Waiting for the Muse

I'm sure my author friends are thinking...where the HELL is she? Since the first of the year I've been buried in my writing cave hammering out one thing after the next. That's not a bad thing. I've been waiting on my muse to return for some time now and it feels really great to get major wordage down. Since mid-January I have submitted two books and I'm nearing the end of a third.

As many of you know, last year was tough on my family with lots of illness and upheaval but all that is evening out now. While that was going on I stayed seriously blocked. It was hard to write anything at all. Now suddenly the pressure has been lifted and it seems I've lifted that massive blockage from my shoulders. The worst thing about it all was the guilt I felt at not writing. I couldn't seem to relax and give myself a break. My friends constantly encouraged telling me that things were tough and I should try not to worry so much. I worried anyway.

In the end, I think things have a way of working out as they are meant. When I returned to my writing in a serious way at the beginning of the year, I found my voice a bit altered and in a good way. What I wrote was richer, flowed better and felt more mature. Mature. Now there's a word! I've always believed that our life experiences add to our telling of a tale and since much erotic romance is geared toward mature women, it feels good to be writing stories that might be more relatable.

Writing slumps happen. All of us have been there with that and it makes sense to try as hard as we can to lift ourselves out of it. Some people find they'll read more or write SOMETHING every day. They might try to pull away from any writing altogether and just take a 'word' vacation. Hmm. Maybe I did a little bit of all of that but I found that pulling away, leaving it behind completely simply filled me with guilt. At the moment, I'm alternating between heavier, darker stories and the lighter, more fun stuff. Right now, I'm doing Lawman, the fifth High Plains Shifter story. I'll follow this up with something more fun and frolicky (is frolicky a word?). All I know is there is a light at the end of that dark tunnel and if you are meant to write, eventually you WILL. Now, I'm making up for lost time as my muse sits happily on my shoulder.