Random Musings

I’m posting this on this account instead of my author accounts because it has to do with being a writer, and a lot of this account is about writing and the writing life. Bear with me while I start with the personal:

There are a couple of FB groups I’m in as an author. I post info about my books over there and hope that someone will grab one. These are BIG groups, with thousands of members. The other day, the admin posted a “Favourite authors of 2025 in this group” list. I think it was twenty-five of them, maybe? Could be more.

I wasn’t one of them.

Not under any of my pen names. I’ve got seventeen books behind me now, and I still fail to make the favourite lists. I’m still not someone people think of first when they go to tell people about books they should grab. Now, it could be that my books are shit, and therefore not popular. That’s always a possibility. But all of them are over four stars on Goodreads/Amazon, and a few have quite a few reviews. Empirically, that suggests that they’re not shit…

Okay. Now to the writing advice bit.

This is being a writer. Especially in 2026, when getting your books noticed in a sea of AI and more than a thousand books a month being loaded into the sapphic fiction category on the big A. Picture it: dropping your book in a pile of a thousand and hoping someone sees it. The odds are not in your favour

But you have to keep going. If you can handle being on the side lines while the other kids play ball, then you can keep going. You keep writing stories and slowly, slowly, people will find you. And you know what? Look to your left. Look to your right. There are a LOT of people on the side lines with you, also wishing they were one of the kids being cheered on by fans in the stands. You’re not alone. I’m not alone.

Keep going. That’s my advice. Keep doing what you’re doing. Keep telling people what you’re up to. And most of all, keep finding the joy in creation and in telling the stories you want to tell.