As many of you know, I’ve been dealing with health issues for a while now. I’m not really the kind of person to share much about things like that, so I kept it pretty hush hush, for the most part. I announced I was stepping away for a while this fall, which I did, but I feel like now I want to say something about the whole sickness thing.
Anyone who knows me knows I’m a Type A. Actually, one of my family members says I’m a Hyper Type A meaning not that I’m hyper so much as I’m like a Type A on steroids. LOL Whatever the name of what I am is, I’m definitely someone who works full tilt all the time. It’s nothing I have to do so much as just who I naturally am. From the minute my eyes open in the morning, I’m going full speed ahead.
This year I released a lot of books for someone who has been sick for most of that time. Possession came out in January, the four volume SILK series was released in February and March, Satisfaction came out in July, Unforgettable came out in October, and Blood Craving released in November. Four full length novels and a series of novellas that equaled a jumbo size novel. I certainly wasn’t slacking off. LOL In all honesty, though, Possession was complete by the time 2015 rolled around.
As an indie author in the romance genre, I feel pressured to write faster and faster and release more and more each year because there’s a sense that if an author doesn’t do this that readers will forget her and move on to one of the 10.5 million new romance authors that seem to pop up every month. I hope that’s not true, but the reality for me is that even though it’s my nature to go, go, go, I have to slow down if I want to get better.
I wrote for the first time in weeks today. That sentence is so strange for me. This is my job, and to say I haven’t done my job in weeks just isn’t me. It felt good to write again, which isn’t strange at all. I love to write. When I tell people I have the best job in the world, I mean it. Writing is my dream job. Since I began writing years ago when I was young and didn’t even think of being published, my characters and their stories have been the first thing I think of when I open my eyes in the morning. To not act on those ideas for weeks has been hard, but I didn’t have a choice.
I’m not ready yet to say when I’ll be returning as an author. I’m still recuperating, so it won’t be anytime in the few days left in 2015. But I look forward to sometime soon in 2016 when I can say I finished Unbreakable or the Club X novella or the next Sons of Navarus novel. See? I still haven’t learned to slow down. I’m supposed to be looking forward to when I finish a chapter of one book and I’m still talking about multiple books. The person I naturally am doesn’t know how to think in tiny increments. Type A’s go big. There is no other choice for us.
Whether you see me around or not, I’m still here and I’ve begun writing again, so here’s to a great new year in 2016. 🙂
