Hello and a Happy New Year to everyone! I’m Nadine Mutas,
and I’m thrilled to be joining the Genre-istas and blogging about all things
books, reading, writing, and life around these favorite subjects of mine.
I write paranormal romances filled with magic,
witches, demons, and all things that go bump in the night. Because – let’s face
it – I never really grew up and love stories with a little extra something to
spice up reality. I mourn the fact that I have to live in a world without
magic, so I compensate by spinning tales and building worlds with endless
possibilities and intriguing depths of powers. Every story I’ve ever thought up
had a paranormal twist, and to be quite honest, I probably wouldn’t even know how
to write a story without magic in it. Paranormal romance is also the genre I
love reading the most, which is not to say I don’t enjoy the occasional
historical, erotic romance, or urban fantasy.
A little background info about me: Being a German native, I moved
to the United States with my husband and my two cats in 2012, and now live in
Oregon, where I’m enjoying the mild climate and even the rain (which really isn’t
as perpetual as reports led me to believe before I came here. Seriously, it’s
not worse than Berlin. And you get cold winters and snow in addition to rain over
there, which is just mean. I’d take rain over snow any day of the year). I’ve
been thinking up stories and collecting ideas since I could speak, but I only
started writing with a professional goal in mind three years ago.
The first novel I ever finished will probably always remain
safely tucked away in my drawer (I’ve read through it again recently – some major facepalming ensued…), but the second book I completed went on
to win a bunch of writing awards and garnered recognition from industry folks.
It’s the start of a series (Blood & Magic) set in contemporary Portland,
Oregon, where demons and witches clash – and fall in love – amid a changing
supernatural landscape.
My goals for 2015 are to finish writing the second book in
my Blood & Magic series, and then publish Book 1 and Book 2, and possibly
get started with writing the third. If at all possible, I’d also like to
squeeze in a novella or two. Or I might just admit that I’m delusional thinking
I can achieve these goals with a brand-spanking new baby at home (born in
November 2014). Then again, if you don’t set goals that challenge you, you’ll
never grow, right?
So, more realistically speaking, I will see how much writing
and publishing I will get done while multitasking around an infant, and I’d
love to share this journey with you. Thanks in advance for reading my posts and
commenting.
As John Lennon put it so succinctly: Life is what happens to
you while you are busy making other plans. Looking back at 2014, what were some of the moments where life happened and made achieving your goals harder than you
thought?
6 comments:
Welcome Nadine! You do have an ambitious set of goals for 2015. However, I totally agree with you - setting goals that challenge me is better than setting ones I can easily reach. The element of challenge spurs me on.
I had some health problems in 2014 that really created havoc with my goals. I'm being extra cautious this year and taking those unrealistic blinders off-I expect 2015 to be much better.
Again, welcome!!!
Hi, Nadine, welcome! I had set November 25, 2014 as the date to upload my Novella for sale. I ended up having family come to visit and threw my whole schedule off. Now the book will be up loaded by the end of January. Looking forward to your posts.
Thank you for the warm welcome!
Judith, health issues can definitely put a spoke in your wheel, and it's especially vital to take a step back then and take good care of yourself. With all the lofty goals we'd like to set, we should always remember to be gentle with ourselves too. I hope 2015 will be a healthier year for you!
Diana, making time for family is so, so important. I totally understand how that put your writing on the back burner for a while. It's tough juggling social time and writing time and making room for both in your life. In the end, though, these moments you spent with your family will be the ones you'll cherish forever. :) Hope your novella will be a success!
Welcome, Nadine!
Multiple things happened to derail my plans. We decided to buy an acreage and try country living with my youngest son's family of six. We moved in April, moved my husband's business there in May, and moved my son's family in the end of June. Plus we bought livestock which has to be cared for. Then my husband developed a serious health problem that took months to get under control. By Thanksgiving, I was stressed out and depressed.
Since then, we decided to sell the livestock, my son's family decided to move back to the city next summer, and I have bounced back to my optimistic self. I'm back to working on edits and enjoying life, with all it's ups and downs and surprises.I have faith everything will work out the way it's meant to.
Welcome to RTG, Nadine! Totally understand that not being able to write anything without a little magic, although my otherwordly stuff tends to include aliens as well. :)
Whoops, and just like that, baby duty has kept me busy for the past few days and I only now noticed there are new comments here!
Sarah, wow, that is really quite a lot of Life that's happened for you last year. I wouldn't have gotten any writing done with that much going on! Is your husband doing better? Hope things will calm down for you this year, and you'll get more writing time squeezed in.
Pippa, woohoo, another compulsive paranormal writer! Hehe. Aliens and space stuff is something I couldn't be writing -- not enough tech knowledge (all those years married to an engineer haven't paid off yet in that respect...). ;)
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