In 2010, or there about, I had two stories I was developing
plots for, and writing, a historical romance and a contemporary romantic
suspense. Working a full time job with a round trip commute of two to three
hours a day left me too tired at the end of the work day to write. So my
writing time was on the weekends.
This made for slow going for me, anyway. My husband was
working out of town and only home on the weekends, so that was our honey time.
During this same time frame I started posting once a month
on this blog and every couple months on the free short story blog Judith Ashley and
Sarah Raplee used to run.
I found I enjoyed writing short stories. They were really
short stories of 1,200 to 2,000 words each.
Feeling quite depressed one day, I complained to Sarah about
the slow progress I was making with my historical and suspense stories.
She had an idea!
Judith and Sarah had been discussing self-publishing an
anthology of short stories. Sarah asked me if I would be interested in writing
two short stories to be included in the anthology. I said, “Hot, doggie! Sure I
would.”
I knocked out two short paranormal stories, around 20,000 words each.
And guess what I discovered? I enjoyed writing paranormal romance! My two
stories, “Ghost of a Chance” and “The Crystal Witch” were fun to write.
Along the way, I learned a lot about editing (hired an
editor), choosing art for a book cover and working with a designer, I learned
how to use Jutoh a publishing program, and create space for print books, and marketing etc. And at the end of the learning curve was our anthology, "Love & Magick".
It
has been one great learning experience. Not at all the road I thought I was
traveling on.
I now have a spin off novella, “The Witch with the TridentTattoo”, featuring one of the characters from “The Crystal Witch”.
I never would have guessed my first published book would be
an anthology. But that’s the path I landed on.
The historical romance and romantic suspense I was working
on? They are filed in a doc on my computer. Someday I’ll get back to work on
them. Right now I’m having too much fun writing the “Twilight Witch”, the next
story in the Coastal Coven series.
Have you started down one path, only to find you end up on
another path
