Quarantined with Creativity

2020 certainly has been a banner year, although I can’t quite pinpoint what the headline should say. I believe the universal theme has been CHANGE. Our world is radically different now than in most of our lifetimes. It’s difficult to imagine us ever really going back to the “old world,” the way things used to be.

All of this time at home has given me the opportunity to really think about my writing, and I believe that a CHANGE is coming in that venue as well.

As my readers well know, my ghostly stories are always set in a haunted location, one that bears quite a bit of very real history. Research has always been my favorite part of the writing process, and I am obsessed with history–especially of the Middle Ages. Over these past months, I’ve been able to branch out from my normal reading favorites and venture more seriously into reading historical romance.

I believe that’s where Claire Gem is headed.

Actually, I more than believe it–the first book of a newly created series is already well underway. I am unwilling at this point to reveal much more than this:

1. The books will be set in the Middle Ages.
2. They will definitely be romances.
3. The stories will be set in an entirely different location than the current historical romances on the market.

That’s it. That’s all you get for right now. Over the next few weeks I will be rolling out the Series name, the title of Book One–I might even reveal a sneak peek at the cover.

Sadly, for those of you who are waiting for another ghost story, I regret to say there will be no haunting in this new series. There will be, however, a just as intensely emotional love story with lots of conflict, along with setting details it has taken me a lifetime to collect.

You see, at the tender age of eight, I stumbled across a painting in a picture book of art history. After years of nightmares associated with this image, I decided to research the artist, the area, and the era in which it was painted.

My bookshelf looks like a library dedicated to Medieval History.

So I guess, in a way, you could say my new series is based on a haunting–but one that’s lived inside my own head. Up until now, I’ve never felt my abilities as a writer were “good enough” to do these stories justice.

Now, I believe, is the time.