Welcome to May!
It’s hard to believe that we’re starting another month, and
summer is just around the corner. Time is certainly flying by, and the last
year has been hard for me, personally and professionally. I’ve had to deal with
more than my fair share of loss, grief, disappointments, and frustrations. It’s
been rough, and these painful changes have made me reevaluate just about
everything in my life — including my writing.
I’ve decided to let go of all the things that aren’t
working, purge the excess, change what needs an overhaul, make the best use of
my time, and go where my heart leads me. Life is too short to spend it bogged
down with “must do” or “should” lists and wasting precious time on things that
don’t make you happy.
What does this mean for my writing? Well, for a time, I
considered giving it up completely. It was just too much work with too little
reward. It wasn’t fun anymore and it had lost the magic it once held for me.
But instead of abandoning writing entirely, I decided to streamline. I gave up
trying to do “everything” — write all the stories in my head, blog, promote my
backlist, etc.
I sat down and prioritized what I want to do. Which romances
do I still feel enough love for that I want to invest the time and energy in
writing? Which ideas can I let go? What stories would I regret not writing?
What about my horror fiction? How many stories do I want to write in 2019? What
about the non-fiction ebook ideas I have?
I made some decisions on how I’ll be using my writing time
for the rest of 2019 and beyond.
Romances: I’m in the process of re-editing/revising my last
two Medallion Press historical romances. At least one will be released in 2019.
Maybe both. (They are 85,000-90,000 word novels, so they’re a bit time
consuming.) What about new books? I’ve got a few on my “want to write” list. A
contemporary gay novella, a paranormal/contemporary novel, and maybe another historical. Many other romances on my “I’ll write it someday” list
didn’t make the cut.
Horror: I have several story ideas brewing in my head. I
love reading and writing horror — it’s what I started out writing, and I’ll be
focusing more of my time on the genre. (I’ll also be releasing an anthology of
sci-fi/horror short stories sometime. Maybe in 2019. We’ll see.)
Non-fiction: I have a non-fiction guide to romance all
written and ready to be released (except for a cover) and I have 3-4 other
ideas for more non-fiction ebooks and another online writing class. Will I
write them? Not sure. Right now, they’re taking a back seat to everything else.
Other stuff: In April, I launched a brand new website
(www.KelliWilkins.com) — same url, totally different look. The new site is more
modern, easier to navigate, and allows readers to follow me on social media,
share, like, and pin posts and pages. The site also has its own dedicated blog.
I’ll be sharing posts there as well as on my Blogspot blog.
As for social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), I’m cutting
back to posting once a week or so, unless there’s a new release or exciting
news to share. It’s time for me to get out of the endless loop of “needing” and
“having” to post all the time. Social media is fine, but I’ve got things to do
in the real world.
So that’s where things stand at the beginning of May. Will
they change? Probably. And when they do, I’ll adjust — because life is all
about change and how you adapt to it.
Until next time,
Kelli
