With Vampire Alley, the final Sunshine Walkingstick novel, almost here and the Vanessa Kinley, Witch PI Series completed, I know readers are wondering what's next in the queue.

The answer is...complicated.

Elsewhere, I've discussed my long-time ambition of writing non-romantic Science Fiction and Fantasy, most notably on my personal blog, and that is still my goal. The problem has been figuring out what form those future stories (ha) would take.

Now, my first instinct is to keep writing in existing story worlds until I run out of ideas for them, which would take pretty much forever. I have tons and tons of ideas for future stories in both Sunny and Nessa's story worlds, as well as at least one brand new story world I haven't breathed a word about.

Hey, a gal's gotta have a few secrets tucked away for a rainy day.

But writing those stories would necessarily mean foregoing the other stories I'd like to write. If you don't follow my newsletter or aren't a member of my Facebook group for superfans, here are two of the really superfragalistically neat series I'd like to work on in the next two to five years.

Story World One: The Order of the Thrice-Blooded Moon

This Urban Fantasy is set in the modern day during a secret war between Heaven and Hell. The Order is determined to keep humanity and other earthly creatures ( namely vampires, witches, and werewolves) from being dragged into that war, through the protection of a human called the Divine, the keeper of holy relics.

The first story is tentatively titled Sentinels of the Divine and follows the exploits of the Divine's closest protectors as they search for the new Divine after the previous one's death: Harlow, a warrior witch; Samael, a vampire and founder of the House of Draven; and Kyrnon, an outcast werewolf.

I've been doing a lot of worldbuilding on this one for more than a year now and already have the first scene sketched out. All it needs now is time to flesh the story out further.

Story World Two: Gods & Monsters of Appalachia

This Contemporary Fantasy is set locally in Western North Carolina and centers on the lives of siblings Makenzie ("Mack") and Harlan. The first story is tentatively titled Of Mountain and Bone and picks up about a decade after the death of Mack and Harlan's mom, when their entire world fell apart.

Other characters include a Cherokee police officer named Tam Owle and a young granny witch named Candi Magill.

GMA was partially inspired by a meme I spotted more than a year ago stating essentially that the Appalachians were old and terrifying. (I'll have to track down that meme.) That idea started rolling through my head around the same time that I watched The Peripheral, a TV series loosely based on William Gibson's book of the same name. A large portion of that show is set in backwoods Appalachia, and I wanted to recreate that same "feel."

I've sketched out the first chapter, which includes scenes from Mack, Tam, and Candi's separate perspectives, but am still trying to figure out exactly where the story's supposed to go. All in good time.

"I" vs. "He/She"

Sunny and Nessa are both written from first person perspectives, and that has proven to be quite wearing. They're also quite short, and as I've stated elsewhere, I believe readers are clamoring for longer, more complex stories.

Moving forward, I'd like to shift my focus to complex, multi-character stories written from third person perspectives, like the two story worlds sketched out above, even when writing shorter stories. For example, I'm working on developing a novelette for an upcoming anthology (publishing in October), and while I haven't started it yet, I have reason to believe it will be written in 3PP.

(Just FYI, I'm aiming for a Henry Walkingstick story for that anthology, so we may get a sneak peek into the life of Sunny's dad. Very excited about that possibility!)

Does that mean I will never write another "I" story?

No. It just means that I need a serious break from them. Maybe a long, serious break.

I hate to say this, but it does bear mentioning: some of this decision is about business and some of it is about breaking out of the continual spiral of burnout I've been in since 2015-2017, or roughly around the time I started shifting my focus to this pen name. If you're wondering, yes, my new focus may mean making a fresh start with a completely different pen name.

Whatever happens, my goal is always to bring more fantastic stories to readers. Everything I'm doing business- and writing-wise is in service to that goal.