Brey Willows

I’ve really been struggling to write lately. I have a book in motion, and I have a deadline (which I’m absolutely going to miss). Writing is a lot of work and sometimes it feels like you’re banging your head against a pillow–nothing really happens and you wear yourself out anyway. I’ve been a little down about Dark Haven not taking off quite the way I wanted it to, even though I know that paranormal/fantasy don’t generally sell as well as romance.

But I went ahead and entered my two books from last year into the GCLS Awards. I’ve been lucky enough to win one of those before, so it didn’t feel quite as daunting as usual.

Fragments of the Heart is a book I really like and really enjoyed writing. It has a hint of danger, a character WAY out of her comfort zone, and a romance with angst born of logical issues. I’m not generally a romance writer, but I’ve been working at it and I ended up getting into it.

Dark Haven was right in my wheelhouse and I LOVED writing it. It was born from a conversation with fab narrator Hope Newhouse, and getting to play with vampires was a new thing for me altogether. And yet, the themes I circle as a writer remained: chosen family, feeling lost, like an outsider, and the social issues we continue to face every day in a world that is changing in dire ways.

I won.

Both books won, in fact. And even now, two days later, I’m still rather surprised by that. I’m surprised and gratified and grateful for the support and for a panel of judges who thought my work wasn’t, in fact, part of the rubbish pile I keep thinking it is. In fact, they thought it was good enough to give me a rather pretty award. Two of them.

And so, I’m going to get into my writing chair this week and I’m going to believe, or attempt to, that I can do this thing called writing. And that maybe I still have something to say.

Thanks for sticking with me and continuing to read the stuff I through into the world. It means more than you can know.