Some New Year's Thoughts + New Online Workshops

Long time, no newsletter… sorry about that!

Let’s get business out of the way. I’m teaching a bunch of new online workshops at Savvy Writers in 2026. They will be:

1/26–2/8: All About Tropes! (What are tropes? How can you use them to build stories? How can you use them to sell your books?

3/9–3/22: Goal Motivation Conflict (probably self-explanatory—a deep dive into GMC)

5/18–5/31: Publishing 101 (An overview of how the publishing industry works, how trad publishers work, what different kinds of editors do, some basics on indie publishing—basically, everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the publishing industry.)

Only the tropes workshop is currently open for sign-ups, the rest should be up shortly. All of these are 2-week online workshops where the lectures will be available for an extended period of time, so you can go through the material at your own pace.

Okay, business time over. Here’s some more free-wheeling thoughts.

I haven’t yet set my yearly goals, but I will soon. I usually pick 2-5 goals for the year and write them down in my journal and then revisit them a year later to see what I managed to accomplish. It’s usually a mixed bag of things I did accomplish, things I failed to do, and things I completely forgot about.

The thing with goals is that they should be something achievable (and within your control) but a little bit of a stretch, so you have to work for them.

So, for example, “Finish the draft I’m already 95% finished with” is not a great goal because it won’t take much effort to finish that manuscript. “Sign with an agent” is not a great goal because it’s not in your control. However, “write two new novels this year” is a great goal because it’s something challenging but not impossible (adjust for your own writing pace). “Send out 40 queries” is a good goal because it’s something within your control.

I’m still narrowing down my goals for the year. I got off to a weird start. I’ve been on this crazy writing binge since about mid-December. I think focusing on my fictional worlds was my way of escaping the utter horror that is the news every day. I am now starting to lose a little bit of momentum, but I wrote an absurd number of words in that month-long binge. I haven’t revisited any of it yet—my drafting approach is to churn out a draft, let it sit for a bit, and then tackle revisions—so it’ll be interesting to see what I produced. (Also how many typos there are, because the space bar on my laptop is a little sticky, and Scrivener’s autocorrect is… aggressive.)

But I’m in a weird place in my writing career, and I find myself staring down decisions about whether I should query/shop around new projects or just put them out myself, how much creative control I want, and how to sell books now that social media is basically useless for this purpose. (You can argue with me, but my dumb jokes and observations get far, far more engagement than any of the book-related posts I make. I feel like especially Meta platforms these days are like, “It seems like you are trying to sell something, so we’re just gonna suppress this post unless you pay us.” I like the bookish community on Threads, but my promo posts just don’t get much engagement. Perhaps my experience would be different if I made videos, but I intensely dislike being on camera, so I don’t really see that happening.)

Anyway, gripes aside, I think there’s a lot in publishing that’s in flux right now. Which is frustrating as an author, not gonna lie.

Like, the publishing trades have been saying for months that Romantasy is waning, but sales figures say otherwise. But it’s hard to say if Rebecca Yarros and Sarah J. Maas are propping up the whole sub-genre. (I honestly don’t know, but I just today bought Brigid Kemmerer’s Warrior Princess Assassin, which I’m really looking forward to reading.)

I’m curious to see how well the big publishers are able to capitalize on the popularity of TV and film adaptations of popular romance books. (I’m thinking specifically of Heated Rivalry and People We Meet on Vacation. I think the industry as a whole whiffed Bridgerton, failing to promote historical romance not written by Julia Quinn. Nothing against Quinn! I’m just saying, the only Regency romances I ever see at one of my local indie bookstores are hers, but there are a ton of books out there that I think Bridgerton fans who are otherwise unfamiliar with the genre would eat up with a spoon. So, like, will we be awash in rom coms again? Will queer sports romances have a heyday? I’m very curious to find out!)

I’m curious to see other genre trends. In my travels recently—well, I took the train up to Boston last weekend and stopped in a couple of bookstores—it feels like thrillers are everywhere. Some analysis I’ve read of BookTok trends indicates readers are into tearjerkers and angst and books that give them Big Feelings, which I have some sympathy for.

I mention all this mostly to just state these are things I’m noticing. I don’t recommend writing to trend because, unless you write fast and self-publish, by the time you get your book out, the trend will be over. But I think it’s useful to be aware of trends.

I am also, on the other hand, convinced that the best way to go about writing a book right now is to just write what you’re passionate about. Maybe it’ll hit. Maybe it won’t.

(I have, for example, been thinking a lot about Rachel Reid lately. I suspect no one could have conceived of the frenzy around Heated Rivalry when the first Game Changers book came out in… 2017, I think? I don’t know Reid, but I’ve read enough of her books now to intuit that she’s a hockey fan, so she’s writing about something she’s passionate about. Hockey romances have been around and popular for at least a decade—I sat next to Sarina Bowen at a signing once in 2018 or 2019, and her hockey books were selling like hotcakes—so Reid was on trend for the time, but I think hockey romance really exploded post-pandemic. So, basically, you never know! Maybe your passion will be the next big trend.)

Anyway, I could ramble on forever, but I’ll spare you. Check out my workshops, and maybe I’ll see you in this space on a slightly less lazy schedule in 2026!