and not what people expect me to write…

One thing I never expected when I started my career as an author (that is still so surreal to type on the page here), is the constant comments about what I should write. Oh my, have I been bombarded with these types of comments. I know people mean well. They’re excited to have an author they know, and they’re excited to see me putting out books. However, as a recovering people pleaser, it’s really difficult to hear people giving suggestions about what I should write next.

I’ve had this certain fear running through my head since I started planning out my Legacy superhero series. I didn’t talk about it to anyone but my husband (sorry, Craig) because I worried that people would not respond well to my shifting from young adult fantasy to new adult science fiction, specifically in superhero fiction. If you didn’t know, superhero fiction is a very small and tiny subgenre of science fiction. Compared to fantasy, it’s miniscule. If you combine this fear of not being able to find readers for my new books with the comments of “you should write xyz”, it’s pretty easy to see why I’ve been holding back from talking about my new project.

I started getting inspired for my Legacy series back in September or October of 2023 when Craig and I were doing our annual watch-through of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Are we nerds? Absolutely. The two of us spend hours watching these movies and TV shows, and then spend more hours discussing the timelines and connections and who might be joining the universe in the coming movies/shows. I had a desire to read a series like this, and there are only a few on the market, most of which were not specifically what I was searching for at the time. When I expressed that depressing fact to my husband, his response was one I’ll never forget: “Why don’t you just write one then?” God has truly blessed my husband with a profound gift of wisdom. God did not give me that same gift. Why didn’t I think to just write it myself?

His words stuck with me to the point of NEVER LEAVING MY MIND. When I say that I have been plotting out this series and these books since late 2023, I’m not exaggerating. I purposefully had to set this aside just to finish The Cursed Six because I simply couldn’t stop thinking about it, the possibilities, the characters, and the events. I have had all of this information floating around in my head for months because I was so inspired that I just had to create my own world of superheroes and villains and Earth-shattering events. I’ve never been more inspired to write something.

But then the doubts came.

I think every author experiences doubts when starting a new project. Whether that project is large or small, marketable or not, I think authors all deal with these doubts of reader reception to their work. Coupled with comments about continuing my fantasy series or writing children’s books because I have small kids or writing romance because that’s what is popular right now, my doubts became a little hard to handle. I’ve expressed a lot of these doubts to my husband, and of course, he has assured me that my writing is in the hands of the Lord and I will find my readers for this series. He’s not wrong.

A lot of prayer and deliberation went behind my decision to write what inspired me instead of what everyone else wants. As I mentioned before, I’m a recovering people pleaser. I love taking care of other people and helping them with their needs, but when it came to my career, I couldn’t ignore God’s obvious pull in this new direction. I pray over my writing almost daily, and never once has the inspiration for this series left me. So as I navigate this new change in my writing, I keep reminding myself that God is in control, writing what I’m inspired by will make my writing stronger, and I will find my readers for this series.

My Legacy series might not be for you, and that’s alright. I don’t expect every reader who enjoyed my first trilogy to come along for this next ride. It’s quite a jump from magical people set in a fantasy world to superheroes set in a modern world, but I have to pursue this series that God has so obviously placed on my heart. My prayer now is that He will be glorified in my writing and the gospel be evident in the plots of the books.