I deleted old blogs(with the exception of ONE) and unsubbed from nearly any listserv that I felt weren't right for me at this point in time in order to focus on my current WIP. I can't even say what it's going to be like because it's in the baby stages. I have the workings of the plot, the setting and the beginning sketches of the characters and protagonists. But not 100%. When I first started this whole writing thing, I originally planned on being a romance writer. But over the past three years, the Romance Genre as a whole began to chafe and burn, and I just didn't fit there anymore as a writer, and sometimes, not even as a reader. But of course, the familiar not only breeds contempt, but comfort, and it is, I admit it, comfortable to remain in the safe, familiar confines of the romance genre even though I've outgrown it. It's scary, when every single writer I know online is within the Romance genre and it's comfortable to curl up with a nice romance to read, or write in blogs and listservs about writing romance. Only I would eventually wonder, exasperated "Why is it so easy for [insert name of author] but not for me?".

But inside, I know, I KNOW, that my writing style and voice lies outside of that genre. In fact, it's a hybrid of genres--historical fiction,romance, mystery, thriller and a touch of old style Gothic. And I realized that I don't have the patience at this point in my life,or even the inclination, to be stuck to my computer, writing books because the deadlines for the Romance Genre are so close together and publishers are eager for new authors to put out as many books as they can in order to 1) get your name out there and 2) make more money. I'm lying if I say that I don't envy Elizabeth Kostova her two million dollar advance for The Historian and that I don't do this to make a living. But I don't want to work myself to death when I have interests outside of writing that are just as pressing.

I so sincerely admire everyone in the romance genre who do what they do, but I am on a path of discovery as to who I am, and sticking close to the crowd in an effort to shirk free of the pain of that discovery only causes more pain. I'm going to resist those old habits as well as adjust to Life After Romance(sounds to dramatic does it not?), not only in concern to my reading habits, but romance writer blogs and websites(unless it's Liz Carlyle's website, from whom oddly, I gain inspiration). I am devoting myself to getting right with myself, with the Lord and what I was put on this planet to do. I'll probably post sporadically at best, but I'll do it on a consistent basis. Not because someone tells me to, or because I think I should, or I am attempting to garner a fanbase, but because I can.