Well, it seems I am back. We had a bout of sickness in the family last month (my wife got hit with both the flu then Covid) and I have not really had the energy or interest in blogging. Some of it I will put down to just a general sense of malaise. It must be January, which for a time was positively Arctic where I live. Now that we are back into decent temperatures for the moment and I am starting to feel better, I am returning to my usual schedule.

Sometimes I think these posts kind of run together a little. We have days set aside for specific subjects for a reason, mostly to make them easier to come up with interesting posts. (In case you have not noticed, I am not a natural blogger!) The tunes, funnies, and trivia days are not too bad, but miscellaneous and what’s up posts seem kind of the same, not to mention the days we have that are basically anything goes. Yeah, I guess I am rambling a little. That is what happens when you do not post for a couple of weeks.

Recently I have been considering where I am with respect to my craft and what I would like to do in the future. Yes, I have spoken of this before, but bear with me, as I think I have some insights that I have not spoken of before.

I have been a writer of Pride and Prejudice variations for the past ten years, though full time for only the last eight. I enjoy P&P. I think I have gained a certain proficiency in them, I know what I am doing and how to go about planning and executing a story, and they have become comfortable, perhaps like an old pair of sweats or a comforting mug of hot chocolate. Writing P&P has been very good to me–it has allowed me to get out of the corporate world and work for myself, which has improved my outlook on life, my demeanor, helped improve my understanding of myself, and given me something to look forward to every day.

I heard someone say not long ago that doing something you like is a fallacy, that you should pick something and work at it, put in the time so to speak to become successful. While I can see where he is coming from, I would add to his comments about work ethic that it is much easier to do put in the work when you like what you do. My piano teacher used to tell me that I did so much better when I really liked the piece I was working on. I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. When I left my day job, I took a leap of faith and it worked out. But I had put in a lot of time before learning my craft, and that was a big part of the battle.

Writing P&P, however, has its drawbacks. Creating stories that are based on the same characters repeatedly can become stale if I am not careful, and sometimes I feel like I am writing the same thing over and over again. I will also never to show up on a bestseller list writing P&P. The niche is too narrow for that, and while those who read P&P are incredibly loyal and I thank you all, there just aren’t enough of you to make a P&P author into a major name in the industry. Do I want that recognition?

To be honest, I have always thought that the benefits of wealth and fame were far overstated. I do not need the fame, thank you very much. Fame seems to crowd out any level of common sense from most of those who achieve it, and I cannot but suppose all the attention would become irksome very quickly. The wealth would be great, but do I need more money than I would be able to spend in one hundred lifetimes? Not really. Comfort for my family is what I would like to have, and to a large extent, I think I have achieved that, though I continue to work to ensure that level of comfort remains.

On the other hand, as I have spoken of many times before, there are certain genres that I have always wanted to write in, foremost among them being fantasy. I loved fantasy as a kid, and consumed whole series to feed my voracious appetite. True story: I once read Lord of the Rings in a single weekend. I have probably read the series ten times minimum, likely far more. I read David Eddings over and over, I loved Stephen R Donaldson and Piers Anthony (though I will admit his Xanth books became far too silly for me), and when Jordan came around, I devoured his books like a starving man and lamented how I had to wait for the next book to continue the story. For twenty long years! Given this, you should have a good indication that I really like fantasy and would like to write it someday. Well, more of it, to be honest, as Lelia and I released the first two books of a fantasy trilogy some years ago. The third book will be out eventually, hopefully sometime in the not to distant future. For Lelia, life has gotten in the way, which has halted work on it until she can refocus. In all honesty, I have not been as diligent about writing it as I should have been either!

Some of the other ideas I have are in spaces I never thought about writing in. The contemporary story I am trying to flesh out is an example of that, as is the cozy mystery idea I have. I do not wish to be typecast, as it were, as I would like to pit my skills against different monsters, learn to slay them as effectively as I believe I have learned to slay P&P variations. I hope those of you agree with my assessment of my abilities, though I understand if you do not!

There are some issues, of course. Having written P&P for so long, I am finding outlining in another space to be harder than I think it should be. I have some really good ideas for the contemporary story, but as always and to a greater extent than I am used to, filling in all the details in between the good ideas is difficult. Sometimes it goes well, but I am still waiting for the good burst of inspiration I often get when plotting a novel that well get me over the hump and get me going in the direction I want. The other issue is trying to break into another space, putting out something good enough that people will want to read it, and, perhaps most importantly, making certain enough people know about it that I will actually find some readers.

That is always the difficult, more so than writing a good story, in my opinion. I guess what I am trying to say with all this long-winded hot air is that I am trying to embark upon something new again, and it is a little scary, much like it was to get into P&P and leave my job in the first place. I considered my first foray into P&P a success–will a shift in focus to another genre be equally successful?

I suppose only time will tell. As things start to move, I will post updates. I hope something of what I write will catch your fancy, and you will join me on the next leg of my journey! For those of you who enjoy P&P an my offerings to date, I will continue to write those, so I hope you look forward to reading my future works as much as I anticipate writing them!