An Update - In Which, I Have Been Away...and Life Has Changed

In Which Life has Changed

Over the last few months, and years, you will have noticed a change to my blog - not so many posts on writing and then, more recently, a few on releases, pre-releases and books on sale. I have been writing...just not as much for myself as I should have been over the last few years, and much of my work has been for someone else and not for me.

In short, I entered a partnership where I was told it was "impossible" for any other arrangement but a ghost-writing one to be had, and promised that when that changed, we would enter a royalty-based agreement. I undertook an exercise of trust, and took a while to work out there was no impossibility, and the trust demanded had been betrayed.

My bad. I ghost-wrote over twenty novels in the last four years, none of which are paying me royalties, as they would have if I'd been in the royalty-based arrangement I asked for at the start, which meant, when hard times hit, as I had foreseen, and the realization that my trust had been betrayed linked with several unfortunate circumstances, I became unable to write the words required, and I had no income to sustain me until things settled, so I did the only sane thing I could, and returned to what most would consider a 'real' job - teaching.

Fortunately, it is a job I love, but it doesn't leave much room for writing. However, it does leave me with the creative space in my head uncompromised, and as I heal emotionally from being lied to and let down - again - and as I come to grips with other circumstances, or they pass and no longer affect me as deeply, I have begun to be able to write, once more.

It will take some time for my production schedule to recover, but that is now starting to happen, as you will have seen. To kick things off, over the next few years, I will be releasing every short story I write, and have written, as a stand-alone title - and, by short story, I do not mean flash fiction; that will stay in collections,. In addition, I will continue to write and release novels as they finish.

In Which I Have Been Away

The last few months have been particularly difficult, with my husband showing the first signs of Huntington's onset, and mother entering the final stages of a four-year battle with terminal cancer, and I have spent what time I could visiting her before she passed, and then attending her funeral. It has been a hard, few months, but I am grateful I was able to say goodbye to mum, and check in with my father to make sure he has support. Now, I am back home and able to take the tiniest of peeks at the road ahead.

What Now?

Well,  guess I have to start thinking about moving forward. I now have a teaching career to develop - although it will be short-lived, once I am needed for home care - and there are books to write and YouTube channels to develop . I'll talk more about those as I progress.

In the meantime, I have the vaguest of roadmaps to follow. Firstly with my short stories, and then with my YouTube game-play channel. My YouTube writer's channel will be my next focus, alongside the next novel in the Chronicles of a Dark God trilogy, and then... Well, let's get through those few things, first, shall we? It's going to be a long road ahead, and Life's not done with me, yet. I pray that the next few months will be kind - to all of us.