The past year has been wild. The pandemic, the world-wide protests, the election, working from home. No one had a normal year. Whatever normal means.

I went home sick Friday, March 13, 2020. It was allergies that caused an infection, but that was also the last day my school was open to students. By Monday, the schools were all shut down, and we were in limbo. At first I binged Netflix 6-12 hours a day. Then I started writing again.

By April, I had published a novel to e-book on Kindle. My work in Progress had been called “Native Fairy” as a place holder, but when describing it, I said, “This teenage girl basically collects prophecies and family throughout the whole book!” And The Prophecy Collector had a name!

Eventually I stopped watching TV, because the Zoom exhaustion was real, and started finishing my other YA novel. The Timekeeper Trials was the book I queried to publishers and agents back in 2015. A few were interested, but most feedback said they wanted one long book, not three short books. Shortly after that, I was doing my masters degree and totally burnt out on writing. Probably why my post on graduating with highest honors was my last post here…

But last Spring-Summer, I finally had time. My kids were old enough to feed and entertain themselves, my work could be done in two hours a day or less, and I had found the world of E-books. I have always been an avid reader, but starting in July 2020 (to March 2021), I was reading an average of 10 books a week. Mostly Romance, because that stuff is hot, but also a lot of YA fantasy. This showed me formatting, plotting, and promoting for indie authors better than any tutorial.

A big thing I realized I didn’t have, was beta readers. I had my alpha reader, aka my editor, but no general reader commentary. So last fall I sent out my book, up 30 thousand words from the original, to a bunch of beta readers. They caught errors my editor and I hadn’t. Like spelling a secondary character’s name two different ways throughout the entire book! I learned so much about the process, and also decided to make a separate pen name for my YA books.

The Timekeeper Trials releases on May 1, in e-book and paperback! I also made a paperback cover for Prophecy Collector, and I’m so excited! The links to the books obviously show my YA pen name, but I’m ok with that.

Now I’m working on my Adult fiction, I’m starting with Smashwords. I have 10 chapters on my Male/Male Kidnapping and BDSM romance, so it is half-done. But, I recognize most of my adult fiction has taboo aspects that Amazon doesn’t like. For now, I’ll go the alternate route!

All this to say, HI! What have you been doing lately?