What's up, readers? Did you miss me? Yeah, I've missed me too! This year has been so busy with school, work, and writing life. I finished my first year as a transfer student at Widener. It's strange going through the self-discovery that most people do in their twenties in my forties instead. I guess it goes to show you that it's never too late. The thing that I thought I wanted to go back to school for, which was to finish my Psychology undergraduate degree and apply to law school afterward, wasn't what I wanted after all. When I seriously considered the debt that comes with law school, I started to itch, like a full-body itch. So, either I'm allergic to law school, or my body was trying to tell me something.
After Thanksgiving, I switched my major to Digital Informatics and a minor in Computer Information Systems and Gender Women Studies. I've worked in tech and marketing my whole life, so switching made sense, especially if I'm considering jumping back into tech after I graduate. There are oodles of jobs that would be more my speed since we moved to the Philadelphia burbs last summer. If I'm being honest, I'm thinking of data analyst or landing a job at one of the many colleges in an IT department. I've concluded that I will probably have to pay for college for my kiddos by myself and health insurance is a good thing, so finishing my degree was my way of leveling the playing field and providing for my family.
Next year I'll be a junior, and I'm officially halfway done with my degree, which I started right before COVID hit. Then my kids got sent home from school, and I almost didn't go back, but I decided it was now or never. Honestly, there's never a good time to go back to school, so why not do it when the world is on fire? It hasn't been easy working and writing while balancing a hectic school schedule, and it's come at a huge cost to my sanity, but I feel good about what I'm doing. This semester, I finished taking 18 credits, including subjects I never thought I could do, like Discrete Math. Honestly, Discrete Math is the first time I've pulled a "C" in college since I had a 3.85 GPA. It's probably healthy because I have this awful perfectionist streak. Now that I don't need "perfect" grades to apply to law school after my undergrad, it's like a weight lifted. Of course, no amount of achievement makes people like you more or makes you happy. I'm trying to teach myself to relax and enjoy the quiet moments between classes and running around.
Now that I'm done with classes until the end of August, I've been writing my butt off. I'm not trying to compare my release schedule to anyone else because you can't. You can only do what you can do. So, this year I will have four new releases, which is a lot for me! I'm excited to work with a talented bunch of ladies, and I'll be releasing three new books in the Intergalactic Dating Agency, a new sci-fi romance comedy series called Earth Girls Aren't Easy!
I'm also starting another new series because I'm tired of writing female characters in their twenties and thirties. I've completely fallen in love with where I live, and it's given me a lot of inspiration for a paranormal women's fiction series called Magical Midlife Disasters. It's been a lot of fun writing a story with a forty-year-old divorced witch, her magical children, and a second chance at love with a hot magic instructor who teaches at the academy her kids attend. Of course, that's if they can solve the mysterious death of one of his former students. There's also a shifter with a spice addiction, a succubus demon ex-wife, a Hidebehind, and a ghost! You'll find no shortage of magical creatures in a small town where Practical Magic meets Desperate Housewives.
I can't tell you how good it feels to be writing again! I also can't wait to share these stories with you. Make sure that you're signed up to receive my newsletter because that's how I announce new releases when they come out. Here's my release schedule, and of course, if you buy the books directly from me through my website, they will always be a buck or two cheaper than any of the retail sites ;)
xoxo, -A.C.
