Happy anniversary to me!

Hello my friends! Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today as part of the A Promise of Forever blog tour. I'm going to talk a little about the book and a little about me, but first, I bet you're curious to know what anniversary the post title refers to.

Well, today happens to be my 10-year publishing anniversary!

That's right: ten years ago today, my very first book went live on Amazon. Not a JAFF book, mind you. No, my very first self-published novel was a vampire romance that I wrote under my own name. It was the first in a series -- or was supposed to be. Only the first two books were ever written and published, because the books never got noticed in the ever-growing urban fantasy genre. I've not earned a penny on either in years.

After the duds that were those books, I tried a different genre -- contemporary romantic suspense. I focused on firefighters because they're a popular hero figure in romance novels, and although I had some very moderate success, the series went on indeterminate hiatus when they, too, failed to get the attention of readers. I wrote two novels and a 3-part short story collection, and while it's been years since any of these stories have made me any money, I do hope to actually get back to this series one day. These characters are still living in the back of my mind waiting for their time to come. Even if it's just for me, I think I'll still finish the series.

Then, back in 2018, I tried a third genre. Well, I believe I began writing the story in late 2017, but in July of 2018 I published The Correction of Folly. I had found the colloquially named Jane Austen Fan Fiction genre. Oh, I was familiar with it already, having read a number of novels featuring Austen's characters, but I wondered for years how anyone could do it and not get sued for copyright violation. Then I looked into it and found out that Austen's novels are in the public domain, and what public domain is and the like. Through this same research, I happened to come across multiple references to Ms. Austen having "got her own book wrong" in Sense and Sensibility when she paired Colonel Brandon with Marianne Dashwood. Even some of Austen's contemporaries said that the colonel should have chosen the elder Dashwood sister, Elinor. And I remember thinking "I could write that book."

So I did. And the first in yet another series (there was a time I thought I couldn't write a standalone novel) was born in my mind, in which Brandon realized the folly of pining for a young woman whose heart already belonged to another -- and who thought him too old for marriage, besides. He decided to correct this by evaluating whether Elinor might be a better choice, and he found out she was! Of course, that's not the only thing Colonel Brandon found out, but you'll have to read the book to find out what else he learns!

I got a little more attention and a fairly regular stream of small payments from Amazon following the release of my first JAFF novel. Of course, I had intended to follow it up immediately, but three years would pass before I finally managed to overcome a mixture of writer's block and clinical depression to get Choice and Consequence published in May of 2021. This second book was a Pride and Prejudice variation carrying on a sub-plot from The Correction of Folly, and boy was it a surprise to me how well it did! I was so excited and inspired that I wrote and published another book in only three months, The Reintroduction of Fitzwilliam Darcy.

Reintroduction was my first standalone novel. Ever. But as it was also a P&P variation, it was also rather successful -- I've learned in the last few years of being in the Austenesque community that Pride and Prejudice variations are the prevailing favorite among JAFF readers (and woe betide the author who tries to separate Darcy and Elizabeth!), even though some readers do say they want variations of the other novels that Austen wrote. My What Might Have Been series will crossover the six complete novels in various ways, and I have a whole file on my computer listing not only standalone P&P variations, but ideas for variations of the other five novels! So, there will be more variations from me in the future, many more.

As for my newest release? A Promise of Forever is another P&P variation. I admit that I'm going to focus on standalone P&P stories for a while because I want to save money to move this summer. I'd love for there to be enough for me to make a down payment on a house, but if I can at least move to a less expensive apartment, I'll be satisfied. Plus, it really is fun to conjure up new ways for Darcy and Elizabeth to meet and fall in love!

If you're still here, let me tell you -- at last! -- about my newest release:

In this new Austenesque tale, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner are Elizabeth’s parents and she grows up happy and carefree in Lambton. At sixteen, Lizzy meets and falls in love with Fitzwilliam Darcy, future Master of Pemberley. The couple decides to elope but they are torn apart by their closest relatives, and when reunited must determine whether the pain of the years that have passed can be overcome to regain the love that was lost.

A Promise of Forever is now available at Amazon for purchase on Kindle (and in KU). The book is also available in paperback and hardcover. Leave a comment on this post to enter for a chance to win an ebook copy! 

Contest open until January 25th. Good luck!