Wow, I hardly realized it’s been almost FIVE years since I last wrote a blog here. With Covid, some serious life shakeups and priorities tamping down any inclination to write (fiction), it’s been a while.

But, I’m back! So, let’s recap.

One major reason I dropped writing was because, I genuinely thought I was “done.” The last of the Legacy Series (The Nexus) was written, all audiobook projects were wrapped up, and honestly, I didn’t have that “spark” to pursue any other project. My day job as an accountant intern derailed my social life and hobbies for quite a while. Tax season ain’t no joke, y’all. I was working 50+ hours a week, when I was used to working less than 40. On top of that, I decided to finally complete my bachelor’s degree. I had started under a Creative Writing major with Full Sail University, but changed to American History when I transferred to American Public University. You have The Soldier to thank for that major decision. Studying the Civil War made me go pretty nuts for nineteenth-century American history. After I left my accounting job and began bookkeeping part-time, I diverted much of my energies into pursuing the public history field. I journeyed pretty far down that path. I began contributing regualar research pieces for Emerging Civil War, started my own blog, Belle on the Battlefield where I shared about my travels and studies, and even wrote a couple of magazine articles. I took a hard left (so to speak) into non-fiction writing and dropped fiction altogether. Honestly, I feel like it helped to “detox” my writing style. With all the research essays and blog posts, I feel as if I’ve improved as a writer in general. I finally earned my BA in American History last December (2023). Only took me 12 years!

My little library (it’s more full now)

In the meantime, my husband and I built our first home. It’s nice to finally have a place that is totally ours, and we did it just in time before the big interest rate increase in 2022. I finally got to design my own library and I LOVE it. I enjoy turning around and staring at my vast collection of Civil War reference books and dream of the day when I can actually read them all, haha.

On top of that, we had a baby! Welcome to Annabelle Clara Bitikofer. I’m a researcher at heart, but nothing could have prepared me for becoming a mom. It’s been rough. Annabelle doesn’t sleep well and since she was 2 months old, demands contact naps during the day. Having a baby has also taught me the limits of sleep deprivation and patience. It hasn’t been easy. She’s 10 months old now and just starting to become a little predictable… But the child changes her mind about which foods she likes and doesn’t like. I swear, she loved avocados last week, but now she throws a fit (and the food) if I try to give it to her again. I may complain, but she is truly loved. Her giggles when she pulls my hair and the big smile when we clap our hands together really makes all the crying and tantrums worth it. I can’t wait to share life with her… and for her to nap on her own.

Annabelle loves blueberries!

While I still love history, having a baby has seriously chained me to the house. Researching or writing anything that requires deep, uninterrupted thought, is almost out of the question. I can’t travel as easily as I used to, so new content for my travel blog is not coming any time soon. However, something I CAN do, is write stories on my phone while Annabelle sleeps in my lap. Really, the catalyst for returning to fiction writing came when I decided to start listening back to my old audiobooks. I had binge-watched so much Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney movies while Annabelle slept and I needed something else to occupy my restless mind. Back in February, I started listening to The Legend, narrated by Jay Lindenwood, and I found myself drowning in the world of my loups-garous again. I missed my characters and the joy that writing fiction brought me. I went from The Legacy Series to The Loup-Garou Series (narrated by Katherine Billings), and to some of my other standalone titles (narrated by John Fehskens), and I decided I needed to come back to writing.

There was a LOT of back and forth between myself and my husband, because I knew just how obsessive I could get about writing. It had caused some friction in the past and I didn’t want to go down that road again without his support and approval. He knew I was struggling to find myself again as a mom (that shit can seriously steal your sense of self) and we agreed he would keep me accountable.

First order of business was to rewrite The Enigma and Becoming the Enigma. Katey and Logan deserved to have their stories told much better. So, in the course of a couple of months, I rewrote a decent chunk of these two books. The Enigma probably had about 80% rewrites, while Becoming the Enigma only has maybe 30-40% rewrites. Many of the rewrites involved new scenes from Logan or the pack’s POV, or reimagining existing scenes to quicken the pace of the story or just improve the prose in general. There were also quite a few continuity errors between The Legacy Series and The Loup-Garou Series, which I set out to correct, since those stories were fresh in my head again. Both books are currently with an editor and I’ll be releasing these Second Editions within the next month or so. ALSO, I plan to go wide with the series publications. That means they won’t only be available Amazon, but everywhere else ebooks are sold too! Very excited about that.

However, probably the biggest news (within the writing career stuff) is that I won’t be solely self-publishing. I had been sitting on a manuscript for a couple of years, sent it out to some publishers with no bites. But, as I began the rewrites for The Loup-Garou Series, I decided to go through this manuscript one more time with a fresh pair of eyes and sent out some submissions. And, I’m pleased to announce that Tule Publishing offered me a 4-book contract. They’ve taken on the first book, Howls in the Night (tentative title) which is part of my Tolstone Shifter Series (also tentative title). The series is based around a town where a wolf shifter pack offers sanctuary to other shifter packs who are going through some crisis. Whether that’s a loss of leadership, attacked by hunters, forced out by another pack, etc., they are welcomed to Tolstone until they can get on their feet. These shifters are NOT my loups-garous. This series takes place in a completely different universe, and their “mechanics” as my tabletop roleplaying husband would call it, are much simpler and less restrictive than my typical loup-garou characters.

Celebratory dinner for signing a contract with Tule!

The first book will be released some time in March of 2025, which gives me that long to get my writing life back on track. While I’m writing the subsequent books in this series, I do plan on turning my attention to some other books I thought about over the years. The first is a prequel book to Silver Screen, which covers Max and Emma’s love story. Ghosts of the Moon will likely be my next self-publishing project. After that, I may or may not decide to give John Croxen’s sons the book series I planned out years ago. Noah, Liam, Aiden, and Blake made an appearance in The Loup-Garou Series, and while I’ve been playing old shows of Bonanza in the background while I feed Annabelle, I’ve been thinking more and more about them too. BUT, I know for sure that within the next couple of years, I want to write Skylar Keith’s story. Her book, Inheritance, will be the fifth (and maybe) final book of the Loup-Garou series, and I’ll get to revisit my beloved loups-garous again. All of this is just percolating in the background, while Tule and Annabelle take precedence.

So, I guess that catches y’all up on what’s going on in my little crazy world so far. Stay tuned for the Loup-Garou second edition releases, and more news on my journey with Tule Publishing.

Until next time,
Happy Reading!