As I get older, it seems that time goes by much faster. I feel that way every time we ring in a new year. This one is no different.
2023 wasn’t the worst year for me, but it wasn’t the best either. Health issues had me putting a lot of things on hold whether I wanted to or not. Even so, I’m determined to make the best of 2024.
I wrote quite a bit in early 2023, but I had to walk away due to the above-mentioned health issues. Now I’ve been going back into all those stories and finishing first drafts, and cleaning up the ones that are complete. There’s also Cupid, that I’ve been dragging my feet on for way too long. I honestly don’t know why I’ve held off on publishing it when it’s literally been complete and ready to go for a couple of years now. I think it’s because Eros was published in 2016, and this is a sequel of sorts.
It will definitely be published on February 1st. I’ll be making Eros free on Amazon for a day or two first so readers can get familiar with the characters and back stories. Unlike Eros that was one of my shorter stories, 73 Kindle pages, Cupid has approximately 44,000 words.
As much as I’d like to say that Cupid is a standalone, I highly suggest reading Eros first. Eros is in this one a lot, as is his mother, Aphrodite.
I’ll gladly send e-copies of Eros to anybody who asks before I do the free promo on Amazon.
I also have ARCs of Cupid for those who are interested.
I did some traveling during the year, something I’ve missed. My husband and I spent time in a lot of states we’d never been to before. It was seriously one of the best road trips we’ve ever taken.
Since that trip, I’ve read a lot. What I read varies. I love reading gay romance and erotica, but I’m also big on true crime and the occasional horror story.
Christmas was fun. My oldest son and his longtime girlfriend visited from the other side of the country. Unfortunately, my son had COVID without realizing it until he got here. He’s fine, and none of us got it, but I felt bad for him. It was his first time home in a long while, and he didn’t feel well. I was also able to spend time with my other two sons, another of which flew home from his out of state job.
Do you guys do New Year’s resolutions? My birthday is not long after January 1st – it was last week, actually – so I have goals that I hope to accomplish every year, but I’d never call them resolutions.
My writing goal for 2024 is to get off my butt and actually publish a lot of the books I’ve had hiding away for so long.
You can see what I’m working on for this year in my last blog post here.
The only thing I’d add to that is the Hooper Lake series, that I went back into a week or so ago. A few things have clicked that didn’t before, so I’m eager to finish it. It’s five books about five adopted brothers, two of them identical twins. It’s the twins’ stories that gave me fits. They went through a lot as children, things I have to be super sensitive about in how I write them.
Willy and Randy from the Willy the Kinky Elf series will celebrate their tenth anniversary in 2024, as will Rick and Lance from the Taking Lance series. Rick and Lance were my first guys in my first published story in April of 2014. It’s doubtful I’ll revisit Rick and Lance’s world to celebrate, but I will definitely be writing a quick short with Willy and Randy. I’ve really missed those guys, and I’ve been asked to give an update on my version of the North Pole since the series ended over three years ago.
I’m always writing something. If I was asked right now, I’d never be able to throw out a number of how many completed and unpublished stories I have on my computer, nor could I ever begin to count how many works-in-progress are on there.
I have ADHD, something I’ve blogged about in the past. While I do take meds for it, it’s still there. My mind tends to wander – and I seriously hate rereading what I’ve written sometimes – so I tend to bounce from one WIP to another. When I finish a story, I push it to the side and go back to others I’m working on, or I’ll start something new. In my head, I know I need to publish the completed ones before moving on to the others, but my brain’s just not that disciplined. I wish it was.
My #1 writing goal for 2024 is to try to focus on one story at a time. Don’t get me wrong, walking away for a little while is always good. It’s good because when I go back into a story, it’s with fresher eyes, and I see things I didn’t see before. Unfortunately, I bounce from one to another, as I said. And I’m SO critical of my own writing. I don’t have beta readers or anything like that. Usually only my best friend reads my stuff before it’s put out in the world. Sometimes she’s not able, so I’m the only one to see it before it’s published. That’s a lot of pressure.
After Cupid is published, I’ll be focusing on The Right Time (tentative title), and hoping to get it published soon. When I can mark that one off, I’ll hopefully move onto another completed one. I may even make a list and pick one at a time to work on. Wish me luck because I suck when it comes to focusing on ONE THING for too long, in this case being my completed and unpublished books.
Those who have ADHD understand. I wouldn’t wish this on anybody. The worst part of my ADHD is usually hyperfocus, but it doesn’t always apply when it comes to my writing. That’s a good thing because then I’d literally never get anything else done.
What’s the weather like where you are? Ours is all over the place. One day we’ll have the A/C on, and the next, we may be running the heater. This week will bring temps in the teens, something my part of the country doesn’t have very often. Hopefully we’ll be back to the warm temps in the coming days.
One thing I can’t not mention is the retirement of Alabama Crimson Tide’s beloved coach, Nick Saban. We fans may have expected it, but that by no means made it easier. He took our program to heights we will likely never see again. Here’s hoping that Coach DeBoer, our new head coach, has a good run. I couldn’t imagine the pressure of stepping in after the (literal) greatest to ever coach the game. True fans will support him. We’ll also remember the players who felt that $$$ was more important than tradition. There’s looking out for yourself, and there’s what one former player in particular did. To those in the former, I honestly wish them well. To the last guy, I hope he sees that the grass isn’t always greener.
There are so many people celebrating our coach’s retirement more than they’re celebrating their own teams. I guess that says a lot about how great of a coach he is.
I hope you all had the best of holidays, and I’m hoping you all have the best 2024!
Until next time,
Candi