Happy Sunday, friends! I hope today’s missive finds you well.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about creative passion. 

I purposefully took off the month of September to get us prepared for the move and get the new house renovated. It was good timing—I’d just finished the revision of HER DARK LIES and knew it would be in production for a few weeks at least before I got copyedits. I also knew that as much as I like to pretend to myself that I finish one book and immediately launch into another, my actual pattern of behavior is finish one book, immediately start another, then spend a month messing around while the new idea pushes away the previous one. There’s a real period of grieving every writer must go through when they finish a book. You’ve lived with these characters and this story for so long, it’s hard to simply shut the door and walk away without a proper goodbye.

I decided to take advantage of my month of lying fallow and accomplish something instead of surfing the web letting the new idea work its way into my subconscious. And for the most part, I’ve accomplished my goal. As with all great plans, I neglected to budget an extra 25% of time to accomplish all I set out to do, which is why it’s mid-October and we’ve just moved, the old house still has a few things to be cleared out, and I haven’t gotten past the first chapter of the new book. But I’m here at my desk, and I worked on a short story yesterday, and I know how it ends, so that’s nothing to sneeze at.

All of this to say... I’ve ben itching to get back to writing. This break feels much too long. My writing muscles haven’t atrophied, but they’re sore from disuse. Which brings me full circle to the creative passion thing.

Wanting to write isn’t enough. Thinking about writing isn’t enough. Talking about writing isn’t enough. If you actually want to be a writer, to have a career, to sustain yourself financially, to have a modicum of success, however you define it—you have to write. You must create. You must let YOUR passion for YOUR work drive you to the keyboard or pen every single damn day. It doesn’t matter if it seems too hard. It doesn’t matter if you don’t think it will get published. It doesn’t matter if you’re worried about reviews or reader response or how much money you can get out of it.

No more excuses. Just do it. Stop worrying about the business side of writing, and get to work on the business of writing.

Just write. 

Onward!

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LEGENDBORN by Tracy Deonn

What a magnificent book. I've spent the past week recommending LEGENDBORN to everyone I know. It's got everything: a complex new magical system, grounded in Arthurian legend; a sassy protagonist who is destined to become an iconic hero in her own right; important, thought-provoking themes; and a burgeoning love triangle that feels inevitable but right. Seriously, y'all, this book is a blast! Tracy Deonn is now on my always pre-order list.

What are you reading?

That’s it from me. Clean out your junk drawer, buy some shelf liners and clean your fridge, write something, even if it feels hard, and I’ll see you next week!

Peace and hugs,
J.T.