Soul searching: What do I want? #ION

I have been meaning to write this blog post for a couple weeks now, but I wasn't sure where to start. Currently, I have two series that I'm working on wrapping up. 

The Valespian Pact and I.O.N.

In some circles, I.O.N. has been slow to catch on. Ruby Red Booty Shorts and a Louisville Slugger was a story that I wrote by the seat of my pants, and then later extensively revised it. Then it was followed by Werewolf's Tale and a Druid's Sword, which again I pantsed. I knew where I wanted the series plot arc to go, and I knew the day would be won by a group of friends. But how they would get there kept fluctuating. Then my inspiration got derailed. Some of it came from a personal nature, some of it came from the lack of series sales--which is so unlike me. I don't normally track sales because I'm simply grateful someone bought a book. But I felt like I was treading water and not getting anywhere quick, so I put together and spreadsheet and I wished I hadn't.

I thought some changes were in order. I took a look at my world notes (and honestly, they were really slim, which just goes to show how much I pantsed the stories) and reassessed what needed to happen to complete the plot arc. I'd originally planned for I.O.N. to be six books--four to set up the characters and plot, one to wrap up ,and one to give a certain someone a HEA. I moved the last one to be written as a standalone-- if people were interested in that person's HEA. Then I moved puzzle pieces around and shaved off things that didn't deal with the plot arc. (I was going to show Beck and Diego working cases for I.O.N. and such.) Then I.O.N. was only four books and two of them were already published so that left two to write.

Even though I knew the plot arc and pinpointed things that needed to happen in book three, the romance element was... Stephen was flipflopping on who he liked and didn't like. I personally wanted to stab Grant in the eye so I was looking for a different love interest and eventually landed on a solution. I figured that if the idea didn't work out as I wrote the story, then I would let it work itself out organically (pansting, LOL).

Then I put I.O.N. aside to wrap up Sumeria's Sons and get somethings off my desktop that were finished and just needed some expert advice. Then things got messy, depressing, and last year I temporarily shelved everything I attempted to work on because I wanted to set fire to all of it.

October came around and I was a little excited about writing again, bringing out Bespoken and then writing a couple of Valespian Pact flash fictions that turned into the 3rd book of the series, Constant. To replace the flash fictions, I thought I would write a short blog series called Gentleman's Holiday. I took the assassin for Keeping Faith and thought I'd give a cute fluffy romance and retirement in the I.O.N. world. I thought it would be cool to pants a chapter every week and post it. Well the "fluffy" romance took all kinds of fun turns and I retitled it Assassin's Retirement. This "little" fun blog story rekindled my love for the I.O.N. world. It's really strange because it's like I had forgotten everything I loved about I.O.N. I had all these plans for different standalones that explored the different aspects of this paranormal/urban fantasy world and then it was like they fell off the face of the earth for a couple of years. 

The last few weeks,  I've been taking another look at the series and what I wanted to do with it. I am so in love with the characters from Assassin's Retirement that I looked at I.O.N. with new eyes. I dusted off the notes for standalone stories in the I.O.N. world and got excited about them again. I got a story for an I.O.N. profiler, for a man who was accidentally changed into a shifter, and exploring the lore of the Americas... well, you get the point. I had--have--big plans for books that are set in this world and I am chomping at the bit to do some serious world and character building.  

I pulled all my notes together over the last couple of weeks and will be making sure all these books will connect, even though they can be read by themselves (all but those in the main I.O.N. series). I will be plotting the books and planning some crossover characters here and there. I'm at the point where I want to share my notes so badly!! There is no one around except my dogs and they sleep through everything I say.

This is what I wanted to write. Something a little different from the norm but still in the same genres that I love. I'd forgotten my own personal "motto" (I can't think of a different word at the moment) Write what I want to read, write what speaks to me, and everything will fall into line. 

Now. I just need to write faster... LOL!

Thank you for stopping by and reading!!