Widowhood, Editing, Surgery, and a Course Launch!

As I sit here typing this post out, I realize that it’s coming at the tail end of a week of procrastination. Not that I didn’t have quite a good reason to avoid working—recovering from surgery will do that to you—but I have also been well enough to do some things that I’ve been putting off.

Why have I been putting them off?

Fear, of course.

What other reason (besides all of them) is there for a writer not to write? For a marketing consultant not to consult?

You see, I’ve been a freelancer and the owner of my own destiny full-time for over 5 years now. I left the corporate space and a job at Mailchimp that I truly loved when my youngest was born and my late husband and I had recently divorced. While we later reconciled, that time in my life was particularly scary.

With the death of my husband late last year, I declared that I needed a change. I was and still very much am grieving, and my children need me now more than ever. Our life simply doesn’t work as a solo parent to 4 children in the same way it did when my husband was alive.

Our time is more finite. Our energy reserves smaller. Our hearts heavy with grief.

There’s a part of me that realized I needed to more fully explore my creativity. I wanted to get back into art again (and I have), and I needed to step into my authorship. I needed to write again.

More than that, I’ve worked as a marketer with countless authors and authorpreneurs over the years, in addition to publishing and marketing my own books.

So it wasn’t a surprise that my declaration for change meant finding a way to do both.

Become a full-time spicy author of the paranormal romance flavor.

And launch a book marketing course for other romance authors based on my years of experience in digital marketing—with many author clients!

In the midst of all of that, though, I had surgery. Abdominoplasty to be specific. It was desperately needed to fix a hernia and diastasis recti severe enough that it was causing considerable health issues. The extensive reconstruction done during my procedure has led to quite a bit more recovery needed than I’d anticipated.

But I’m optimistic as I get back to work that I can get back on track soon.

Which means coming back around to fear and the conquering of it.

Because I have big, beautiful, romantic, smutty stories to tell and a wealth of book marketing knowledge to share. Writing is my passion. It’s been at the heart of everything I’ve done in some way or another over the last decade and a half, and I have the opportunity to do that now in a way that I’ve never done before.

So fuck fear.

Fuck uncertainty.

Here’s what’s coming…

Queens of Ruin is officially available in both print and ebook! This novella is a smutty, LGBTQ+, polyamorous/reverse harem dystopian romance that’s a grand ol’ romp if you love the whole “I would burn down the world for her” type of vibe.

Read it here!

When the Snow Falls will be available for pre-order soon! This is the second in the St. John’s Secrets series and continues the mysteries that envelope this small town on the coast of southern Georgia.

Join my VIP mailing list to be the first to read it!

The Bedroom to Bestseller Book Marketing Course for Romance Authors is here! Join the waitlist now to get exclusive bonuses when it launches next week!