This week had been low key. I’ve been taking time off, recharging the writing tank, planning future projects, and giving attention to all the things I neglected while finishing up A Witch’s Rite. I’ve gone to the gym, cooked some fantastic dinners, made some soap, started a backsplash for the kitchen, and simply focused on life. Along with that, I’ve been writing just for fun. It’s hard to say if the fun writing will ever be published.
I do have work projects coming up, but I need to talk about one of them. Fey Hearted 2 is a book I really want to write, and originally I’d planned to start on it when A Witch’s Rite was finished. However, I have a rule that my published books must pay for future books. Fey Hearted hasn’t done that yet. In addition, the story line for Fey Hearted 2 (and 3) simply hasn’t come together.
I’m committed to continuing the series, even if they never sell the way I’d like, because I love it. After more internal debate than I like to confess to, I’ve found an uncomfortable compromise. Next week I’ll start work on a novella length prequel to Fey Hearted featuring Iris. Then I’ll put more work into the Witch’s Path Series (Book 6 and perhaps Case Files Vol. 2), and hopefully in spring of 2017 I’ll write Fey Hearted 2 and 3.
This isn’t ideal. It makes fans of both or either series sad. Either way you aren’t getting books as quickly as you’d like. However, as an artist, I need to work in different worlds and explore different characters. Those very things are why I fell in love with reading and writing in the first place. To only work in one world, be it Witch’s Path or Fey Hearted or something completely different, would make me burn out. I need to explore, create, and joyfully play with writing. That’s what makes me get up every day and want to keep doing this.
I hope, be you a fan of the Witch’s Path Series, Fey Hearted, or both, you can understand my decisions. It’s part cold practical business, part wild artist, and part serious writer. Balancing all of those things tends to feel more like finding a new imbalance, but I think that’s just life.
Until next time,
N
