This is a time of being at home. I write, edit, read, work on social media and my website, dream, plot, and learn everything I can about becoming a better writer. There’s no “graduation” for writers. The best around still learn about their craft, how to tell a story that transports readers for a little while to somewhere, somewhen, else. We could all use a better world right now.
I have always loved paranormal romance, people falling in love with new and different people. In a world of massive diversity, what can be more diverse than supernatural creatures? I particularly enjoy stories of shifters, their fierce love of the world and for each other.
With the exception of my first book, Forever Charmed, the first book in the Forever Loved series, the rest of the series takes place in two small towns. I wrote about places where I came of age, and about the very good people who live in those places. I don’t write a lot of sex scenes. Not opposed to them, I can enjoy a really good one. For me it isn’t about putting Slot A into Slot B. It’s about people, their emotions, their confusions, issues, and foibles. People fall in love, but not in a shiny-unicorn sort of way. We are flawed people, and we don’t live on a perfect planet. The last few months have made that abundantly clear.
I write about people who overcome their difficulties in order to make better lives and their relationships with the people around them. About strong families, families that may be crafted, not biological. About people who support each other, no matter how tough it gets. And, if they are keeping secrets, they learn how to tell their own truth clearly.
I have uploaded four books this month, all in the Forever Loved paranormal romance shifter series. Forever Charmed is about a woman who falls in love on the other side of the world from where she grew up. Forever Claimed is about a woman who finds that she can trust and love, and accept love from others. Forever Wild is about a wild woman who learns that there are people even wilder than her out there, people that can love her for who she really is. Forever Challenged is about two people challenged in their lives in ways that they’ve never had to confront before. It is a book of love, loss, forgiveness, and overcoming pain and fear to make your best life. My work has been described as a mashup of romance, paranormal, shifters, and chick-lit. I have the feels in my writing.
Why did I release four books in the same month? I wanted people to be able to read them from start to finish. When I read in Kindle Unlimited it’s kind of like binge-watching television shows. I like to read a couple of them in a row. That may take me two weeks or two months, but it’s good to have them ready to go. I wanted to give my readers the same experience. In this time of staying at home and jumping back and forth between anxiety and boredom, I wanted people to be able to go somewhere else in their heads. A place where very different people can meet, fall in love, overcome their obstacles.
Stay tuned for the next two books in the series, Forever Fierce in Forever Untamed. Friends and family confront new obstacles, fall in love, hide secrets, and find out the truth. Please use them to escape the world, step aside for a few hours and enjoy yourself.
In this time of anxiety, know that I care very much for my readers. For those of you who have lost someone, I’m profoundly sorry. For the rest of us, wash your hands, wear face masks when you go out, order a lot of takeout food to keep your favorite restaurants going. And, treat everyone around you with a little bit more love and kindness.
Love and peace, humans in our shared world.
L. J. Hawke