emotional investment? An emotional cost?
Now in a perfect world, and in a perfect post, I would have a resolution here. A tight, satisfying take-away for you.
I don’t.
I just have a few more questions for you, and me, to consider. Are all forms of anxiety bad? Should we replace ‘anxiety’ with a different word when we’re speaking of any creative challenge? What word?
And more questions. How do you view your anxiety (or perhaps striving, anticipation, frisson, eustress, desire)? How do you make it motivational, not daunting? Is it a positive force in your life? Can it be?
Romance and anxiety, are they two sides of the same coin?
You know how it feels when have to do something important or necessary? Sometimes that thing is difficult or distasteful. Not always though. Sometimes you actually want to do that thing, but you feel nervous about it.
So, you put it off. Everything else suddenly clamors for your attention. Wash the dishes, yes! Change those sheets? It will feel so good when you climb into bed tonight.
Read that book? You deserve a little break.
And doing those other tasks seems easier. At first.
You are working hard. You are productive. But there is just that little twinge of anxiety. And the longer you avoid “the thing,” the worse the anxiety gets.
Yes. I hate to tell you, but this happens in writing, too. Sometimes, I get a little stuck in the middle of a book. Sometimes there is a scene that I know is going to be fabulous, but I’m nervous to start writing it. (Because I want so badly for it to be fabulous).
I’d love to tell you that I am disciplined, and I just push through.
And sometimes I do, but I have been known to get caught up in avoidance behaviors.
There. I said it.
But let me tell you a little secret. Sometimes when I’m avoiding the main work in progress, I will write something else. I wrote both Smoke and Shadows and Veiled In Mist when I hit a wall in my main works.
Each time, after I finished writing a fun, delightful novella, I was ready to return and finish the main project: The Lies We Tell and The Masks We Wear, respectively.
So, right now I am working on Brothers’ Knot, Book 3 in my Rebel Hearts series. I love the main character, Philippa. But she is really struggling to figure out what will bring her happiness. These two brothers are causing her some serious confusion.
And she keeps changing the course of the book, so I’ve spent a little time this last month avoiding her. And I enjoyed every minute of it.
I wrote the first draft of a historical fantasy romance. It is the prequel to a new series that I now see I must write. (Don’t worry, not yet).
I also wrote a bonus epilogue for Dear Lord Wycliffe, Book 2 of the Rebel Hearts series. This epistolary novel will be released this month. Watch for that!
But never fear. My avoidance anxiety is just about at its peak. I’m ready to return to my main work. Philippa is now ready to learn some things about life and about herself. And she will find her way to love too–very, very soon!
So, what do you do when you’re avoiding? And how long can you avoid before you force yourself to do the thing?
I love writing. I love my characters and telling their stories. I even love the struggle, the days when I just hit a wall, the worry, the reworking. It is all part of the process. At least for me.
I don’t think writing is something that you ever master. (Using an olympic metaphor), writing is a continual effort to break your own record. That constant struggle to get better.
So, this weekend, I went to a writer’s conference. I took classes on writing better characters, how to plot, how to use dialogue more effectively, and so much more.
I also explored some topics I hadn’t considered before. A class on illustrating my books and a class on getting inspiration from wonder tales (fairy tales) from around the world.
I am ready to dive in to the two books I am writing right now. I’m so excited to use the things I learned and the ideas that came to me in between classes.
As the reader, you may not–you should not–see the effort and craft. I want you to be swept away to another time and experience the lives of these characters. But behind the scenes, I am working hard to give you a wonderful, immersive experience. And I am always striving to make that experience better for you.
What are you working on, striving to improve? How do you describe that process of growth? Let’s talk.
Someone told me recently that they didn’t like books with any romance. It made me a little sad because everyone needs a little romance.
But it also made me a little philoshophical about stories and relationships.
Some say there are only seven possible types of conflict used in any story.
person vs. person
person vs. him or herself
person vs. nature
person vs. society
person vs. technology
person vs. supernatural world
person vs. destiny
Person vs. person is obviously a story about a relationship, no matter what genre we’re reading. Sometimes it’s about love, but sometimes it’s adversarial or competitive. If so, it may end with someone winning and someone losing, but it is still about people learning about each other and dealing with each other.
A story with person vs. him or herself conflict is about that important relationship with ourselves.
The other 5 kinds of conflict might seem trickier at first. But if our main character is dealing with nature, society, technology, the supernatural world, or destiny, three things can be true of that story.
Either that conflicting thing is anthropomorphized–given human characteristics. In this case, the story becomes, in effect, a person vs. person conflict. (Moby Dick, by Herman Melville).
Although in this very complex novel, we meet more than one type of conflict. Ahab vs. Moby Dick (a malevolent God or destiny), but it is also about Ishmael, Queequeg, and the other sailors, their relationships with each other and with themselves. And it is about Ahab’s relationship with himself, his anger and fear.
Another possibility is that that entity (society or technology, etc.) is embodied or typified by one person. (President Snow in Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins becomes the figurehead for a society).
I wonder if, at heart, all of these faceless conflicts are really about our main character learning about him or herself. The story just happens to be set in a world of technology or supernatural happenings, or the other conflicting entities.
(Think about Louie in Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand. The outward conflict with his captors is at the forefront, but what he learns about himself might be what makes the story so enduring).
I’ll add this: If the conflict is person vs destiny (or possibly sometimes vs supernatural), it might be about a relationship with some kind of divine presence–still a relationship.
This is a theory, which means you might prove me wrong. I’d love to hear what you think. Have you ever read or viewed a story that isn’t about relationships?
