Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Greetings y’all from hot, dry Fort Worth, Texas. Thank God for air conditioning! I am so ready for fall.

I haven’t been here much in the past couple years. (The two previous posts were written for me by a marketing company I very briefly employed.) My absence was due to various of reasons: a bad fall that kept me cooped up for weeks because I didn’t want to scare children; a bout of Covid that I’m still recovering from months after catching the vicious bug; and most of all depression, a demon I often battle. It overwhelmed me after my last book, a time travel romance titled MY VOYAGER, failed to take off – largely because I’m a total loser at marketing. I made up my mind to never write again.

However, a strange thing happened after the fall that left my face looking like a Halloween mask. It was as if a switch turned on in my head. Maybe banging it on the floor knocked some sense into me, for suddenly I wanted to start writing again.

I thought of a manuscript I started way back in 2008. An Irish historical set during the 1798 rebellion against British rule, the first three chapters finaled in the 2008 Orange Rose contest, and I attempted to sell the concept to a New York publisher. When that didn’t work out, depression set in as usual and I shoved the idea far back in my mind, where it simmered until eighteen months ago after my nasty fall. I decided what the heck, I might as well finish that puppy. It’s taken tons of research and a stop-and-go effort, but it’s almost done.

I am debating whether to approach a publisher (not the one who turned it down) or self-publish as I’ve done with all my other books. Either way, I’ll tell you more about this project in another post. Meanwhile, what do you think of the cover for MY VOYAGER?