It was a miserable Summer. In more ways than one and I’m very glad it’s officially over.
Today is the first day of Autumn. The temperatures might not reflect it, but the matcha latte in my pumpkin mug, the pumpkin chai wax melt making my office smell amazing, the little lights with the pumpkins and acorns and maple leaves and pine trees that wrap around the television, and You’ve Got Mail playing… In my little room here, it’s Autumn.
I’ve been working on new books for a few weeks and I’m not sure when anything will be out. I should have a new cover soon for one of them… Sugared.
I told my newsletter readers that I’d taken August to sit with the abject failure of All That Glitters. I wasn’t sure I would continue writing. It really was the worst in terms of sales. Not even my very first book, Educating Rose, all those years ago with Cobblestone Press sold as poorly as All That Glitters. I’ve never had one do so terrible and I had to do some thinking about what I could or would change if I continued. But then, September came and I’d been off social media for a few weeks (the detox is brutal) and I found myself writing a few hundred words a night.
I worked on a few different stories, started taking notes on another couple of stories and soon realized that yes, I am going to keep writing.
I also realized that I want something different than what’s normal. Hell, I don’t even know what’s selling for romance authors now. I know jack shit about the market anymore. I didn’t know anything about the market when I started out in 2008, either.
With the changing of the seasons, Autumn especially, I always feel like there’s something more, something different, something that I can learn, that I can change, that I can step into that isn’t where I’ve been in the months prior. Winter can feel like that for me, too. Sometimes Spring… But Summer always feels like the dregs, like I’m slogging through life and nothing new is possible. It’s felt like that this year, too, especially this year.
So, with this first day of Autumn and with this breath that almost feels renewed and with the anticipation of leaves changing from green into brilliant reds and yellows and oranges, warm spices filling the air, cooler temperatures enough that the windows can be opened, cozying up with blankets and books to read, and the writing not feeling like a chore, but a discovery… I’ll find my way.
Lissa
