These Monsters Conquered

My upcoming novel These Monsters Conquered will be out February 10th. I can't wait for you all too meet these characters.

Three married men: Darius, Phineas, and Gideon. Darius is a vampire shadow daddy with cosmic witch powers and is intensely powerful with red eyes and silver hair, Phineas is my muscled faerie daddy, and Gideon is the plant daddy druid who can seriously mess you up if you get on his bad side. Their daughter is Darius' daughter from a previous marriage: Chandra (silver haired and red eyed like her father) who has selective mutism and ptsd. Then there's an unapologetic villain who even tells you he's evil but he just doesn't care, his airheaded wife who doesn't realize he doesn't love her, a secret marriage, betrayal, pasts who come back to bite our protagonists in the rear, a werecat, and a witch!

This is a story about love, chosen family, learning from the past, holding yourself accountable and being better in the future, and realizing who you can and cannot trust. It's a story about a corrupt council, a cruel monster, and all of the strings they pull to keep our protagonists in the dark told in a multi-POV format.

Goal: Halfway There!

Well, I had a goal to publish at least two fiction books this year! Happy to say that I have one that will be published this year, at least! I thought about raising the goal, but I also don't want to overwhelm myself. Writing is a journey and I still want to have fun! But I'm excited to have at least one fiction book coming out in 2026.

I shall let you know when it's out and when it will be published and all of that fun stuff! For now I'm just proud of myself for following after my dreams, and pushing myself to get more of my fiction out into the world.

One of My Goals For This Year

I think one of my goals for this year is to get more of my fiction published. I will still be working to get my poetry published, mind you. But as I had six books of poetry published last year, I want to get more of my fiction out there. I'm going to set out to get at least 2 of my fiction books published this year.

I've also been thinking about releasing a short story collection not based one of my fiction universes, but just a collection of short stories centered on a theme like horror or romance. I'm not quite sure. I have a lot of published short stories to go through for that venture if I go that route.

Hoping to also find a way to restore the writing files I lost on my old laptop. My friend told me not to pay thousands to get the info restored as it isn't that hard to restore files, but I am not tech savy enough to figure it out on my own. I may have to see if Youtube has some tutorials because that computer has some books on it that I don't want to lose including the third book in my Mates series.

Hopefully It's Worth It

Being an indie author is so hard. I love writing. I always have! I enjoy seeing what I can come up with, sometimes the things that need to break free of me; I have made myself laugh, cry, and rage. I have made myself proud and I have made myself cringe. I have made myself see things in me that need worked on and things in me that I am glad that make me who I am. Yet sometimes, I wonder if this dream of mine is worth it? I advertise and market my books as much as I have the energy to which probably isn't enough because let's face it when you have to work forty hours a week and flip flop between shifts sometimes all you want to do is focus on the writing and not marketing the books you wish to sell.

I wish I had some rich friend who could afford to help me out for free. Some celebrity that just loves my poetry or my prose. It would be nice to get ahead somehow. I feel like I am stuck behind as my friends live their lives and accomplish things that I don't know will ever be mine.

I am happy for my friends who are part of reading lists and whose work gets promoted on podcasts. I just wish that could be me. I wish that there was an interest in me and my work. It's sad that sometimes I think my friends that I've made online through roleplaying or various groups writing and otherwise support me more than the people I actually know. Like why do you feel so comfortable giving billionaires even more money but you let the people you know with dreams drown? I'll never understand it.

I feel like an outsider even in the writing world. The writing community needs to be better at being a community because they only seem to support their darlings. I feel like I'll never be one of their darlings no matter how hard I try. I know it shouldn't matter. But it does bother me that sometimes it feels like a popularity contest. I write because I love writing, I write because I can't live in a world where I'm not writing, I write because I love it, I write it to feel things and connect with others, I write to be heard. I just feel like people could do more for their indie writer friends because it is hard.

Happy New Year!

I can't believe it's already 2026. The days go by so slowly sometimes, but the years sure do fly by.

2025 was one of the hardest years of my life as far as my personal life goes. Lost someone I thought was a forever person and just had a lot of inconveniences and bad things happen one after the other without slowing so it felt rather merciless and cruel.

I am grateful for all of my writing achievements and accomplishments, though. I got two best of the net nominees, and I treasure that because it's been a while since I've gotten any of those. I also published several books last year: mantle lake, faerie witch queen, letters to an old friend, not your piñata, fairytale love, and only the future knows. I am grateful for all of the publishers who took a chance on me.

Also have one of my poems on a 2026 calendar, so that's pretty neat. You can grab one of those here: 2026 Verseve Calendar