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While flailing about in an effort to fix a story recently, I found myself bewailing its virtues.

“The story is a cupcake!” I cried, while trying to add more spinach and wondering why the result was revolting. And as I sat there covered in non-functional story batter, I had an epiphany.

My story was a cupcake. My story. Was. A cupcake.

And instead of reveling in the cupcakery and plotting frosting and sprinkles and cackling to myself about how this was going to be the most sugar-fat-caloric-dense-ZOMG-amazeballs cupcake in the history of cupcakery, I was killing it with spinach.

Look, sometimes you put in all the right ingredients and the batter doesn’t rise or the center is too gooey or the edges are burned, but still, what you have is recognizably a cupcake. And if you keep coming back to the recipe and trying again with subtle differences, it is possible to end up with a very good final product as long as you commit to the essential nature of the cupcake and what makes a cupcake experience fabulous. And you do not have to be a master chef or even a connoisseur of pastry to know that what makes a cupcake fabulous is rarely the quantity and quality of spinach. Adding spinach doesn’t turn the cupcake into a salad or a souffle. It just turns it into a mediocre, if not disastrous, cupcake.

So I came back to my story and judged it by its virtues. And I committed to them. I committed to telling the story fully and completely with a willingness to go right over the top on a regular basis in my dedication to making my cupcake a cupcake worthy of the name. Because when you want a cupcake, you want a cupcake that doesn’t make any apologies or hold back or sit there saying, “Sugar is bad for you, really, and also you don’t know what’s good for you, so I’m going to lure you in with cupcake bait and then SURPRISE you’re eating your vegetables as I switch, ahahahaha!”

And that is the Cupcake Theory of Writing. If you find yourself writing a cupcake, write that cupcake with no apologies, no holding back, no trying to win the approval of spinach lovers who wouldn’t want your cupcake no matter what you did while ruining it for those who love cupcakes and want one already. Whatever the essential nature of the story is, go with what it IS and forget about what it isn’t.

Writing a mystery? Focus on whodunnit and red herrings and plot twists and gumshoe it up but good. Writing SF? Bring on the strange new worlds and civilizations and boldly go. Writing fantasy? Fantasize! Whatever you are writing, focus on that, the core of it, the experience of it, and think about what you love and what you hate in that type of story and OWN yours.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go own my story’s need for chocolate frosting and sprinkles and add more butter.

The spring print anthology has a title! Something Wild will consist of 3 never-in-print titles from me, Dangerous Games, Earth Girls Aren’t Easy and Two Knights in Camelot. Fingers crossed the cover gods grant me a fun, hot cover to go with the title.

And now, what is up with other works? Like where did Mad Stone go? Sasha and I pulled our duology feeling it had run its course and Mad Stone has a new cover. It is getting formatted and uploaded and will be for sale again as a stand-alone novelette in the Neuri universe shortly. I have three other shorts published in print anthologies but not available as ebook singles; Wolf at the Door, Nuns and Huns, Roped, all getting covers/formatting/uploading and those will also be available soon.

Yes, but what about new work? Red Queen and Kiss of the Demon need finishing and editing and then there will be release dates.

Aside from that? Black Magic (which needs a new title but that’s the working title) and my special ops hero/Indiana Jones heroine books need finishing and homes. I keep getting requests for final and spinoff titles in the Sirens series, but every time I try to tackle that I get a mess. The only characters who even try to cooperate are the wily bunch from Miss Lonely Hearts, which leaves Dane and Harold hanging. And I likewise do not know what to do with the Djinn novella trilogy. So basically it’s get the decks cleared first and then see what pops next.

We took an unplugged weekend to hike trails from the Hoh to Kalaloch and my brain is still wallowing. It struck me around Sunday that I was simply not fighting a trickle of negatives. No bad news. Nothing that triggered writing or publishing angst (which can come from good or bad news). Between that and my lungs taking in the clean coastal and rain forest air to wash away the lingering bronchitis I was recovering from, I feel like a new person. Or reacquainted with my old self. Unplugging is good for the soul and the creative psyche.

And on returning home I discovered an email waiting for me saying that a new print collection of never-before-in-print titles from me is in the works for this spring and would I please send some title suggestions. So huzzah. I did send a bunch of suggestions and will announce more when I have a firm title and date. The collection will include a short novel, a novella and a novelette which makes it about the length of two Harlequin Presents or one single title in length.

This is still not the new novel I know people are waiting for, but I have high hopes that I can get stuff out the door soon. And meanwhile, having 3 print releases in the span of 9 months is not bad. I also have multiple ebook shorts to get on sale for Kindle, Nook and other ebook readers. Cover art and formatting is underway. But really, I’m looking forward to finishing the novels in progress that it is time and past to be DONE with.