So, you know how I was working on a novel as my second book? Well, that is no longer the case [shrugs shoulders].

I decided that I don’t care about Kanoa’s story anymore (harsh, I know). Quite honestly, his story is the one that was tripping me up the most. I was working with two stories in the same book, alternating between the two and converging them in the end. Kanoa’s story was actually secondary to Amelia’s. Amelia has always been my favorite and I enjoy the progression of her story, so I’m keeping her. Thing is, her story isn’t quite long enough on its own to be a novel, so…

Book two is going to be another collection! This time, just short stories, no essays. Amelia’s story is going to be the main piece because it’s longer than my typical short stories, and then we’ll have a few other pieces. Because Amelia’s story was so far developed prior to me cutting Kanoa, I’m sure I can wrap her up with much less frustration than I’ve been feeling thus far. I just have to fill in some gaps caused by Kanoa’s absence (there are bigger gaps in time and space when alternating storylines), but I’m happy to focus in on Amelia because I really love her and the other characters in her story.

As far as the other short stories are concerned, I have an idea for one of them but not totally sure about the rest. I do know that I want to include “Makers of Men” in this collection. “Makers of Men” was originally published in midnight & indigo Issue 3 in December 2020. It was my first formally published piece (that I can remember at this second) and served to put fire under me to get my first book out. I really love this story, so I definitely want to include it in book two.

I have conceded to the fact that I am not a novel writer. I love short stories and I’m much better at them. Maybe one day I will try my hand at writing a novel again, maybe I won’t. In the meantime, I’ve now got a better direction for this next book. Once I wrap up Amelia’s story, I can focus on the smaller pieces.

I will keep you updated as things change, of course.

Until next time, Happy Writing!

♥