In which I accidentally write another novel before the end of 2025

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 . . .

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If you read my post about Burnout (which I do recommend for context), you might remember me mentioning that, halfway through my 3 months of active recovery—during which I did NO work-related writing—I started to get the beginnings of an idea.

Now this was after the burnout was SO bad, I couldn’t write anything. Not even a text.

I had just spent about a month-and-a-half doing nothing but binge-watching the old sitcom, Frasier.

(I use the words “doing nothing” loosely . . . I WAS, after all, still mothering four children, caring for a bazillion rescue animals, and keeping my household halfway in order. It just FELT like doing nothing, considering I usually do those things WHILE ALSO writing 8-10K words a day.)

So anyway, during this period, I was honestly in a space of near despair. It seemed as though all of my ideas had dried up, and I wasn’t convinced I’d ever write again. Even the WarBride series, which I had been so excited about when I started, had become lifeless and dull, and I simply couldn’t summon any love for it anymore.

But you know what I did love?

Watching Niles Crane be painfully, ridiculously, hopelessly in love with Daphne Moon for episode after episode of Frasier.

It was silly.

It was cozy.

It was super-low stress.

And yet I was SO EMOTIONALLY INVESTED.

I started musing on the trope of unrequited male pining. How much I enjoy it, how rarely I see it.

Think . . . he is absolutely WILD about her from the instant he sets eyes on her, but she sees him as “such a good friend” or “like a brother.” Maybe even a “best friend” . . . but nothing more than that. Right? Right???

(She might be deluding herself.)

It’s NOT a dynamic one gets to explore in the standard romantasy novel, where the heroes are always hunky alpha-kings, all muscle-bound and confident, and the heroine might be fighting her attraction, but there can be NO DOUBT she is ALWAYS ATTRACTED.

(Lots of insta-lust in romantasy.)

But the first nigglings of an idea started to stir in the depths of my burnout-numbed brain.

What if I were to do something a bit . . . different?

What if I wrote about a Shy Boi in love?

What if I didn't worry about what the market currently wants and just . . . had some fun?

Thus was an idea born.

An idea which . . . well, I’ll be honest, I didn’t think I would actually write.

Don’t get me wrong. I had a BLAST coming up with it. When I first sat down to pound out notes and thoughts, it was a hodgepodge of disconnected scenes featuring my two leads just . . . DOING CUTE THINGS.

No plot, pure vibes.

Eventually, an actual plot took shape: beginning, middle, and end. I started putting all those disconnected scenes into context, and . . . OMG, it was just darling! So much fun, so swoony, so adorable in every possible way.

But, you know. I write EPIC fantasy romance. I don’t write sitcom-style cozies with a dash of magic and a whole heaping hunk of YEARNING.

Only . . . what if I actually . . . did?

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Spoiler Alert: That’s what I’m working on now.

I’ve been calling it my “Sitcom Romantasy.”

Or my “Tea Witch Story.”

Or my “Symphony on a Theme of Unrequited Male Yearning.”

Take your pick!

And . . . as of this last week, I just completed book 1 of 5 of an episodic, serialized, SUPER cozy-style romantasy, set in a magical 1930s-era, with bootlegged sorcery, a flower shop that may be a front, a fugitive tea witch, a disgraced sorcerer, and SO MUCH TEA.

It’s called A Spot of Tea and Sorcery.

And it is, in my opinion, the cutest thing I’ve ever written. 

Also – Because I finished book 1 at 60K words, I can officially claim to have written FIVE NOVELS in 2025.

After experiencing burnout so badly last year . . . that feels good.