HIDDEN CLAIM: Taking My Time With This One

It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog post.

I wish I could say that’s because I’ve been tucked away somewhere peaceful, drinking coffee and spending all my free time writing.

Unfortunately, real life doesn’t quite work that way.

I have still been working on HIDDEN CLAIM, and Charlotte and Mikhail’s story is very much alive and slowly taking shape. But this book is taking me longer than some of my others, and I’ve realized something along the way:

That’s okay.

For the first time in a while, I’m giving myself permission to slow down and let a story take as long as it needs.

And honestly, I think HIDDEN CLAIM is going to be better because of it.

It All Started With BONES OF THE FORBIDDEN

Bones of the Forbidden by Jessica L. Cox

Before the mafia, morally grey men, dangerous families, and everything that has become part of the world I write in now, there was BONES OF THE FORBIDDEN.

It was the first novel I ever published, but I actually wrote it in my early twenties.

It’s a paranormal romance and very different from the books I write today, but it will always be special to me because it was where this whole publishing journey began.

That story stayed with me for years before I finally decided to take the leap and publish it.

And while my writing has taken me in a very different direction since then, I still hope to go back to that world one day.

After BONES OF THE FORBIDDEN came DARK OBSESSION, and suddenly I had stepped into a completely different world.

Empire of Sins Series by Jessica L. Cox

Then came LETHAL VOWS.

Then WOUNDED DESIRE.

And now there’s HIDDEN CLAIM.

When I look at everything I’ve written and published in such a short amount of time, I’m incredibly proud of it. But I’ve also realized that somewhere along the way, I started putting pressure on myself to keep going.

Finish the book.

Edit the book.

Publish the book.

Start the next one.

Repeat.

And eventually, that catches up with you.

Sometimes, There Just Aren’t Enough Hours in the Day

Writing is something I love, but being an author isn’t the only part of my life.

I also work a full-time job. I’m a wife. I’m a mother. I have a family, a home, responsibilities, and all of the everyday things that don't magically disappear just because there's a story running around inside my head demanding attention.

And being an indie author means writing the actual book is only part of the job.

There’s editing, formatting, covers, marketing, social media, maintaining a website, planning releases, creating promotional content and approximately seventeen thousand other little things that somehow appear along the way.

Okay, maybe not seventeen thousand.

But some days it certainly feels like it.

Over the last little while, I’ve had to admit to myself that I was burning out.

Not because I stopped loving writing.

I still love it.

But I was exhausted.

And when you're already giving so much of yourself to everything else in your life, sometimes there just isn't much creativity left at the end of the day.

I started realizing that forcing myself to write simply because I thought I should be writing wasn't doing me—or my books—any favours.

So I'm doing something that isn't always easy for me.

I'm slowing down.

HIDDEN CLAIM Is Growing With Me

When I started HIDDEN CLAIM, I knew the basic story I wanted to tell.

And those bones are still there.

But if you've followed me for a while, you probably already know that I'm not someone who plans every single detail of a book before I start writing.

I have ideas. I know certain things that need to happen. I usually know where I'm trying to get.

How I actually get there?

Apparently, that's for my characters to decide.

And Charlotte and Mikhail have been particularly opinionated about it.

As I've written their story, ideas have changed. Scenes have changed. Certain moments have developed differently than I originally imagined, while completely new ideas have appeared that I hadn't considered when I started.

Their story is growing as I write it.

Instead of fighting that because I feel like I need to finish the book faster, I'm letting it happen.

Sometimes I sit down thinking I know exactly where a chapter is going and Charlotte or Mikhail decides otherwise.

Apparently, they're in charge now.

I'm just the woman with the keyboard.

Yes, You’re Still Getting Both Sides

One thing that definitely isn't changing is the dual POV.

HIDDEN CLAIM will still be told through both Charlotte and Mikhail's perspectives.

And I think that's especially important for these two.

There is history between Charlotte and Mikhail. There are feelings neither of them necessarily wants to admit to, things they don't say to one another, assumptions being made, and motivations that aren't always obvious from the outside.

I want you inside both of their heads.

I want you to understand Charlotte even when Mikhail doesn't.

And I want you to know what Mikhail is thinking when Charlotte has absolutely no idea.

Sometimes you'll probably want to yell at one of them.

Possibly both.

That's part of the fun.

The Chapters Are Getting Longer, Too

Something else I've decided to do differently with HIDDEN CLAIM is allow myself to write longer chapters.

In my previous books, I sometimes found myself conscious of chapter length and whether a chapter was becoming "too long."

I'm trying not to do that this time.

If a chapter needs more room, I'm giving it more room.

I want conversations to have time to develop. I want the internal thoughts, tension, relationships and quieter moments between characters to have space instead of rushing from one major scene to another.

There’s a lot happening around Charlotte and Mikhail, and not all of it is about their relationship.

There are families involved.

There are loyalties involved.

There are consequences to the decisions these characters make.

And, of course, this is the world I've already built over several books.

Which brings me to...

Your Favourites Aren’t Going Anywhere

Just because HIDDEN CLAIM belongs to Charlotte and Mikhail doesn't mean everyone else has suddenly disappeared.

The characters you've met—and hopefully fallen in love with—throughout my other books are still very much around.

They may be in the background now, but their lives didn't stop when their books ended.

That's one of my favourite things about writing stories within the same world.

I get to revisit characters after their happily ever after.

You get little glimpses into where they are now, how their relationships have changed, and how they fit into Charlotte and Mikhail's story.

And considering some of these characters...

Did we really think they were going to mind their own business?

Absolutely not.

I'm Not Racing Toward a Release Date

This is probably the biggest change I've made with HIDDEN CLAIM.

I'm not giving myself a hard deadline right now.

Do I have an idea of when I'd like to release it?

Of course.

But I don't want to announce a date too early and then spend weeks or months stressing because I've created another deadline for myself on top of everything else in my life.

I want to enjoy writing this book.

I want to be able to change something when I realize there's a better direction I could take.

I want to sit with a chapter when it doesn't feel right instead of saying, "Good enough," because I need to move on.

Most importantly, I want to give Charlotte and Mikhail the story they deserve.

Some weeks I write a lot.

Some weeks I write a little.

And sometimes life happens and I don't write at all.

I'm learning to be okay with that.

Because I've realized something over the last few years:

I don't need to prove that I'm an author by constantly publishing another book.

I already am one.

HIDDEN CLAIM Is Coming

So, while I don't have a release date to give you just yet, HIDDEN CLAIM is absolutely coming.

I'm still writing.

I'm still changing things.

I'm still getting new ideas at completely inconvenient times.

I'm still falling deeper into Charlotte and Mikhail's story the further I get into it.

And I'm genuinely excited about what this book is becoming.

It's going to be longer.

The chapters are going to have more room to breathe.

You'll get both Charlotte and Mikhail.

You'll see some familiar faces.

And you'll get a story that I'm allowing to develop naturally instead of rushing toward the finish line.

Maybe that's something I needed to learn after these last few years.

Sometimes creating something you love means knowing when to push yourself.

And sometimes it means knowing when to slow down.

HIDDEN CLAIM might be taking me a little longer.

But I have a feeling Charlotte and Mikhail are going to be worth the wait.

Mikhail & Charlotte