2013

Before I reflect on my year… first things first: e-mail me (harperbliss at gmail dot com) for an ARC of Summer’s End in return for an honest Amazon and/or GoodReads review!

Now… 2012 was so amazing it made me wonder if things could get even better, and then they did. 2013 was a really good year for me, both on a personal and professional level, not without challenges (on both fronts), but so rewarding. Let’s see… Ladylit published 12 Harper Bliss solo titles, I edited my first multi-author lesbian erotica anthology (Anything She Wants) and put together 2 mini-anthologies (Sweat and A Christmas to Remember) with stories by some crazy-talented authors. We also published Beatrice Donahue’s gorgeous novelette The Blue Hour (via Ladylit), Laila Blake’s well-received novella Driftwood Deeds and a historical erotica novella about a very feisty and sexy Roman Empress called Faustina (both via A Hotter State).

2013 was also the year in which I realised I could well be doing this lesbian erotica writing (and publishing) thing for the rest of my life… and, as of early 2014, I won’t be doing it alone anymore. One of the challenges my wife and I faced was having to decide between staying in Hong Kong and her leaving her job or going back to Belgium and her keeping her job. We chose Hong Kong (and Ladylit.) Yep, my missus will be working for Ladylit fulltime soon, which means I will have much more time for writing. (She’s not a writer but has many other talents. ;-o)

This brings us to something that quite shocked me about the past year. I did some calculating and came to the horrid conclusion that I’ve only produced 136.000 new words in 2013, amounting to approximately 11.000 words every month. It’s simply not enough. So, my only real goal for 2014 is to produce 30.000 new words every month. I have other hopes and expectations, things I can’t fully control mostly, but the amount of words I write is something that I do have control over. And I already know (sort of) what the first 120.000 will be about.

I can’t read it either…

On Monday I start writing a new series (for which you’ll find the notes in the picture above ;-)). I’m bursting with excitement to begin. It will be set in Paris and, if the drama unfolding in my head is anything to go by, will be extremely lesbian (and sexy). 😉

2014 is going to be great. Before I end this post, I would also like to thank every one of you for reading my stories. Without you, my year wouldn’t have been nearly as exciting. Thank you!

(This is not my last blog post of the year though, as Summer’s End is coming out next week and I’ll have a few things to say about that, of course. ;-))