This month marks my tenth anniversary as a published fiction author. My first novel, The Prophecy (Lucy Varna), was released on 10 February 2014.

The publishing landscape was very different then. Self-publishing was still denigrated as inferior to traditional (corporate) publishing, and the Gold Rush days of indie publishing were just a couple of years away from becoming a highly competitive red market industry.

Now, self-publishers navigate a constantly changing landscape, though some things have not changed at all. The best practice is still, as it has always been, to write a great book. That has been my focus these past ten years, and I hope I've succeeded.

This month also marks another important event, as my son joins my business as the unofficial director of sales and operations. We're still in the beginning stages there, but have plans to expand into direct sales and merchandising in order to better serve readers.

Once he's fully settled in, I'll be able to focus more on the writing end of things (i.e. content production). My 113th story and 24th novel, A Witch Called Justice (Celia Roman), is being released at the end of the month. The next two projects, Vampire Alley (Celia Roman) and War's Last Refuge (Lucy Varna), both close out series, and they're both already underway.

I'm already developing the stories I'll work on once those are in the bag. These new stories will mark at least two significant changes: first, I'm returning to writing stories from a third-person point of view with scenes narrated by multiple characters and much larger story worlds; and second, these stories will contain no to low romantic subplots. The latter is a planned move, one I've been trying (and trying and trying) to complete for years. The former is a matter of choice; I simply do not like writing first person perspectives over entire series.

I'm very excited to see what the next ten years holds.