Will I Write About Dinosaurs?

Hi all,

This week I'm going to talk about dinosaurs! More importantly, will I write about them?

I absolutely love dinosaurs and when I was growing up I used to love watching shows about dinosaurs and reading books about them. I still do all that today!

I've tried to plot a dinosaur book before and nothing has really come to me. Nothing that hasn't been done before and would spice up the genre. I would love to write about them, but I'd need a good enough idea to give them justice.

My favourite dinosaur of all time is the Velociraptor. I've tried to work this dinosaur in particular into books before, but it just hasn't worked out. I'd love to write a dinosaur themed book, but at the moment I have no plans to do so. Whenever I come up with a new book idea I hope that the next one will be about dinosaurs, but unfortunately it hasn't happened yet.

If I could, I would write a book about someone with a Velociraptor as a companion or pet. But that's as far as I've gotten, plot wise, which isn't enough to write an entire book about, unfortunately.

Maybe one day I'll come up with a great idea for a dinosaur book that I'll absolutely love. But currently there are no plans to write about dinosaurs.

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading! See you next Sunday. 

PS; looking for some horror books to read this month? Check out this book bundle:

Horror Books for Halloween!

The Best Rewards for Writing

Hi all,

This week I'm going to tell you about my best rewards for writing. Sometimes it can be hard to get through a certain part of a book, and a reward can be a good incentive to get you through it.

Reading.

This is especially true if I'm really enjoying a book and I want to get back to it. So after I've hit my daily word count, I'll go back to the book.

YouTube.

I watch a lot of YouTube videos! What's great is if my favourite creators have uploaded while I've been writing. Then it feels like they're giving me a special reward for hitting my goal!

Playing Videogames.

At the moment I'm really into Pokemon Legends ZA, so that will be one of my rewards throughout November. I just love getting to sit back and play through a different story after adding to my own one!

Watching TV.

Although I don't do this too often, I will occasionally watch a TV show as a reward. I'm waiting for a lot of my favourite shows to release new seasons, so I might not do this as much this month.

Food rewards.

Sweets, cakes and sometimes biscuits are nice rewards for writing. Sometimes I'll just reward myself by having some extra dessert, just something to give me a little boost.

Cinema.

If there's a film out that I want to see, I make sure to get my writing done before I see the film. That way I don't have to worry about it again when the film is over. I can enjoy it in peace.

That's it for this week. How do you reward yourself after writing? Let me know in the comments. See you next Sunday. 

PS; if you’re looking for a new horror book to read, check out this book bundle:

Horror Books for Halloween!

Will I Write Another Horror Book?

Hi all!

This is question I get a lot from my readers, especially ones who enjoyed Mute. So I thought I'd give my answer...

Definitely!

I currently have a few ideas for horror books floating around in my ideas folder. But I've been doing a lot of research because I feel like horror is such a hard genre to get right, and I want to make sure my books are as good as they possibly can be. But, I'll give you a few tidbits on what I'm planning! Hopefully I'll get the chance to write one of them next year!

The clicking woman.

This book follows a girl who is being stalked by a woman. The woman mostly clings to the ceiling above the girl, and reveals herself with a series of clicking. The girl doesn't know why she's being stalked and is trying her best to lose the woman.

Puppet master.

A girl and her friends spend the night in the woods. In the morning, her friend wakes up with an entity following her around. The others refuse to acknowledge the entity, as it will attract one to them. The girl deliberately acknowledges the entity and tries her best to help her friend lose it before it consumes her.

I think puppet master will be my next horror writing project, most likely my March 2026 project. I've really missed writing pure horror books and can't wait to get back into it!

That's it for this week, see you next week! 

PS; if you’re looking for some free books, check out this book bundle:

Dark Themes in Fantasy and Science Fiction (Sept-Oct)

November 2025 Writing Project Announcement

Hi all,

It's time to announce my writing project for November, the last one of 2025! My writing project will be...

Cloud's Core!

Yeah... My casual writing project hasn't worked out.

I really want to get this book done this year so I'm going to write the first draft in November. I've only written 3000 words so far, so I've still got quite a while to go until I finish.

The story will still follow Aliyah and her friends as they navigate a floating city that's on the verge of falling out of the sky. None of the plot points have changed since I last wrote it, so I'll just be finishing it off.

Although I’m still not sure about the name, so I might think of a new one while I’m writing it.

I now realise that I need structure while writing. I like writing larger amounts across a short period rather than smaller amounts across a longer period. Now that I know I won't be doing anymore casual projects. I'll stick to my method of writing books during certain months of the year.

I'll still write short stories as I don't find them as tiring as writing entire books. I'm glad that I've learned this about myself as I now know my limits in the future.

That's it for this week! See you next Sunday. 

PS; if you’re looking for some free books, check out this book bundle:

Dark Themes in Fantasy and Science Fiction (Sept-Oct)

How my Zombies Differ From Other Zombies

Hi all,

With the third book in the Curse of Anubis series coming out soon, I wanted to discuss the zombies in my books and how they differ from more traditional zombies that you might be used to.

The main draw that I think is different is that my zombies are sentient. They can see what they're doing from the world of the dead but they can't control their bodies. They can feel what their body feels, but all of this disappears when they're in the land of the dead. There's no pain, but it's more like a pressure. A sensation that doesn't go away until the wound is healed.

They can be controlled to an extent by certain gods, though this is extremely limited. Anubis, as the god of the dead, is the main one who can do this. As the creator of the plague, he is responsible for everything that happens to every person, turned or not.

I also like the fact that they're called mummies, rather than zombies. It ties them into the Egyptian mythology aspect of the books, which is a huge part of the book.

The mummies have no choice but to wait for their hearts to be consumed by Anubis in order to pass on fully. But when Anubis decides to become the ruler of the gods instead, no hearts are eaten. That means that mummies are left wandering in the real world while the person tries not to look at their real life.

I also loved the idea of the zombies being controlled by someone who was previously zombified. That was one of the first concepts that popped out to me and one that I went along with to the end!

I love reading zombie books but I have found that there are some that don't make their zombies different. While a traditional approach can be good, it can also be boring. When I decided to write about zombies, I didn't want to fall into that category. Hence why my zombies still have a state of awareness and can be controlled by Tahira, the only who has been cured of the virus.

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading. See you next week. 

PS; don’t forget to check out these book bundles to find your next favourite author!

Kindle Unlimited with the occult and supernatural

Silver Winged September

Do Characters Need a Love Interest?

Hi all,

This week I'm going to talk about love interests. Do main characters need one all the time?

My answer? No.

I write a mix of characters. Some of my main characters do have love interests, some don't. I personally don't think that characters need to have a love interest to make a good book. If I think a character needs a love interest, I'll give them one. If I don't, they don't get one.

So far, the main characters to get love interests in my books are:

Hazel (Elemental Dragons)

Cheyenne (Years)

Shannon (Celestial Plague)

Jenna (Celestial Plague)

Tahira (Curse of Anubis)

Hailey (Street Rats)

Reema (Game of Air and Lightning)

I gave them all love interests because that's what I felt worked best for the characters. But in some cases, like Shannon, the love interest didn't work out. I personally don't think a book needs romance to be a good book. A lot of the books I've written recently haven't contained a love interest, and it hasn't effected the story one bit.

If you feel like your character needs a love interest, then give them one. But don't feel pressured to add a love interest, especially if it doesn't work. The following main characters on my work don't have love interests:

Audra (Mute)

Raya (Celestial Plague)

Ashleigh (Celestial Plague)

Laelaps (Empty Skies)

Ataraxia (Empty Skies)

Aliyah (Cloud's Core)

Imara (The Severed Pantheon)

I think a good mix of both is nice, as it allows the characters to decide as the book goes on. You might start writing a love interest and it doesn't work out. Or, you could start a book and a love interest pops up halfway through!

Books don't need a love interest to be entertaining. They're just another aspect of the story. It's your book, so you decide what happens. Don't feel pressured to add things in that you don't want to write. At the end of the day, if you don't like writing a certain book, it will be obvious to those who read it.

That's it for this week! Hope you enjoyed reading. See you next week. 

PS; don’t forget to check out these book bundles to find your next favourite author!

Kindle Unlimited with the occult and supernatural

Silver Winged September

Switching Email Providers

Hi all,

I've recently had an email from MailerLite, who I've used as an email provider since I started my author journey. They are unfortunately changing their free plan and I can't justify the cost of the increase.

So I've switched to Email Octopus!

If you're subscribed to my newsletter, then you'll see a change in my email templates. I find Email Octopus so much easier to use than MailerLite and I wish I'd switched sooner!

Just as a reminder, if you sign up to my mailing list, you get the following:

Five FREE Enovellas (with plenty more to come!)

Monthly updates on my writing

Cover reveals before anyone else

Discounted book bundles

Unseen short stories

Giveaways

Character polls

Opportunities to suggest blog post ideas

If you like the sound of that and want to sign up, you can do so here:

That's it for this week! One day I might do a review of Email Octopus, once I've gotten more used to it and it's features. See you next Sunday. 

PS; don’t forget to check out these book bundles to find your next favourite author!

Kindle Unlimited with the occult and supernatural

Silver Winged September

My Abandoned Book Ideas

Hi all,

This week I thought I'd talk about something a bit different - all the book ideas I've ended up not going through with. There have been a lot of book ideas that I've come up with over the years, but not written for various reasons.

NA Supernatural Fantasy Standalone.

I came up with the idea years ago of a story of a girl who suffers from PTSD after witnessing the death of a friend when she was little. Years later, the friend's ghost appears to her and asks for her help in solving his murder. Throughout the book she's accused of having a mental breakdown, until she eventually finds his body. But at the end of the book, as she says goodbye to the friend, the news shows that the body she found wasn't him. I abandoned this after feeling like the idea of being used before and I wasn't sure I could execute it properly.

YA Fantasy Series.

A girl is caught in a war between two sides. During the fight, she's killed. But she wakes up in a random town with no idea what happened. But the town claims that the war never happened, or that either side exists. I didn't really know how to flesh this idea out, so I decided not to pursue it.

Elemental Dragons Prequel.

I've spoken about this before, but Elemental Dragons originally had a standalone prequel. It would follow Hazel and Rocky's parents and how they're cursed by a Hydra. The curse eventually leads to the events of Elemental Dragons. This idea was left when the children were revealed to be clones rather than their biological children. Then I came up with the idea for Original Elementals, so this idea had to be scrapped.

YA Dystopian Sci-Fi Standalone.

This one is one of my oldest scrapped ideas that eventually would inspire me to think up a new series. This standalone would feature an alien species that invaded earth with a deadly plague. Eventually I opted not to write this idea, as I wanted to write a different Dystopian series which would eventually turn into Celestial Plague.

YA Fantasy Series.

When a girl's grandmother dies, she discovers that she's inherited her place in an elite origination. The organisation tracks down fantasy creatures and captures them. The girl thinks the creatures are being sent to a location that is better suited for their needs, but they are actually being sold off and slaughtered. When she discovers this, she turns her back on the organisation and tries to take it down from the inside. I just couldn't think of a good way to work with this idea, so it was abandoned. I also thought it was a bit cliche in places.

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed an insight into some of my old ideas. See you next week! 

My Preferred Book Series Lengths

Hi all,

This week I'm going to talk about my how long I prefer my series to be. I love reading a series that has a load of books, but writing them is a different story!

One book.

A lot of my book ideas start off as standalones and then turn into a series. But when I do write a book that is a standalone, I love it. I like that I can delve into the world and tell the story within one book. Whenever I finished writing a series or need a break, I like the idea of writing a standalone to give myself something new to sink my teeth into.

Two books.

I've never planned a duology before, and I'm not sure if I ever will. I like the concept of splitting a story across two books, but for some reason my brain always says I need one more!

Three books.

I've actually planned a few trilogies over the years. But some of them do end up getting another book added on! Celestial Plague, for example, was originally planned as a trilogy before I decided to add another book. But, Empty Skies is a trilogy and I won't be adding any more to that series, so some of my trilogies are safe as they are.

Four books.

Elemental Dragons, the first books I ever wrote, ended up being a four book series when I finished it. When I first started writing, I really liked the idea of writing more but didn't want to fill the books with random stuff that I want integral to the plot. So it became four books instead of six. A lot of the series that I write now end up with four books, such as Celestial Plague and Curse of Anubis.

Five books.

I think I could comfortably write a five book series, though I haven't planned one yet. Four definitely seems to be my comfort zone.

Six+ books.

I know that Original Elementals is a ten book series, and that's why I've struggled a lot with it. Ten books are a lot when it comes to writing, and I often find myself wanting to explore other book universes. To write more than five books, the series would need a lot planning and I would need a lot of breaks in between.

That's it for this week, I hope this clears up the way I write and what I usually plan when it comes to series lengths.

Hope you enjoyed reading, see you next week! 

July 2025 Project Wrap-up

Hi all!

If you follow me on social media at all, you might be aware that I've finished the first draft of The Severed Pantheon!

My final word count is...

73,227 words!

I had a lot more fun with this book than I thought I would, I loved being able to go back to write a horror fantasy!

This book follows Imara, a blessed of the goddess of Death. She is an outcast in her community due to her blessing, and many town people don't trust her. Because of this, her and her family aren't allowed to live in the town and are often denied access to most of its services.

The book follows Imara and her three sisters following an attack on their town, supposedly by the goddess of Death. They meet Luca, a blessed of the goddess of Life who enlists them in his army. He wants Imara to kill the goddess of Death for her crimes and have her power shared amongst the remaining goddesses.

There are five goddesses in this book:

Tenebra - goddess of Death.

Vivacia - goddess of Life.

Turbida - goddess of Sky.

Silicea - goddess of Metal.

Consolatrixa - goddess of Animals.

Imara needs to deal with her feelings regarding helping to save a world that hates her, and possibly dying in the process.

For the most part, I stuck with my original outline for this book. It did go on its own path in some areas, but it still stuck with my original vision. This is also the first book that I've written based on a song I heard - Free by Mother Mother.

Every time I listen to the song I imagine Imara and her struggle. I always knew there was going to be a big battle in this book and the music fits so well with it. When it's eventually published, I hope you'll know what I mean!

I'm not sure what I'm going to write for my next project yet. I want to finish the first draft of Cloud's Core by the end of the year, so that is not likely to be my November project.

Overall, I had a lot of fun with this book and I'm so glad that it's finally written after five years! Once Cloud's Core is finished, that means that all four of my original standalones are now written!

That's it for this week, see you next Sunday!