Okay, I’m going to ‘fess up…

I admit, I am probably not the easiest author to follow and/or support.

You might have started following me because you liked one of my Twilight-Zone-style science fiction short stories.

Or perhaps you saw all the teasers I posted a few years ago for an epic romantic fantasy, and you got really excited for that series.

Or maybe you found me through my co-written ridiculous humorous space opera series Spaceship Ass, and were hoping for more donkeys on spaceships hijinks!

Or maybe you happened upon my weird western Legacy of Lucky Logan series, and jumped on the band wagon at that point.

… do you see a pattern here???

The pattern is … that there is no pattern.

That’s right. After eight years of indie authorhood, it has become apparent that I am just not going to stick to one lane. Or, to be less metaphorical … it has become apparent I’m just not going to stick to one genre.

This is essentially the equivalent of author suicide, mind you. It is very, very, VERY difficult to earn money off of your books if you are constantly jumping from genre to genre, especially if you happen to do it while writing all under the same name, as I have been. (I mean, you can do it, some rare magical unicorn-type authors have done it, but you’re making it much, much, MUCH harder on yourself when you do it this way.)

Because while I personally, as a reader, read basically everything under the sun, most readers aren’t like that. They have their one or two favorite genres, and that’s all they read. So if I keep skipping around all over the genre map, my poor readers get whiplash and don’t know what to expect. They don’t know what’s coming next. They love one series of mine only to be disappointed when they realize it’s unlikely I’ll ever go back to that series/world/genre, so they move on to a different author who will consistently deliver their favorite things.

I get it. If I was a reader who only liked a few favorites … I’d do the exact same thing!!!!

No hard feelings at all to any reader who has become exasperated with my genre indecision and abandoned me.

I feel ya. In fact, that’s why I’m writing this blog post, which I will share with my reader groups and with my newsletter, too, because I don’t want readers to be lost and confused when they follow me.

I want all of you to know exactly what’s in store for the future, if you continue to follow and support me, which btw, I VERY MUCH appreciate, because I know how difficult that must be! 😀

Now that I’ve been doing this thing for nearly a decade (holy crap), I have a MUCH better idea of the kind of books I LOVE to write, the kind of books that EXCITE me, which are the only kind of books I will ever write. I have the next few years of books pretty solidly planned out, based on which are most fleshed out and which I’m most excited to write.

So here is what’s coming up from me in the next few years, AS WELL AS the kind of things you can ALWAYS expect from me and my books, no matter what genre they end up being! (Because that’s something else I’m finally learning after all these years, too – the commonalities that carry through all my books, regardless of genre!)

And if you’re in a hurry, here is the Digest version:

I’ll be releasing more weird westerns, another cowritten funny scifi series, a fantasy thriller, a reverse harem weird western adventure, and a romantic epic fantasy series through the next decade or so…

But regardless of genre, here are the things you can always expect from the books I write:
– Lots of action
– fast pacing
– emotional depth and lots of angst (but not the whiney teenager kind)
– exploration of moral shades of gray
– some romance
– implied sexy times, or sometimes on-page sexy times (these will be clearly marked, so pay attention!)
– very few typos or grammatical errors
– broody men, complicated women, lots of contrasting environments, situations and morals, probably lost civilizations, possibly supernatural artifacts, likely some kind of legend or myth turning out to be real…

Now for the less-Digest-y version….

UPCOMING BOOKS

While I have sixty-one book ideas waiting in the wings, these are the few that are the most planned out already, and which I am most excited to write. Thus, these next few listed here are the ones coming up soonest, in order of publishing priority.

• Books 3 – 6 of The Legacy of Lucky Logan series (weird westerns). As I type this, book 3 is soooooooooooooo close to being ready for release! I aim to have it out this month! Cross your fingers! Yes, this series right now is my One True Love, so get used to me talking about it, and it’s relatives–listed below–a lot for the foreseeable future. If I were to stay in one lane, this lane would probably be it. Just as an FYI. 😉

• N’SPACE: The Intrepid Misadventures of a Boy Band – in Space! Yep. This is real. Lol. This is another humorous scifi series, this one co-written with the lovely Jamie Davis! We’re currently releasing this series in serial form over on the new Kindle Vella platform, so if you haven’t checked that out yet, now is the time! Book 1, Galapalooza, is already complete, and book 2, The Starburst Inn, is currently in the works! After these tales have been out on Vella for awhile, we’ll bundle a few together and release on Kindle, so keep your eyes out for that if you aren’t a fan of serialized fiction! Not sure how long this series will be exactly as each book is a standalone story following the boy band N’SPACE, but it will at least be three, and more if we’re still having fun with it!

• As-of-yet-unnamed-Lucky-Logan-spin-off (think Six of Crows). Okay I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense to have a series without a name be this high in the publishing priority list, but there you have it. This idea is actually really quite new when compared to pretty much everything else on this list and that much longer list of sixty other ideas (in fact, this idea was idea #61, so it is literally the baby of the bunch)… BUT! This idea is one I’m REALLY excited about (thus it getting moved up so high in the pecking order) AND BONUS – this idea is actually one that might appeal to a larger readership, unlike pretty much 98% of my other fifty-nine ideas! So hooray! Like I said, in feel it will be similar to Six of Crows, while still set in the larger Lucky Logan world. I’d call it a fantasy thriller … or … fantasy archaeological thriller? Dark, gritty, broody, with kind of a fantasy noir atmosphere and with a strong MF romance … definitely can’t wait!

• The Purgatory City series: yet another Lucky Logan spin-off. At least this one has a name! This series will be reverse harem (one lady, multiple guys), following two characters we get to meet in The Legacy of Lucky Logan book 2! 🙂 Morgan Grace is the lead in this one, and we’ll follow her somewhat criminal exploits through at least 5 – 6 books as she meets, falls in love with, and adds to her harem a variety of interesting fellows. This one is also set in the larger Lucky Logan world and it’s likely the characters from the original series will appear as cameos in this one. Think kind of a Robin Hood vibe here, if Robin Hood was a woman and her band of merry men were her lovers … and it’s set in a weird west alternate history/future. LOL. This series will also be high steam (ie, on-the-page sexy times) and feature MM sexy times too, so since that’s rather different than what I’ve been up to so far (though it’s always been planned), I’ll likely add a pen name to this one for Amazon sorting purposes. Oh, the joys of “branding”…

• The Crowns of Ellathar series (purely epic romantic fantasy). Here’s that romantic epic fantasy series you might remember me talking about years ago. Yes, this one is still on the docket, absolutely! I’m just trying to figure out exactly what I want from this one. You see, while I was drafting book 1 of this series, I still didn’t really know exactly what kind of things I loved to write. I was still flailing around all over the place trying to find my comfortable happy spot. I also ended up massively second-guessing myself halfway through this draft and basically abruptly changed the course of the story to make it more of what I thought other people wanted vs what I wanted. As a result, in the end I was very unhappy with what this first book turned out to be. Therefore, I set it aside to ferment while I figured things out. I still haven’t quite got this one sorted, but I’m getting much, much closer. It won’t be a “royal” epic fantasy anymore. Turns out that’s not my jam. Alisha will no longer be a princess, she’s going to be something like a magical assassin secret agent. Roland will still absolutely have his dark past and broody nature, though. Heh. Cause that, I do love, lol. In any event, I have three amazingly gorgeous covers for this series waiting to be shared with the world, so you can bet this thing is happening! It will have more of a Witcher vibe in its revision, and it will also be high steam, with an MF romance being a main point, of course.

And that’s about as far as I’m willing to predict, at the moment! All of that alone should keep me busy for at least the next decade, I think.

So we have a weird western series that borders on fantasy (according to some of my readers – think Dark Tower), a funny scifi, a gritty fantasy thriller, a reverse harem adventure, and a romantic epic fantasy….

Yeah. See. I’m just all over the map. Maybe some of those tales sound interesting to you, but others just really don’t seem like your cup of tea. I understand. Makes sense. However, I will also say that I’ve had several people state they did not think they’d enjoy the Lucky Logan series, and yet they did. A lot.

So you never know, I suppose! Personally, I’ve been pleasantly surprised myself by Six of Crows so far. I rarely enjoy books labeled “young adult”, and yet it’s great fun, and I’m really enjoying it. I was only convinced after hearing from many fellow authors I trust that it was a great duology, so I finally gave it a try. And I’m so glad I did!

If on the outside any of those particular genres (or genre mash-ups, as it were) don’t sound particularly appealing, then let me briefly outline what you can always expect from any of my books, regardless of that genre label! I’m willing to bet there’s something (or several things) in this list you’ll like!

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM BOOKS I WRITE

• Action. Lots of action. I really love action. I love to watch it, read it, write it. Thankfully, I’ve been told I write it well, which is a very good thing, because poorly written action is just confusing! So, in my books you can definitely expect a lot of well-written action.

• Fast pacing. My books are usually more of the thriller pace than the epic fantasy pace … even the epic fantasies. This does not mean there is never a break in the action, though! In fact, something that’s beginning to stand out to me in reviews is how many times my pacing is mentioned – in a good way! “Perfectly paced” is high praise, indeed! That means I’ve finally gotten a good feel for when to speed up and when to slow down, and readers are really enjoying that flow.

• Emotion. Specifically angst. I love angst just as much (if not more) than I love action! Just because my books have lots of high action and speedy pacing does not mean they are just your average Michael Bay film! No siree!!! They absolutely have emotional depth, too. I just looovveeee digging around in the human psyche, so you can expect my characters to have issues, traumas, and flaws that they’re trying to work through (with varying levels of success), and that tend to throw up obstacles on their path toward happiness.

• Shades of gray … no, not that Shades of Gray!! I mean moral shades of gray!!! One of my very favorite things is to make readers empathize with the villain, even if they know the villain is in the wrong. I want you to be able to completely understand where they’re coming from, and why they’re doing what they’re doing. And same goes for my protagonists, too. They aren’t all good, that’s for sure. In fact, in my Lucky Logan series, the protagonists are outlaws themselves. But I’ll still clue you in on what makes them tick, and why they do what they do, and how they feel about it, and how they grow and change because of what happens to them. As one reader has said about Lucky Logan:

“I appreciate that although Logan acts like a really dirty outlaw, we have the chance to glimpse behind the curtain and see the psychological implications of a man pushed this far. I think this brings some much needed realism to the outlaw trope. I think it’s so easy for outlaws to be boiled down to white hat or black hat, but it’s much more interesting when we get to see the shades of grey.”

– Sydney

• Some kind of romance. Yep, it’s going to be there. Even in my funny co-written books, there is always at least some hint of romance, even if it never comes to fruition. (And if you think about it, this is the case in most stories of all mediums. People enjoy love stories more than they’d like to admit…) So that’s gonna happen.

• Sexy times (well speaking of that Shades of Gray…). I have never actually read all of that Shades of Gray … a few excerpts here and there were enough to make me cringe so hard I think I’m still recovering. HOWEVER, personally, I do prefer some sexy times in my books — WELL-WRITTEN sexy times, mind you. Which I have worked very hard to perfect myself, thankyouverymuch. While my books up to this point have merely been casual romantic threads or fade-to-black (implied sexy times off-page) … as mentioned above, there will be future books in which those steamy scenes are on-the-page. I will always make it very clear in the book description when this will be the case, so don’t worry, you should never be surprised in that regard. As long as you pay attention, anyway…

• A few more of my favorite things: broody men with dark pasts, making contrasts in generally everything from environment to actions/emotions and moral alignments, complicated women with real wants and desires and motivations, putting two or more characters with conflicting goals/attitudes/backgrounds together to watch them sort things out, mysterious artifacts with possible supernatural powers, lost civilizations, myths or legends that turn out to be real, animal bonds, and did I mention angst???

• Very few typos or grammatical errors. While not a story element, like the “perfect pacing”, this is another thing I pride myself on. Sure, a typo gets through every now and then, but I make it a point to make my books as squeaky clean as I possibly can, and to-date I have a pretty darn good track record. The Legacy of Lucky Logan book 1 had only two typos get through, and book 2 only one. I haven’t yet heard about anyone finding any typos in our Starship Ass series, either. And judging from stories I’ve heard from other authors over the years, that’s a really low ratio, lol. (That being said, if you ever do find a typo in any of my books, please write me and let me know so I can get it fixed, thanks!)

And that’s about it … all the main ingredients you’ll always find in all of my books! 😀

Now that we’ve got all that cleared up, I hope you’ll stick around for the rest of this wild journey of mine!

I suppose one thing you can count on around here … things will certainly never get boring!