I was going to wait a few days to send this, but I thought we could all use some good news today. (The banner art on this newsletter is a clue.) 

During the wee hours of last night (election night here in the US), I came to a decision and had an epiphany. Yep, I was awake all night and not by choice. The decision involved my screen time on social media. For the foreseeable future, I will be limiting social media to book business. Too distracting, and quite frankly, too depressing. Why take negativity into your life that you don’t need to? Rest assured, I’ll still post links to all my newsletters on my social media accounts, but any and all news doomscrolling stops. Life is not lived online. It’s lived with people you love and who love you, as well as doing the things that make you happy. 

And speaking of things that make me happy — and will make you happy — I’ve had an epiphany. I realized last night that I need to set The Fear Syndrome aside, at least for the next two years. I say “two years” because I’m going back to the SPI Files and Raine Benares right now, hopefully one book a year, but my writer brain and mental health will have the last say on that schedule. (A book a year was my old schedule.) By the way, therapy is going great! I’m learning a lot about myself and have been able to actually fix some things.

The Fear Syndrome was supposed to be out two years ago this month. Two years. It’s never taken me that long to write a book. I’ve been unable to get past the first third of the book. Part of my exhaustion was from the US political and world situation. Last night, I finally realized that my writer brain and burned out/exhausted self was refusing to go any further on a book featuring all the same things that had gotten me into this situation. Duh! Yeah, it can take me a while to realize the obvious. I’m stubborn that way.    

So, I’m in the process of packing up all my notes and setting the entire project aside. After giving myself a week to be outside on our farm, prepping it for winter, I’ll re-read both the SPI Files and Raine Benares series. For now, I’ll be rotating between the two. The Aurora Donati books will come back, but only after I’m ready,

I have to write what makes me happy, and so many of you have told me how my Raine Benares and SPI Files books have gotten you through rough times in your lives, that they’re your comfort books. There is no bigger compliment you could ever give me than that.

I can’t promise which series gets a new book first. My writer brain will let me know. Whichever series sparks my joy right now gets to be first in line. It’s all about the joy. I need it, and the resulting book will be better for it. However, while I was outside blowing leaves this morning, a potential first project popped into my head. 

A SPI Files novella where Mac and Rake go back to Weird Sisters, NC, for a couples bridal shower. Friends from SPI will go with them. I don’t know what goes wrong when they get there that’ll require SPI agents to team with townsfolk and Mac’s family to save the day, but it’ll come to me. Being a novella (a length between a short story and a novel) will be a nice way to ease me back into writing AND get y’all something fun and comforting to read. Plus, in theory, I should be able to write it faster. And yes, I’ll record an audio book to go with it. What do you think? Let me know.  

Love you all, you’re the best fans a writer can have! 
Lisa