I'm in the midst of creative fire, and I want to tell you how it happened.
A Scenic Detour
This spring, I devoted some serious time to a non-fiction book I'd been writing in fits and starts, a paragraph here, a page there, for the past two years. I was having trouble with my fiction, and it felt like last year's summer-long block might be trying to come back. So I shifted my focus entirely to my non-fiction, spiritual self-help book, The Bliss Book.
I had so much fun working on this book. It's illustrated and picking images, and words to go with them, and where to put them, was flexing different muscles than just flowing words. I was in bliss at every stage, the first edit, the second, and the third, and I'll bliss out one more time when I proofread it on my Kindle before it goes on sale April 24th.
Back to the Highway
I came back feeling ripe and ready for fiction and dove into the next book on my 2018 To-Do List. These are the books it makes the most logical sense to write next, and in what order. It takes into account everything from which series sell best, to which readers have waited the longest for a new read in their favorite series. (Wings in the Night, TX and OK Brands, Brown & de Luca, The Immortals, By Magic, Bliss in Big Falls, etc.) I have it down to a science, really. Next on my list was Brown & de Luca.
But first I had to wrap up my free email serial, The Fiona Files. It was supposed to conclude in December 2017 but it wanted to keep going into January, and February, and finally March. So I wrote that. And I caught fire.
A Creative Inferno
I finished the serial, but I couldn't stop writing Fiona's story. So I guess I have to finish it before I move on. This is the story that is screaming to be written, and flowing so rapidly through me that I barely know what my fingers are going to type before they've typed it. The content of the serial will serve as Act 1, but the novel version will be triple that length, and will go on and on.
I think I'll call it Fiona Files: Origins. Here's my notion of one direction we could go with the cover. I am no graphic artist, this is just tossed together on Canva. Jessica will do a far nicer job. But I saw this and liked it. What do you think?
I'm driving in the dark. I can see only as far ahead as my headlights reach. But I can see far enough to be freaking giddy with excitement. Rhiannon is coming, and she's coming soon. This book is so, so, so good. You're going to love it.
This is what “follow your bliss” means
Don't do the thing that will make the most money. Don't do the thing that the biggest number of people in your life want you to do. Don't do the thing that the professionals advise you to do. Don't do the thing that's next on your list.
Do the thing that makes your heart sing.
If you want to do the very best work you're capable of doing, you have to love it. And if you love it, it's never work. This one isn't work to me. It's sheer fun!
It's going fast, too. I'll keep you posted.
For those who don't subscribe you can read the first chapter or sign up to read the whole thing on the buttons below. When you sign up for the email list, you get links to all episodes of all 3 serials I've written so far.
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