Enemies to lovers is a popular trope in romance and all its spin-offs, most notably romantasy. Who doesn’t enjoy a rival romance? But I think an underdeveloped aspect of it will be drawn out over the next few years, that of the vengeance or punishment element of a nemesis. People want retribution stories as well as a redemption arc.
So, we’ll have nemeses to lovers as a growing trope with the initial conflict, the bitter frustration, the resentment of their own feelings, and then, the decision to choose mercy and hope and move forward.
Justice is a complicated subject. Fiction has a powerful role to play in providing ways of seeing the world and emotional frameworks for processing it.
Nemeses to lovers is a trope that doesn’t require us to defeat our enemies with violence. I’m eagerly anticipating how authors will find a path from fury and grief to healing, hope, and love.
Finally, I finished Money. A Story of Humanity by David McWilliams. That it took me so long isn’t a reflection on the book. It’s an excellent overview of the history of money, of how currency facilitated trade, connection, and development. It also covers a bit about current and future issues (ahem, crypto).
Now, I’m reading Killing the Dead by John Blair. It’s all about vampires (and some other undead) across time and place. Different cultures, similar preoccupations. How do we handle fear, death, and otherness?
Speaking of (or to) the undead, I discovered Mercury Raine: Ghost Broker by Sarah M Eden and was beguiled by its ghostly premise. I need to read book 2!
I also enjoyed an older Mills & Boon romance, Hitched! by Jessica Hart with upper class characters, but genuine warmth and emotional growth. It felt more like a condensed chicklit novel than a category romance.
Occasionally, people ask me for writing advice. Over the years my response has changed. When I started off, oh my goodness, everything was amazing and I wanted to share the possibilities. They seemed endless and they were all so good. But the more you learn, the less you know! Now, my advice boils down to “everyone’s path is their own”.
I’m aware that it sounds like a cop out. It’s not. It means that where you’re starting from on your writing and publishing journey, your motivations, your goals, the ethical choices you’ll make (and the compromises), your definition of success, and for how long writing remains a priority will be unique to you and will change over time.
There are a lot of free and paid resources for writers. When you have a question, you can find an answer. Reflect not just on what you’re creating, but where it (and the process of creation) fits in your life. Choose what you give to writing and value what you receive from it.
All of that said, I’m not a meanie. If you’d like good writing advice and a vetted list of writing and publishing support services, I recommend Jane Friedman’s website as a starting point. I’m also happy to receive other recommendations, so if you have a book or course or whatever that has been helpful to you on your writing journey, feel free to mention it in the comments.
Welp. Readying a book for a paperback edition is as time and energy intensive as I thought it would be. I finally did it, though. Stars Die is now available in paperback! Paperback editions of Hexes Fly and Rogues Lie are underway.
After researching my options I chose the easiest path to getting my books into paperback, which turns out to be remaining in Amazon’s scary embrace. So, I have Amazon-supplied ISBNs and the process of Amazon linking the digital editions to the paperback editions ought to go smoothly. Ought.
I thought I’d pull back the curtain a little on what went on behind the scenes over the last couple of months. (I’ll spare you my muttering, squinting, and violent stabs at the keyboard and screen). Basically, I wanted to share the pricing screen with you.
The books in my current series, Caldryn Parliament, average around 90,000 words and I’ve priced the digital editions at $4.99 (all pricing in US dollars). When someone buys a digital copy, Amazon takes 30% of the list price, leaving me with roughly $3.50 per book. If the book is borrowed in Kindle Unlimited I get about $2 when it’s read from cover to cover. (If my math is right. I’m having doubts. But it’s close enough).
It might seem that I earn less from Kindle Unlimited borrowed copies, but that’s not true. People borrow far more readily than they buy (and I understand because that’s me as a reader, too), so volume more than makes up for the lower price. Kindle Unlimited is crucial to my survival as an indie author. Please, please keep borrowing and reading my books in Kindle Unlimited!
Now, to the paperback edition.
Remember, getting the formating right was a pain in the beep. And for all that effort, and by raising the price to $12.99 (slightly above Amazon’s minimum of $9.99 retail price), I get a whopping $3.06. Yup, that’s less than when someone buys the digital version. And if they buy from outside Amazon, via Expanded Distribution, I get … $0.46.
So, yes, I want paperback editions available in the interests of accessibility (which is the same reason I compromised and used Amazon’s virtual voice to provide text-to-speech editions since I can’t afford (money, time, energy) to produce professional audiobooks right now). However, financially, I’m better off writing the next book. It’s certainly far more enjoyable!
Okay. I’ll let the curtain fall back and hide the reality of publishing once more.
I love being an indie author. I’m incredibly grateful to be living this life. But it does include hard choices.
For now, I intend to release paperback editions of all eight Caldryn Parliament novels, probably a month or three after the digital editions. However, until I have a lot bigger breathing space, I won’t be bringing my backlist into paperback.
One of my problems with AI is how organisations are using it to avoid blame. This is an extension of how they’ve been using their systems for a while. It is HARD to find a person who’ll take responsibility for a problem. From blame to solving the problem, the organisational system is designed to shrug it off. AI is now the perfect excuse.
But in my focus on systems I’ve overlooked the individual experience of AI.
As a novelist I’m constantly analysing characters’ motivations. I forget that for a lot of people understanding and working on themselves is terrifying. And what’s the best thing to do when you’re scared? Run away! (I’m kidding).
But AI really is a tool for escaping the self.
Instead of writing a heartfelt best man’s speech, or a sympathy card, or finding the right words (from a place of love and respect) to end a relationship, people are avoiding confronting themselves, their situation, and their emotions. and simply prompting AI for a response.
We are obscuring ourselves from our own gaze by using AI.
Because I tend to frame my world verbally, I’ve used examples from verbal communication. But visual artists are furious at AI partly because they learn themselves and their world through visual art. Same with musicians. Our stories emerge from confronting our selves.
If we mask with AI we will be individually, as well as socially, poorer.
It felt like I had to wait for ages for Echoes of Insurrection by TA White. It wasn’t actually that long, but it felt like it because the Firebird Chronicles is such a great science fiction series (with magic!) and one I enjoy re-reading. It was wonderful catching up with the characters and encountering new mysteries and twists to the story. When’s Book 7? 😉
I also enjoyed Squib by Helen Harper which is a spin-off from her Cat Lady urban fantasy series. Really solid world-building and engaging characters. I liked the romance plot a lot, too.
Vanessa Nelson released the fifth book in her Fractured Conclave series. This is a fascinating world. The sense of the strangeness that creeps in with isolation weaves through the series. An Uneasy Peace (great title) was an excellent read.
Do you remember the idea of the Great Reset that swirled around in 2020? The World Economic Forum presented it, and a ton of conspiracy theories spawned.
I’m riffing off its name to claim another shift in the zeitgeist: the Great Retreat.
Everywhere I look I see people stepping back, hunkering down, and retiring. The causes are varied: anxiety, exhaustion, confusion, and even coercion.
Health crises, cost of living pressures, job insecurity, and a broader sense of uncertainty, nationally and internationally, politically and economically, are all contributing.
People are retreating from substantive engagement in public social media as governments (and contracted private companies) are mining social media as part of a broader surveillance agenda. What they’ll do with that data is open to conjecture.
People are retreating, often unwillingly and out of frustration, from engagement with government welfare programs. Dealing with bureaucracy (including private corporate sector bureaucracy) is increasingly frustrating. Some of this frustration is caused by legacy systems. Software is decades old and layered with inefficiencies. Regulations pile up. But it could be that there isn’t enough pie to go around and the more people who drop out, the longer the system can stagger on. In other words, pushing us into retreat could be a feature and not a bug.
People are retreating from public life as attacks against them increase. And I mean all people, not just celebrities. The use of AI to generate repulsive images is a new weapon of online violence.
The challenge is to determine where you draw the line. What will you surrender, where will you compromise, and when will you fight?
We don’t have the luxury of reserves anymore. Think of the human body. In good times, it adds a little fat. You grow comfortably pudgy. In hard times, the body draws on that reserve of energy. For many people, those reserves are gone. We drew on them hard in 2025, and now, we have to choose where we put our remaining energy.
I have a note on my computer. It says, “don’t step back”. I can’t resist everything. I can’t fight for all the social causes I support. But the core of my identity is where I can’t step back.
I’m an author. I write stories of hope. That is what I won’t compromise on.
Everything else, including supping with a long spoon with the devil that is Amazon, is negotiable.
Speaking of Amazon. I am still trying to decide what to do regarding audio editions of the Caldryn Parliament series. If Amazon allowed Australians to access ACX (which supports voice actors and authors working together) I’d be all over it. But it doesn’t, despite years of promising that it was “coming soon”. For the moment, in the interests of accessibility, I’ve allowed Amazon to shove my books down the Virtual Voice path. As I discussed in an earlier post, I don’t consider these text-to-speech products audiobooks, but they do read the text aloud. As a stopgap they’re better than nothing, and since 2026 shows signs of being every bit as overwhelming as 2025, a stopgap is necessary while I take a breath. So, if you’re looking for audio editions of the Caldryn Parliament series they’re in Audible and clearly labelled as AI (i.e. Virtual Voice narration).
I am working on paperback editions of Caldryn Parliament. A proof copy of Stars Die is in the works and should arrive in early February. If it looks good, I’ll click publish and move onto Hexes Fly and Rogues Lie. I’ve enabled “expanded distribution” for these paperbacks, which means that if any other distributors choose to pick them up (something I can’t influence) then you’ll be able to buy them outside of Amazon (which still takes a massive cut of the sale price via production costs).
Finally with good news, my books are now available in all major digital library services. So, if you can convince your local library to buy a copy, they’re available for everyone. I am thrilled!
A few weeks ago I was listening to the Create Tomorrow podcast and someone on it mentioned absurdity as a trend in 2026.
So, I went digging. For a start, what is the psychological value of absurdity?
Jason Shimiale MD at Psychology Today has a great short article, well worth reading. “Absurdity, at its core, arises from the clash between our desire for meaning, order, and clarity and the universe’s inherent indifference.”
From a philosophical perspective, Jack Maden gives us Camus’s take on absurdity and the invitation to metaphysical rebellion. (Note: if you do click this link, it opens with mention of suicide) Albert Camus on Rebelling against Life’s Absurdity. To quote Maden, “Unable to tolerate an unease with uncertainty, we hand ourselves over to the consolation of dogma. Searching for an authentic life, we commit to inauthenticity…”
You can judge the power of absurdity by the media and marketing’s attempt to exploit it. Pauline Oudin, CEO of Gradient, talks of absurdism signaling authenticity, and thereby, engaging its audience. Laura Agricola, at Mumbrella, writes, “Absurdity doesn’t trigger the fight-or-flight response, but it does hijack the same early-warning systems that were meant to keep us alive and repurposes them to keep us entertained.”
In short, absurdity wakes us up.
The lesson that I’m taking from this, as an author, is that if you need to jolt people, add an absurdity. And because I have a diabolical mind, I’m also considering absurdity as a tool for distracting readers from a vital clue…
This isn’t a book-related post. But it is something I’ve been thinking about for a long time, and since this is the time of New Year’s resolutions, it might be worth discussing.
I’m talking about boundaries.
The concept of boundaries, and of respecting our own and others’ boundaries, has been around for a few years and sometimes very loosely applied to justify selfishness. However, don’t let the abuse of the concept obscure its power.
I have a reminder sticky-noted to my screen so that I see it daily on opening my laptop.
Honour your own limits.
For me, boundaries are limits. They are the limits of what I can do or endure before the cost affects other aspects of my life and becomes unsustainable. I can push beyond those limits, or allow others to do so (i.e. cross my boundaries), but doing so means I pay a high price. Sometimes that price is worth it, but I need to consciously choose to pay it.
It’s why I use the word “honour”. When I honour my limits I’m not limited by them (play on words intended), but rather I’m making a whole-of-life decision for my well-being and for my place in the community and the world.
Living in this way you soon come up against people who challenge and criticise your limits. Some do so directly, but others create a space in which you are seduced into thinking that it’s your responsibility to make them comfortable with your limits. It’s a strange idea. Critics of your boundaries first demand that you compromise, that is, reduce or remove them. If you hold firm, the implicit demand then becomes for you to make the critic feel better about your choices—and to be clear, limits aren’t choices. They are limits. Keeping this at the front of my mind and in my heart is why I use the term limits rather than boundaries in my daily reminder.
You cannot be all things to all people. The people asking things of you which you can’t deliver have to look elsewhere.
Being true to yourself means honoring your own limits. They aren’t restricting. They are empowering.
2026 is the year where I finally increase my books’ availability and discoverability. There are a lot of things happening and even more thinking, testing, and questioning behind the scenes. Not everything I try will work, and hence, some things will change and change again.
First up, and unchanging, my focus remains on writing new books. This is what I enjoy and it is what, by far, brings in the most income. New books are what allow me to write full-time.
My new books will release first on Amazon in Kindle Unlimited. I’ve spent a decade building my readership there, and I am a Kindle Unlimited reader myself. Kindle Unlimited is core to my author existence.
Which isn’t to say that I’m a huge fan of Amazon.
Cory Doctorow is credited with coining the term “enshittification”. My understanding of the concept is simple. A company identifies a business-to-customer relationship and inserts itself in the middle. For the purposes of this discussion we’re talking author-to-reader, where author includes the publisher. The company inserts itself by offering an easier experience. Everyone is happy. Then the company begins exerting pressure. As alternative arrangements become less and less viable, the company siphons a bigger share of profit from the relationship. The business and customer may be unhappy, but their other options are worse. For many businesses, the other option is failing to cover costs. Yikes.
So, yeah. Amazon pretty much defines how books get to readers.
We have independent bookstores. Authors can sell direct to their readers. Libraries are gold.
But I have looked and looked and looked, and for a small indie author like me, there is no comparable income stream or access to new readers.
And to be brutally honest, I’m exhausted. The energy to build an author platform elsewhere is literally non-existent for me. I salute the authors who are challenging Amazon. I am so grateful for the bookstores, librarians, and reviewers supporting them. But I lack the energy for the fight.
Which leaves me in the nasty position of dependency on Amazon and having to adjust to its whims. It gets to dictate terms, and the best I can do is try to soften the impact for my readers.
A few months ago, Amazon changed the exclusivity clause for Kindle Unlimited so that digital books available in Kindle Unlimited can now also be shared with digital library services like Overdrive and Libby. I am using Draft2Digital to get my books into libraries. Most have been uploaded (it’s been a long process).
If you use your library’s subscription to Libby or a similar digital book service then you can request any of my books. Your library can also say no, but fingers crossed! I am quietly excited by this opportunity to get my books to people on tight book budgets or those who choose to avoid Amazon.
I’m also looking at paperbacks. I know! I have been promising paperbacks for years. This time it is happening.
Draft2Digital has a paperback creation service. My focus is on getting my current series, Caldryn Parliament, into print. Depending on how that goes, and other demands on my time and energy, I’ll work through my backlist.
Audiobooks are the other long-term promise I’d like to honour this year.
Podium Entertainment has been brilliant to work with and I’m delighted with the quality of my audio editions with them. However, with Caldryn Parliament I’m looking at an eight book series and Podium is unable to make that commitment upfront. Eight books is huge. I understand their reservations. However, I also want a consistent experience in audio, so I’m looking at other options.
One of the lesser discussed benefits of negotiating is the reality check it provides. If Podium sees a risk in my eight-book long commitment, I also need to consider it.
I have considered it and I’m going ahead!
Caldryn Parliament forever!
However, audio-publishers’ lack of interest in other series in my backlist is something I’m taking far more seriously. It means they’re not viable as audiobooks. Certainly not with my limited resources (time, energy, and money).
And this is where Amazon pounces and increases its enshittification (pardon my French).
On the one hand Amazon gives (i.e. allowing my ebooks into digital library services), and with the other hand it takes away. Let me introduce you to the recently initiated Amazon Virtual Voice.
To make it easier for Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) authors to quickly and easily produce an audiobook version of their eBook, we launched audiobooks with virtual voice in beta to the U.S. marketplace. KDP authors in the beta can create audiobooks with virtual voice (computer-generated narration) in addition to the audiobook creation options available through ACX.
With virtual voice, authors can create an audiobook in minutes by:
Selecting an eligible KDP eBook from their Bookshelf.
Choosing from 80 voices—including American English, Latin American Spanish, Castilian Spanish, Australian English, British English, French, and Italian. Authors can also set a different voice for each chapter.
Setting a list price between $3.99 and $14.99.
Previewing and editing the narration before publishing.
What does all that mean?
If you ask me, it does NOT mean audiobooks. This is Amazon’s text-to-speech program slightly improved and repackaged. I can’t find the guide, but there is a way to listen to kindle books that you download to your phone. Virtual Voice is basically that, but with Amazon pushing the author into doing the tech bit of turning on text-to-speech and checking it for errors.
Sadly, it’s the best option (in terms of my limited resources and low reader demand) for my backlist. So, I’ve been slowly adding the Virtual Voice feature to those books in my backlist that don’t have audiobooks and pricing them as low as Amazon will let me. This makes my backlist more accessible, but on enshittified terms. Sorry.
Attempting to win back author and reader approval, Amazon recently announced a change to its Digital Rights Management (DRM) terms. This is from the email it sent authors:
Starting January 20, 2026, Amazon will make it easier for readers to enjoy content they have purchased from the Kindle store across a wider range of devices and applications by allowing new titles published without Digital Rights Management (DRM) to be downloaded in EPUB and PDF format.
I like this. I’ve always been happy for readers to buy my kindle books and convert them (generally via Calibre) into epub or other formats to save and read on other devices. It’s why my ebooks are DRM-free.
In short, there are a lot of changes ahead. As I get some breathing space later in the year I might also look at swapping out some of my older series from Kindle Unlimited to other platforms. But I’ll warn you if I do!
Apart from making my books available beyond Amazon, the reason for testing the waters with other booksellers is discoverability.
Amid all the other challenges that AI has introduced, its impact on search is such that discoverability is even harder. My books have to be mentioned (preferably positively!) in a lot of places for AI search to report them to new readers. This is why you’ll see authors asking readers to do things like add their books to Goodreads or similar sites. We need AI to judge our books as sought after. It’s a self-reinforcing spiral.
It’s not actually new. Algorithms, especially in Amazon, have never been neutral. They either reward or punish books, moving them up the rankings or hiding them. Interest is rewarded. Read-through is gold. Reviews are superstars. Miss any of these factors and your book bombs.
If you’ve read through to the end of this mind-spew of some of the things worrying me and the path I’m trying through the publishing swamps of 2026, you are a legend. It’s a lot. And I haven’t even mentioned some of the alternatives to Amazon that I’m keeping an eye on (such as Yearn Media).
I need to go write, which is the part of indie publishing that makes the rest of this mess worthwhile—well, that and your enjoyment of my books!
