My last book, The Seaside Affair, was released in 2020. Sometime afterward, I began work on the sequel, The Village Affair. I made it through Chapter Twenty-Three and reached roughly 48,000 words before I stalled, uncertain where to take the story next. Unfortunately, that pause lasted far longer than I ever intended.
In the meantime, life happened.
Family needed my attention. After eighteen years with Nike, I left my position and, following Covid, began working as a paralegal with another law firm. One of the fortunate ones, I never had to return to the office and instead transitioned fully to working from home—something I still do today through my own LLC providing paralegal services.
Somewhere during those five years, I let the thing I loved most sit quietly on a shelf.
After eighteen books published under three pen names, I convinced myself that season of life had ended. For a long time, I believed it. Until recently.
Lately, I’ve felt the familiar pull of another story finding its way to me.
I’m back at the beginning stages again—building the scene, shaping the plot, meeting the characters, and writing that first chapter. I’ve also been experimenting with Claude.ai and ChatGPT as a brainstorming and developmental tool, which has been an interesting experience. I’ll talk more about AI in another post and share some of what I’ve observed along the way.
What I can assure readers is this: the story itself will remain entirely my own. AI isn’t writing the book. I’m simply using it as a sounding board, a critic, and occasionally a way to help shake loose ideas and rediscover my footing after stepping away for so long.
I’ll share updates from time to time and hope—earnestly—that this story doesn’t find its way onto the shelf beside The Village Affair.
Then again, perhaps one day I’ll bring that story back to life too.