It’s been nearly two years since the launch of the last book in the Zulir Warrior Mates series. In the current romance publishing space, that might as well mean it was published back in the Middle Ages. When I finished that book, I had a vague idea of where the story was going, but nothing concrete. And I didn’t know what I wanted to do next.
So I put it aside.
And then time passed.
A lot of time.
I always had the intention that I’d visit the story again, and I knew Jori and Hanna would be the main characters. I just wasn’t sure what they were going to do. Sometimes you have to let thoughts percolate to get the story to work.
And sometimes you need an absolute disaster.
Synnr’s Ride is the product of both. Because I did not intend to publish Synnr’s Ride this year. I wasn’t going to write it. It was still in my “someday” pile. I had a whole other series I was working on that I was sure everyone would love. I was invigorated. I was writing. I was dictating. I was working.
Also, I was telling myself that any doubts I had about that book could be fixed during editing.
Well, editing time came around. And… it was bad. Really bad. As in, the hero and heroine each sit in a room for about six chapters and think about their feelings. I got to a point in the editing process where I had to commit to a complete overhaul or start something new if I wanted to hit the deadline I’d made.
I hemmed and hawed. I nearly started another brand new series.
And then I thought about motorcycles. And lightning.
And I had the first kernel of a story idea for Hanna and Jori. I’m so glad I came back. I really loved this world and I’ve wanted to explore more in it, and that’s what I got to do. Will there be more Synnr books? Right now I’m thinking yes. But first Synnr’s Ride needs to be released into the wild. After that, who knows?
In the end, it’s pretty simple. I needed to wait for an idea and for the right (or, sadly, wrong) circumstances and then the words flowed.
Happy reading!