What's Coming Next?

Poe. Mashup. That's all.

Okay, fine, there's far more to my next project than that, but I think that's a key selling point. 

I spent a long time in 2023 trying to plan out my publishing schedule for the next few years, and I kept getting frustrated. It felt so...forced. And it was. 

Currently, the project I had planned to finish and publish in 2024 sits at 40,000 words and I hate every single one of them. It will likely need a rewrite, and while I am still in love with the book as a concept, I think the execution suffered from my trying to force it into a calendar. 

Around Halloween, while I was conducting my annual viewing of Van Helsing (the 2004 masterpiece starring Kate Beckinsale and Hugh Jackman), an idea popped into my head and it never let go. What if I combined elements of my favorite Edgar Allan Poe works, with the Victorian, gothic, edgy, dramatic, stunning aesthetics from one of my favorite movies ever.

And thus, Project Poe (BTGW) was born. 

Project Poe is going to be a gothic fantasy romance standalone. It will have ghosts (including ghost cats), tattoo magic, and far more romance than my previous books ever dreamed of. 

Most importantly, though, I am excited about this. I wrote 45,000 words in a single month on this project and never blinked. I feel good about it, and I think that's what I was missing last year when I was trying to put my plans into a box. 

I am naturally a planning person. I need things neat and tidy and in their little boxes. It helps my anxiety tremendously. But I forgot that my creativity has never fit in the little boxes I try to put it in. 

BTGW will happen when it happens. Hopefully, that will be 2024, but if not, 2025. I'll be sure to keep updating everyone on my progress here, and in my newsletter.

For now, I am going to enjoy my creative process and see where it takes me. And with that, I will leave you with this amazing moodboard and these two stunning pieces of character art done by Ashley (@artbysmashley).