u/FrostyPomegranate699

A few days ago I was driving home after picking up one of our standard poodles.

We had already been in the Highlander for about 25 hours when traffic on the interstate came to a complete stop.

A couple hours later a firefighter walked by and told us it would probably be another 2-3 hours before traffic moved. They'd bring water.

I asked about the people crossing the median and turning around.

He said, "You can do what you want, but it's not an official turnaround. If you do something stupid, you might end up here even longer."

I laughed and said, "I've been in the Highlander for 25 hours. I'm probably going to do something stupid."

A few minutes later we were driving through a ditch, around some rocks, and heading the wrong direction on the interstate.

At the time it just felt like getting home.

Now I'm pretty sure it's going to end up in a book.

Just submitted my 13th book for publication.

Most people think 13 is unlucky.

I've always liked it for that reason.

If you'd asked me twenty years ago how to write a book, I would have told you to keep reading it until it was perfect.

The problem is that perfect keeps moving.

You fix one sentence and notice another. You catch one typo and miss three more. You read it again and decide a chapter belongs somewhere else. Before long, you're editing a book nobody can read because you're afraid to let it go.

I've read plenty of books from major publishers. They all had mistakes somewhere.

Readers don't remember the missing comma.

They remember how a book made them feel.

Somewhere along the way I stopped trying to publish perfect books and started trying to publish good books that people could actually read.

Ironically, I think the books got better after that.

So here's to lucky number 13.

One of the weirdest parts of self publishing so far is how fast your brain adapts to movement.

You stare at a flat dashboard for weeks thinking:
“If I could just get one sale or one reader I’d be thrilled.”

Then it finally happens.
A few downloads.
A few page reads.
Maybe even a good review.

And about twelve hours later your brain is refreshing the reports again wondering why everything suddenly feels quiet.

The emotional whiplash between:
“nobody is reading”
and
“wait why did momentum stop”
is a lot stronger than I expected.

One of the strangest things about writing multiple connected books is realizing certain ideas follow you before you fully understand why.

When I started writing psychological thrillers, I thought I was writing about strategy, power, control, manipulation, long games.

Then somewhere along the way I realized almost every book I was writing was actually about weight.

Not physical weight. Human weight.

Responsibility.
Grief.
Silence.
Secrets.
Carrying things too long.
The cost of control.
The damage caused by avoiding responsibility.
The damage caused by carrying too much of it.

Even the dog training books somehow ended up there eventually 😄

I noticed it first while writing one of the Basement Files stories. There’s a character reviewing archived case material and he slowly realizes the people who disturbed him most were not the loud monsters.

It was the people who kept functioning normally while carrying impossible things internally.

That hit me harder than I expected while writing it because the older I get, the more I think most adults are basically walking around held together by routines, responsibilities, and promises they made years ago.

Some healthy.
Some not.

I didn’t really plan for the books to become connected that way. It just kept happening.

Kind of curious if other writers have noticed recurring themes quietly building underneath everything they create without intentionally planning it.