At the moment, I am in between historical releases. That is to say, I am working on My Immortals Book 7–No title yet. My next project will be another historical novella for a second anthology with Grace Burrowes, Miranda Neville, and Shana Galen. I believe the anthology title will be Dancing in the Duke’s Arms, and we’re targeting a summer release. We’ve chosen a cover image already, but I have yet to write a word. Even though I have a story idea I’m really excited about.
My point, really, is that I have my head in the paranormal world not the Regency historical world. If I were to noodle around with my historical idea I’d end up with Dancing in the Demon Duke’s Arms. In the meantime, however, I have released my individual novella from Christmas in the Duke’s Arms. Here’s the cover:
And here is where you can buy it, if you don’t have the anthology:
Amazon | iBooks | Nook | Google Play | Kobo | All Romance
It’s early days in my story process — seeing as how I haven’t started writing yet, and it’s entirely possible my story will end up completely different. I’m planning a heroine who is considered peculiar and unmarriageable because she never forgets a fact, and she knows lots of them. The hero will figure out what’s up with her and fall madly in love. The end. I’m telling you that’s more than I usually start with. I have a period book that is, more or less, a Farmer’s Almanack, and she’ll have read and remembered it all, so I’ll be referring to that quite a lot. The challenge, naturally, will be making sure her knowledge is period accurate. I foresee Google Books Advanced Search in my future.
I’m not a plotter, so I have to be careful about doing too much planning, or, perhaps another way to think about it is I need not to be wedded to any plot points that might come up before I start writing. I never know what the plot is until I’m done. Truth. So, though I would like to tell you all that my story will be about thus and such, the truth is, I have no idea. I’ll find out about halfway through the story. Possibly later.
For you readers out there, does the idea of an author having no idea what the book is about before she starts writing make you anxious?
I’m in the process of editing my second paranormal novel while an idea for my started-and-put-on-hold historical percolates at the back of my mind. Sometimes I think, “I’m just going to combine the two!” I think a paranormal historical would be a riot, and since I only minimally plot – like you I know what story I want, we’ll see what form it takes by the time I get there – who knows, maybe it’ll end up going that route. Those are my two favorite genres after all.
Hope you get there soon if it’s slated for a summer release. But knowing that you still have nothing on your plate is understandable. Procrastination is always trouble and having one’s head in a different category can be stressful if one is to write for a different sub-category. But I’m excited to see what you come up with for the final project. Hang in there!
@Rebecca: I know how you feel!
@Ki: Thank you so much! There are definitely steps where the time it can take is out of my control….