What does that even mean, right?
Let me explain.
With every year and the books published in that timeframe, I realize my stories follow a certain theme. One year, I centered most of my books on my characters letting love in after resisting it. Another year, almost all my books dealt with redemption and forgiveness after my main characters made questionable decisions in their pasts.
Based on the theme for Home Before Midnight–my last release for 2022–and the books I will work on in 2023, they seem to all center on my characters nurturing the love they‘ve cultivated in their relationships after their happily ever after.
I noticed that with my previously published works, the stories often ended once my couples learned to let love in. In the next few books, we’re getting a glimpse into the couples adjusting to life with their other halves after discovering love in one another. They’re learning ways to keep the fuse lit under the infatuation that drew them to each other and witnessing the evolution of their attraction to something familiar, but not to the point of taking what they’ve cultivated for granted.
I feel in some ways I explored this briefly with Ebb & Flow and Mr & Mrs Jones and I enjoyed writing those stories a lot. Those two stories just flowed for me during production. Showing the characters at their most vulnerable and in their elements in relationships was definitely my jam.
I love this Let’s Stay Together era in my writing a lot. I’m getting real cozy here and Home Before Midnight has made it a fun place to make a humble abode.
Home Before Midnight
The follow up to Home for Christmas gave me all the feels writing. There’s just something so captivating and real about the Gordons, and Eva and Jaleel’s son makes balancing love and parenthood a fun experience.
These two have dealt with the ugly parts of their marriage. They had no choice but to face them head on and find ways to change. They’ve reconciled and have done the work to create a bond stronger than the one before. This will allow them to deal with any new challenges that may arise, and with life (in my fiction world at least) there will always be challenges.
The one key takeaway I think will be clear in their story, and all my stories in this era of my writing, is that effort is and will always be the sexiest nonsexual thing a person can do in a relationship to keep the passion burning. And that seems to be the theme for the couples after them.
Al Green said lovin’ whether times are good or bad, happy, or sad and we are about to see how true that is and exactly what that looks like in my book world.
Y’all ready? ‘Cause I am.
Home Before Midnight will be available in the last week of December.
Home Before Midnight is a follow up to Home for Christmas. If you haven’t read it yet, I encourage you do before Home Before Midnight’s release for context.
