Welcome to 2025

Another day, another year in the ever marching world of progress.

I'm not really one for resolutions, especially as I'm not great at sticking to them. With that said I do intent to write more this year. I am in a place both work wise and home wise where that should be realistically possible. I got more progression done on Souls Ignited last year than possibly the last few years combined which is very hopeful too. As I said in my last blog post, (I really need to do these more frequently), audiobooks allowed me to re-join book world for the first time in a while. This renewed spark for both reading and writing was further enhanced by my attending Rare Edinburgh in September as a volunteer where I met many new book friends and lovely authors.

Although I have been loving the Maas-verse and enjoying a bit of dragon riding, I met Rebecca Yarros in September, I am not about to start writing about elves, fae or anything very romantasy related (yet). My heart still remains firmly in paranormal romance with my vampires and werewolves, although the world of the Highland Hunters is always expanding and being set in my homeland of Scotland, fae are somewhat unavoidable when writing about supernatural beings. Over the Halloween holiday I dabbled a little in the world of monster f*@king with a scene I wrote and published on Wattpad. I do intent to keep working on this when I can and it will fit into the Highland Hunters world, though the intensity of this writing will not flow over into my original trilogy. The spice level of this story will remain on the monster theme and Eyes Open, Hearts Aflame and Souls Ignited will have their own, less intense level of spice.

To be honest, from a personal level, 2024 was more than a bit of a dumpster fire and I truly learned the level of my internal fortitude and that of my family. We have all emerged stronger from it, but not without scars. These will stand as a testament to what we went through and proof that almost anything can be endured and battled through with support.

I am, as always, eternally grateful to my parents and my husband for being such a massive support to me no matter what I do.

Now, with that said, on with 2025 and whatever mysteries she has waiting for us. I wish you all the best in following your dreams.

Tessa.

Beginning a new adventure...or playing catch up?

So, I decided to add a blog to my site. Just a place for me to discuss anything I've found inspiring or interesting lately. I've been writing since 2015 and published my first book, Eyes Open in 2016. Since then I've released 2 further books - Hearts Aflame (book 2) and A lot can happen in a year (book 4 - a series of seasonal shorts). And since those were published I have since published one further short, while working on the grand finale of my Highland Hunters original trilogy - Souls Ignited. Hearts Aflame was published in 2018, meaning that I've been working on Souls Ignited for 6 years! Have I had writers block.......in a way yes. Writing is my hobby that I've always wished to make into a career, but until that is possible I still have to pay the bills. My husband and I have been working hard to provide for our kids and keeping the roof over our heads. Since I published Eyes Open, we have moved house, changed jobs several times along with dealing with whatever the waves of life have thrown at us, both tidal waves and storms. My current job is pretty all consuming, leaving me very little time for my family, let alone myself and I think I had started to lose myself in that regular pattern of wake, work, home, eat, sleep, repeat. In fact my current job leaves me so exhausted I get very little time with either my kids or my husband, whom I only see in passing as I'm a morning/day shift and he's an afternoon/evening shift. Anyway, the point I'm making is that life had dragged me into its whirlpool or work and nothing else. I was too exhausted to fight it and so just kept my head down and kept going. Book world felt so far away. I have read several books over the past 6 years, though admittedly very few and I felt like my escape was far beyond my grasp. Creativity was being held behind a wall of exhaustion and other commitments. I lost my spark and so Carter and Kira were put on the back burner. Despite how much they haunted my dreams and yelled at me from the back of my very hectic mind. Last week, I did something I don't usually do. I gave into some book world hype I'd been seeing on social media. Having some audible credits I downloaded an audio dramatization of ACOTAR (A Court of Thorns and Roses my Sarah J. Maas) and on the drive too and from work I listened to a book, acted out for me by some very impressive voice actors. It's no secret that Fifty Shades of Grey sparked my creativity into finally writing the books I've had in my head for years, with characters I'd been moulding since my teens. Well, ACOTAR reminded me that my creativity was still there, just being held behind the invisible wall of exhaustion and work. It was like a bolt of lightening as I finished listening to that book. I missed how book world feels. I missed my characters and I missed that part of myself that felt happier and content when I write. I started to write for the first time since my last attempt in March and something stuck. I wrote for hours and although it was only 5 pages, its more than I've written in years and I want to write more. I feel reenergised and excited to write again. I am making more of an effort to push myself to get a little of my crazy down in word form each day, even if its only a paragraph. It's like someone has turned on the lights for me again. The world has colour and magic again. It might take me a while to finish book 3 - Souls Ignited, but I'm moving again and getting a little stronger each day. All thanks to someone else's commitment to the escapism and magic that is book world.