Twenty Fourteen

Man, 2014. 

I know I'm a little delayed in this post. I was working my butt of to finish Me Without You. And guess what?? I did. It's in the hands of my editor as we speak (EEP!) But onto what I really came here for...reflecting on 2014.

Looking back now I wonder what I did with my year. There were several months where I feared that my ability to write a story was gone (Luminary has by far been the hardest book to write/finish and Me Without You seemed to be following suit). There were months where I didn't have a desire to even pick up a book, no less write one. It made my heart sad. Reading and writing used to be my only escape. My happy place.

This year I've had to learn to fall back in love with writing. To an average person, releasing four books within two years sounds like an accomplishment. Heck, I feel accomplished(sometimes). But in comparison to the rest of the indie world, I've felt like a failure. You only released ONE book this year? What have you been doing with your life? I keep comparing myself and I shouldn't. Stop it, Mindy!

With how saturated the indie market has become, quite frankly I've been terrified of the future and what may happen to my plans and dreams. Not only is the market saturated, but what sells isn't exactly what I write.

But I'm taking 2015 by the horns. I have stories piling up in my head, waiting to be written and I can't wait to share them with you! I've come to terms with that fact that I'm never going to be the author that writes what's popular or what will sell. I know it might make more sense to be business conscious(if this is the route I'd like to take professionally), but I don't want the stress of forcing it, to create a career that I hate because it diminishes my love and desire to write, just so I can meet deadlines and "don't become irrelevant" because I'm not popping out a book every couple months (You like that run on sentence?). I don't want to stress about what everyone else is writing/marketing/giving away/selling. I want to write what's in my heart, the stories I want to read. And focus on myself.

Writing Me After You(MAY) was the best decision I ever made, while it's actually my worst selling book(go figure...haha), it's by far my favorite. It's the book I needed to write. And I want to continue writing books that I love, that both terrify me and push my boundaries.

While I don't plan on spitting out a book every other month, I do plan on writing to my hearts content and hopefully releasing three books this upcoming year, beginning with Me Without You on March 27th!

It's time to kick 2015 butt!