Hello everyone

It’s been a while. And I mean… a while. I haven’t posted or written anything since I published Weekend Girl and Far Patrol in 2021. Part of that reason was severe burnout, and part of that was the lackluster response to both of my recent publications. I must say that even though I didn’t expect too much from either of these publications, how badly they tanked was really demoralizing. I suppose part of that is my fault for not promoting them more, but like I said: burnout.

On the other hand, I’m doing great work at finishing my PhD. I just passed my candidacy exams and am starting work on my dissertation. I also have a possible three (!!!) academic publications coming this year. You’re asking why I was burned out, it’s likely because PhD work is hard.

However, I gotta be honest. Finding the willpower to write more after the bad reception to two of my books was pretty much impossible, especially when compared to my academic successes. These two books meant a lot to me for different reasons, and while I sort of understand how niche they are, I also feel like it wasn’t worth it to put so much work into them to have them undersell so badly. And I guess I expected that I would have actually improved in my creative writing and gotten better at marketing. However, my very very first novella (which was kind of awful btw) definitely did better in the market than Weekend Girl or Far Patrol.

Anyway, away from the negative and on to the positive. I want to try and get back to writing because I miss it, even though I still feel mistrustful of the market. I really love creative writing, and one day maybe I will be able to make a proper career of it. So I am getting back in the game and writing once more, although it might be a while before you see the results.

I’ve decided not to work on either the sequel to Far Patrol or the sequel to Weekend Girl until further notice, and I may not work on them for a long time. Still dusting off my bruises here, and would like to recover further from the situation before I start writing on them again. But I am writing on something again and will be trying to find a good home for my next works.

More news on that next time!

Best,

Alex