We make a plan, then life tells us how that’s going to go.
The last post I shared here I discussed quitting my day job and focusing on my plan for writing freelance and fiction. I did that, but then like the best laid plans, things changed. One of my freelance writing jobs quickly became a full-time job. I’m still at that job, because I enjoy it and have learned a ton (and hello—twin girls in college!), but I continued to write fiction in my free time.
Sadly, my free time was not as abundant as I hoped.
When There’s a Writer, There’s a Way
As a writer, I can’t not write. It’s part of who I am and I feel incomplete when I’m not writing my fiction stories. So I did. The funny thing with me is, writing the story is the easy part, the editing is where I procrastinate. That lead to accumulating multiple story drafts on my computer that I planned to return to edit ‘later’.
Then Comes COVID
Luckily for me, when the lockdowns happened during the height of pandemic, it didn’t affect my day job. We continued working and were busier than ever. But the pandemic did affect my writing.
When my favorite month came along (I’ve talked about my love of November’s National Novel Writing (NaNoWri) until I’m blue in the face), I started a new story—and I stalled. Current events, and the fear in the world, were stealing my writing mojo. Until I switched gears and changed the story to a holiday paranormal cozy mystery.
I played Christmas music to inspire me and watched a multitude of holiday shows—something I hadn’t done in years—and the story poured out. That story (Magic, Mimosas & Mistletoe) is just one of the paranormal cozy mysteries I’ve written for my new Charmed Cocktail Cozy Series.
Why Two Author Names?
I added the pen name of M.L. Bonatch for my paranormal cozy mysteries. Most of the reason for doing this is due to the business side of writing. It’s also an easy way for readers to identify my paranormal cozy mysteries from my Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance books that will remain under my author name of Maureen L. Bonatch.
What’s the Difference in the Books?
My stories are similar in these genres in that they all:
- Have a paranormal element
- Usually feature magic and/or witches
- Have Humor
- Usually have pets or animals in the story
My stories are Paranormal Cozy Mysteries are different in that they are:
- A little shorter
- Humor is a huge focus
- There is no sex or violence
- There’s always a mystery, and usually a murder, to solve
- My heroine can talk to her cat, or other animals
Exciting Book Stuff Coming Your Way
- My website will continue to share book information for all my genres
- My Charmed Cozy Cocktail series will have at least 3 releases this year:
- Curses, Cats & Corpses (Is initially included in this boxset to give you a taste of ten other fabulous cozy mystery authors)
- Hexes, Highballs & Hockey
- Magic, Mimosas & Mistletoe
- My book, Grandma Must Die, is being re-edited and released with a new cover and a stronger focus on the mystery as one of the characters in the story (Abigail) has her own paranormal cozy mystery series coming early next year.
- No worries if you love Urban Fantasy – I’ll have several stories in draft (one in a new series) that you’ll hear more about in 2022
Hop on This Crazy Train with Me!
There’s so much going on this year with my writing. The best way to know what’s up next is to sign up for my newsletter right here or:
Follow me on my social media- especially my new pages as M.L. Bonatch (She’s lonely & looking for friends)
Author: M.L. Bonatch:
Author: Maureen L. Bonatch:
Both M.L. Bonatch & Maureen Bonatch:
Afraid you’ll forget about all these books coming out? No worries- preorder links are already available on my M.L. Bonatch Amazon page right here.
More Good Stuff for you
Find new authors and enter right here for this fabulous giveaway to win an Amazon gift card!
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