My goal for 2025 is to focus on stories I enjoy writing, to help my creativity recover from years spent spiraling into burnout.

One of the things I used to do to keep my creative spark fed was to respect the ideas. Not just writing them down, but also developing them as the ideas bud and bloom.

For example, last year I picked up some wonderful premade covers from Open Cover World Design, including the cover for The Alien Warlord's Fated Mate. Camila Marques, the genius behind OCWD, creates beautiful covers, and when I saw some premades that spoke to me, I purchased them with plans to develop them into stories down the road.

(Quick note: Premades are covers a designer creates on spec and advertises to authors, hoping someone will like the cover enough to buy it. They're usually offered at a lower price per cover than custom created covers, which are created entirely to an author's specifications. Premades can lead to custom work down the line, if the author and cover designer work well together.)

Anyway, one set of Camila's premade covers featured dragons in a Science Fiction setting, clearly intended for the Science Fiction Romance market. I'd had a few niggling ideas about dragons bouncing around already, including both romantic and (mostly) non-romantic ones. So when I saw these covers, I didn't hesitate to snatch them up. They've been sitting in a folder on my hard drive for months now, waiting for the ideas to percolate and gel. Last week, one finally did. It's just a kernel right now, but it's so very, very promising. I can't wait to work on it.

But that's a way down the road.

Right now, I'm juggling a few works in progress (WiPs) rather than focusing on one story, series, or pen name at a time. This is incredibly common advice in the indie world: stick to one story and finish it before starting another one. It's so oft repeated, it's become "common wisdom."

Is it though?

Eh. Not really. Turns out that a significant segment of writers needs to juggle writing projects in order to work most effectively. I am one of those writers, so trying to follow the "common wisdom," even for a short time, did a lot of damage to my natural writing/creativity process and helped kick off that spiraling burnout.

Now I have to undo all that damage. One of the things I'm doing is allowing myself to work on whatever project springs to mind regardless of its place on my (admittedly loose) itinerary. So when the dragon SciFi Romance idea popped up, I took the time to honor it by allowing it to unfold in my mind, moving some of the elements around until they fit well, and finally writing everything down.

Respect goes a long way toward keeping the ideas flowing. Some writers can get away with ignoring ideas that pop up. I am not one of those. No, when an idea presents itself to me, I record it in some way, which keeps the channel open for more ideas to flow.

There are some limits. While focusing on a singular pen name has gotten me in trouble in the past, juggling pen names and genres is beyond me right now. I'm focusing instead on Science Fiction with romantic elements. Any time I feel overwhelmed by all the ideas, I dial them back to a certain set of stories.

Those WiPs include Sweet Surrender, the sequel to The Choosing, and The Alien Warlord's Fated Mate, which kicks off a new series.

But there are other things going on in the background. Sweet Surrender is getting a new cover to match the one currently on The Choosing. It should be ready by the beginning of next month, just in time to promote it before its release.

I also took a good, hard look at the Warlords of Zephyria Series from a marketing and business perspective, with a focus on what steps I can take to generate interest in The Alien Warlord's Fated Mate before its release later this year. One of those steps involves writing a prequel novella as a freebie for readers, a favored marketing tactic. I've used such stories ("reader magnets") for years, since very early in my fiction writing career, to tide existing readers over until the next release while also bringing new readers in.

So. I played around with the story world, found a likely entry point, and began creating. The result is The Alien Warlord's Surprise Mate, which is set just before the start of Book 1, The Alien Warlord's Fated Mate. I want to make a bigger deal out of this story than I normally do with a prequel, so when Surprise Mate is ready for readers, it will get an official cover reveal. Until then, readers will have to be content with the teaser attached to this post.

By the way, Surprise Mate will be available exclusively to newsletter subscribers for a good long while, so click that link and subscribe if you haven't already. More news on it later, I promise.

A lot of that work falls into the business side, though, the behind the scenes maneuvering most readers aren't interested in.

So. Back to the fun stuff.

My main focus right now is writing Sweet Surrender and introducing the Warlords of Zephyria Series. I'm still noodling with other ideas, which helps me both feed my creativity and avoid overwhelm. but the Pruxnae and the Warlords are my top priority.

And I'm enjoying the heck out of them. Tyelu and Jos (Sweet Surrender) continue to surprise and delight me. I'm having so much fun diving back into my first Science Fiction Romance story world, and I would love to continue writing in it, if readers want more.

As for the Warlords of Zephyria, these guys are hot hot hot, as the human women they kidnap quickly discover. It's so much fun melding tried and true Romance tropes like Fated Mates, Captive / Kidnapped Brides, Alpha Male, Warrior / Protector, and Forced Proximity with the Space Opera, Military SciFi, and Hard SciFi elements I love (First Contact, FTL, cool technology, etc.). I cannot wait to share these stories with readers!

PS If you're interested in following each story's progress, you can do so here.