Before we get too deep into 2026, I wanted to take a moment to shout out some of my favorite cinematic  romances enjoyed in 2025! These are all, in my not-at-all-humble-opinion, superior to Bridgerton in every particular. (Note: while, as a romance novelist, I know I’m meant to love Bridgerton , I find it far too heavy-handed and stuffed with superfluous storylines to be remotely swoony. The only season I’ve managed to watch most of was season 2. Even then, I was skipping a

As is sort-of tradition by now, I like to take a little time on January 1 st  to list out my INTENTIONS for the coming year. Not goals. Not resolutions. Those both sound WAY too scary to me, I’m not going to lie. But my publishing INTENTIONS for 2026 are as follows: February 12 – CurseBound  (WarBride: Book 3) March 12 – SoulFire (WarBride: Book 4) April 10 – A Spot of Tea and Sorcery: volume 1 May 10 – A Spot of Tea and Sorcery: volume 2 June 10 – A Spot of Tea and Sorcery:

In preparation for my upcoming work year, I’ve been doing a little behind-the-scenes work to get myself and my process into better alignment. Basically, I want my actual strengths as an author/creator to line up properly with my work efforts. Put my focus where it needs to go, that kind of thing. I’ve been asking myself what I love MOST about being an author and how I can emphasize those elements of authorial life. And, in contrast, I’m also analyzing what I love LEAST about

So I have now officially finished drafting the final books for TWO different series, bringing each to a climactic conclusion. SoulFire— WarBride: book 4 The Last Dragon Queen— The Dragon Queen Duology: book 2 Which naturally begs the question: “What’s next?” Well. I am excited to tell you!!!! But first, some backstory . . . ____________________ If you read my post about Burnout ( which I do recommend for context ), you might remember me mentioning that, halfway through my 3 m

The Seventh Champion  is now officially launched on the market. And it’s actually . . . kind of strange? This is the first book I have published with a traditional house since launching my Sylvia Mercedes name/brand. Which means it followed a traditional publishing schedule. Which is . . . not at all like indie publishing! Usually, when I write book, I’m publishing it a month or two later. But this one has been written for quite a long time. So when it has finally come to pub

Welcome to my follow-up post on changes I’ve made post-burnout! In the previous post (which I recommend reading first), I talked a bit about discovering my top three Clifton Strengths, which were: -          Focus -          Discipline -          Achievement Yes. I know. My name is Sylvia Mercedes, and I am a workaholic. BUT . . . these ARE my strengths and, when utilized properly, can be turned in to veritable superpowers of production. But only if they’re used correctly. I

Having told you about my experiences with the dreaded BURNOUT ( see previous post ), I thought I’d write up a post about changes I made to my writing process and routine in an effort to avoid burnout in the future, while simultaneously working to get my writing speed back. Today we’re going to talk about the LIFESTYLE CHANGES I made. But first . . . a little rabbit trail about Clifton Strengths. ____________ I’ve already sung the praises of Becca Syme in my Burnout Post, but

At the time of penning this blog post, I just (literally minutes ago) set a new personal record: I wrote two complete manuscripts in 3 months. These manuscripts are both 100K-plus words long. And while they both will need light edits and thorough proof reads, they are POLISHED stories that won’t change in any significant way during the editing process. Each book took 5 work weeks to complete. I have never written this much in this short of a time frame. Certainly not this muc

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a woman in possession of a story must, indeed, find some means of telling it. I am such a woman. I have many, many stories to tell. Most of them fiction. However . . . I find I have other sorts of stories running around in the back of my brain most days. Not particularly exciting stories, at least, they wouldn’t seem exciting to your average sword-and-sorcery-with-kissing reader (such as my typical target audience). But they are sto