I’m seven chapters away from being done (hopefully) with the heavy editing of Lasting Remains. Yay! Then I’ll pass it off to my beta readers and see what they think. Which means I have to figure out what I’m going to write next.
This wasn’t even a question until a few days ago. I knew what the third and fourth books were going to be. Contemporary romances—not death industry—with happily ever after endings. Yes, maybe one or two people would die, but the books would still be fun and light and happy. But a couple of days ago, I started obsessing about one of my fantasy ideas again. Actually, three different fantasy ideas. Not happy. Not light. And no guaranteed happy endings.
What’s the problem with that? It goes against my plan of building up a catalog of contemporary romances by Esmeralda Stone. Which, according to pretty much everything I’ve read about being a self-published author, is what you want to do.
You are NOT supposed to write a couple of books in one genre, and then merrily go off to play in a different sandbox using a completely different name. It does make me wonder if other authors run into this issue.
So, the plan for the rest of this week: finish editing, get the book to my beta readers, and try to keep the sand out of my ears.
-Esmeralda
Esmeralda Stone 
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