Sweet Poison #1 Bestseller
Because of you Sweet Poison became a #1 bestseller on Amazon!
It's been a couple of weeks since my debut poetry collection was published and I want to take a moment to thank you for your support and for a phenomenal book release. This was my first experience publishing a book and I was overwhelmed by the endorsements and kind words I received. Though the learning curve was steep, it's been an exciting and fulfilling journey.
What's Next?
I've been asked some questions about what's next. I have a full time job, so writing is something I do on the side though it's my passion and I'd love to be able to do it full time.
I recently designed and ordered author cards which made me feel very adult. I've never been self-employed or had a job that required business cards, so making author cards for myself felt very fancy!
I'll be doing an author showcase in October in Colorado. It's my first book signing event, so I'm ridiculously excited about it.
I'm also looking into the viability of selling my book at local bookstores--I don't know how many have a process to feature local authors, but I'm curious to see what opportunities are out there. Honestly, I don't know if it'll be worth the time and energy, but I'll let ya know.
Poetry
In the next few months, I also plan to add a page to my website where people can order signed copies of my book.
Eventually I'd like to publish an illustrated copy of Sweet Poison, though I think that's a year or two away. But if you know of an illustrator who'd be interested, let me know!
I'm still writing poetry, but I probably won't publish another poetry book for a few years. My personal process for writing poetry is that I have to be inspired to write about something in particular. If I try to sit down and churn something out, it's lackluster. Interestingly, writing a novel doesn't work that way for me, but it's very much the case for writing poetry.
That said, I feel like I'm entering a story-telling phase of my life, so I expect the next poetry book I publish to have a lot of poems that are stories. Sweet Poison is less story-oriented and more emotion-centric, and I value that perspective. But I'm curious to see if I can convey emotion or elicit an emotional response through a poetic story as opposed to describing the raw emotions, though I think both approaches are engaging.
Urban Fantasy Novel
As I mentioned, I feel like I'm entering a story-telling phase of my life. Urban fantasy is my absolute favorite genre to read, so it's what I've decided to write. Fortunately, that dovetails with my husband's interests and he enjoys helping me flesh out the stories.
I do most of the writing, but my husband's mind is expansive and he comes up with complex and interesting characters, world elements, and storylines. We'll sit down and brainstorm for hours at a time, and then I go write the story. Of course, he gets the tedious task of being an alpha reader and doing major edits to my initial draft.
Right now I have two different series that I'm working through. The first series features a male lead character and centers around magic. The second series, which I probably won't start on for another year or two, features a female protagonist and a really cool concept I'll keep close-hold until we get the project underway.
Our current and debut urban fantasy novel should publish early 2023 (we're aiming for January, though we'll have to see how timelines work out). We're over halfway done writing it. The story is told through Trevor, who has hidden his magical ability all his life, but is now faced with some dire circumstances. Once we get the book copyrighted, we'll share more details!
I've been trying to find a cover illustrator for the upcoming book with little success. Every illustrator I've contacted is booked out through next year. So aside from writing the book, that's the immediate item on my to-do list.
I also have to find an editor. My poetry collection was edited over the course of many years and didn't need much in the way of review. But I'll need a keen set of eyes to help me polish my debut novel, so that's the third priority and one I'll probably tackle after I get the book cover sorted.
My plan for 2023 is to finish the second and third books in the urban fantasy series. I'm hoping to have the experience and muscle memory to do be able to do things a little faster, so I'd love to get the third book not just finished but published next year. But as long as I have a completed draft for book three in Dec 2023 I'll be happy.
My husband and I are currently planning on five books for this series. However, as we keep building out the world and characters, we're realizing we could continue the story to seven or ten books. We're not willing to commit to more than five at the moment, but we are planning on staying flexible. If the story lends itself to a longer and more complex overarching plot, we might expand things.
We'd Love to Hear From You
Our goal is to share a blog post every month. If you have questions or want us to blog about something specific, you can leave a comment or question below, email us via the contact page, or hit us up on social media!