Over and again.

Almost immediately after the release of Choice and Consequence earlier this month -- I'd say, within a week -- I started a new book. Not the next book in the White Might have Been series, though that one is definitely stirring in my brain.

I take that back -- I did actually start book 3, but I've put it on the back burner for now. The reason why? because C&C, which is essentially a retelling of Pride and Prejudice, has been such a success for me that I've decided to write and publish a standalone P&P variation before working on book 3. You see, there's a file on my computer with a long list of variation ideas for the six complete novels Austen wrote, and to be perfectly honest, most of them are P&P variations. 

Funny how I've had more P&P ideas than anything, when there are already a great many of them out there, and I'm a great advocate for variations of the other five novels (The Correction of Folly was a variation of Sense and Sensibility, for instance). Of course, I do have ideas for four of the other books as well (no Mansfield Park ideas, at present, aside from those I will be including in my What Might Have Been series), but all together, they equal the number of P&P ideas, lol. I plan to write every single one of my ideas into a novel over the next few years.

Anyhoo, as it stands, my current WIP is a standalone P&P story. I have had this one on that list and in my head for a long time, and again, the success of C&C has shown me just how much readers love to read Darcy and Elizabeth's story in all kinds of different ways. So of course I want to try and capitalize on that a bit if I can! The money I have earned so far from C&C will help me get caught up on some things I'm behind on due to a few weeks' unemployment, and with future earnings, I plan to pay off my car. 

After I achieve those goals, I am hoping to be able to quit working in the "real" world and dedicate myself to writing full time. That, I can tell you, is every writer's dream -- to make writing and creating stories for the world their life's work. It's something I've wanted to do for longer than I can even remember, and if you the readers keep being generous enough to buy my books or read them in Kindle Unlimited, I can make this dream come true!

Kinda like Amanda Price did in Lost in Austen when she convinced Darcy to get into the pond to create a version of the wet shirt scene... 😁

The thing with this new book though? I'm like, already into the 6th chapter, and I have suddenly found myself wanting to start it off much differently than it currently is. And the more I think about it, this new direction will work a lot better than the original -- which means I must now take on the daunting task of cutting multiple pages of material and starting over,  as well as rewriting key scenes. Not fun to do, but it will be worth it in the end. 

Best I get started, so I can miraculously get you all a second book in less than a year!