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Finding My Process As An Author

A fun thing we’re doing on Facebook and free posts on Patreon is where we’re going back and looking at the books I’ve released in past January’s, and it’s made me think about my start in general.

When I first started writing, I had no frame of reference of how other authors did it. I didn’t know anyone who wrote and had never talked to anyone in the author world. I didn’t even follow anyone online because I only had Facebook at the time and only had five friends (all family lol…which was why I never used it).

I barely posted (because family is nosy and I’m slightly paranoid lol).

I didn’t know how to follow people.

I’d never even thought to look up what my favorite authors were doing.

When I finally started working my way into author groups and meeting authors online, I was amazed at how different everyone’s process was.

Some people write out of order!!
Some people don’t have a movie in their head!!
Some don’t even talk to their characters?!?!
How?

I was commenting on a post the other day and teasingly told another author that their plan to write their book out of order gave me hives. (They knew I was teasing and weren’t upset.)

But that’s the amazing thing about having a creative job and being your own boss…everyone does it differently. Everyone’s goals are different. Everyone sees success different. I love it.

I have a good friend who’s a baby baby author and every time we “talk shop” and I answer a question, I have to remember to preface my advice with, “This is how I do it but I know other authors who do it differently.”.

They’ve heard that from me so many times they probably hear it in their sleep lol, but I want them to figure out what kind of author they are and how the process works for them.

I think that for me, not knowing other authors gave me more confidence because I didn’t know everything that I was doing was wrong lol. But I know that everyone is different and some don’t want to start out completely blind.

So this is my long winded way of saying that my door is always open to questions about how I started or my current process. If you have any questions please feel free to find me on Facebook or email me. There are other ways but those are the avenues that I check most often.

I hope you are having a productive 2024, and I hope you get your plans laid out so you can have a great year.

Finding My Process as an Author by Shaw Montgomery/MA Innes at authorshawmontgomery.com

Oblivious Friends to Lovers – Ender’s Curiosity is Now Available!

My pups are finally live!

Ender and Leif are here and I can’t wait to show you how adorably oblivious they are (Leif especially).

Ender’s Curiosity has puppy play and is a friends-to-lovers romance that’s going to start a new series of connected standalones. Leashes and Love will have stories about the pups from Leashes and Lace, so lots of fun cameos and as we get deeper into the series a lot of photo shoots with the pups.

Ender

No. It means nothing. I’m just curious. It’s certainly not worth blowing up my life over, no matter what the crazy man thinks. Watching the pups is fun. A pastime. They’re cute. I’m not imagining having a tail. I don’t need a Handler. There’s no way I want to curl up on Leif.

There’s no way he’d let me, right?

Leif

Wow. He wants to what? He wants me to do what? Well, friends help friends. That’s what best friends and roommates are for. The pups are cute. He’s cute. He’s nuts but I can see why he’d like a tail. But with me? There’s no way he’d want me to do that. Does he realize what would happen if we did?

Just because I like control doesn’t mean I’d like that…right?

Love and tails are in the air when two Peeping Toms get more than they bargained for…friends at Leashes & Lace and a new way to see what was there all along.

A Shy Pup and His Best Friend Turned Handler – Pre-Order Ender’s Curiosity Now!

You ready for some pups and more from the guys of Leashes & Lace?

I’ve been asked a lot about when I was going to write about the pups from L and L, but I was never sure where to start. I had random bits and pieces that I could tell you about those guys but never a point where I knew that was where the series was supposed to begin.

Until two nosy cuties popped up.

Ender and Leif live right across the street from Leashes & Lace and they’ve been watching the shoots.

Leif finds the whole thing fascinating but Ender is just interested in one part…the pups. You haven’t met Leif before but you have heard about Ender.

I won’t tell you who he is here, but I’ve dropped different hints in the Facebook group, in the newsletter, and in Patreon depending on what tier you’re in.

Have you guessed who Ender is?

I’d describe this book as oblivious friends-to-lovers and they don’t go about the physical side of their relationship in a conventional manner. They definitely like doing things their own way and it might drive Eli nuts.

Ender and Leif are on preorder now and will be live on January 19th. Right now, until it releases it’s got the lower preorder pricing. Amazon has stopped fucking with me during releases (knocking on wood over here) and it will go up to full price when it goes live.

Click Here to check out the first chapter here. (But it’s going to tell you who Ender is lol)

Have fun with my naughty cuties.

Ender

No. It means nothing. I’m just curious. It’s certainly not worth blowing up my life over, no matter what the crazy man thinks. Watching the pups is fun. A pastime. They’re cute. I’m not imagining having a tail. I don’t need a Handler. There’s no way I want to curl up on Leif.

There’s no way he’d let me, right?

Leif

Wow. He wants to what? He wants me to do what? Well, friends help friends. That’s what best friends and roommates are for. The pups are cute. He’s cute. He’s nuts but I can see why he’d like a tail. But with me? There’s no way he’d want me to do that. Does he realize what would happen if we did?

Just because I like control doesn’t mean I’d like that…right?

Love and tails are in the air when two Peeping Toms get more than they bargained for…friends at Leashes & Lace and a new way to see what was there all along.

What’s Coming in 2024?

I love that you guys have started messaging me and finding the cutest ways to ask about what’s coming up next year. It makes me smile and it makes the crazy number of hours I’ve spent pouring over the calendar the past month worth it.

So thank you.

And as part of my thanks, I wanted to give you a look at what should be coming out in the first quarter of next year and what I’m hoping to get done later in the year.

Starting in January, we’re going to have a story about the L and L pups, Ender’s Curiosity. It’s the beginning of a series of standalone stories about the pups at Leashes and Lace, and it starts out with two cuties who’ve been watching them from across the street. (If you want a preview, the WIP chapters are being shared on my Patreon for tiers 2 and 3.)

We’re going to get to see more of the guys from Leashes and Lace in this series, and eventually, we’ll get to meet more of the pups in another photo shoot or two. But we’ll have to see how all that unfolds.

In February, the third dragon book is coming out. Sparkles and Scowls is MMM and it’s Lorne’s turn for a book. Let me just say he’s a handful and he’s driving his mates crazy. I can’t wait to show you more about this one. (This one is already on preorder.)

Also in February, we’re going to have the next Too Close book. It doesn’t have a title yet, but I’ve already started writing it. The book opens with Kevin running through the house calling out that he didn’t do it and Bryan trying to catch him. So we’ll have to see what happens next. These guys are just so much fun to write about.

March has the extended version of Daddy’s Little Sunshine (my Schwan man and his cutie). It was originally a novella in one of the Dirty Daddy Anthologies in 2023 and you guys said in the Facebook group that you wanted to see a longer version of this story.

March also might have a novella. I’m working on a few ideas but I’m not one hundred percent sure who this will be about yet. The timing just works out right to do something for one of the pups or something like that.

April is going to have the fourth dragon book. I think this is going to be Alick’s story but sometimes they surprise me.

This is what I have planned with tentative release dates and notes in my calendar, but I’ve got a lot more sketched out in what I think is going to happen. Like the three guys from the apartment (with the one who sings in the shower) should get their duet in June and July.

We’re going to get more from the dragons and more from the omegas this year. I’m also working on a surprise with another author for later this year, as well as things like Aubrey and Lincoln’s story, and some fun stuff next fall.

I think the list is manageable this year and Sage has been really good at looking at the plans and asking me “Is this reasonable” because sometimes I have the writer’s version of the my eyes are bigger than my stomach problem. And in this case, too many plans and not enough time give me a ton of anxiety not just a too-full stomach.

So fingers crossed I haven’t given myself too much to do because I love everything on the list next year and I can’t wait to see how the books turn out.

Oh, and don’t worry, I’ve got several other work-in-progress stories open on my computer like the last book for TC and Perry. I just haven’t figured out a release date for them yet. So just because it’s not listed out here doesn’t mean I forgot about a story I’ve promised to get done.

Share in the Comments: What are you looking forward to the most?


If you want to get an early peak at upcoming books, my Patreon is the best place to do it! I post weekly WIP chapters for Tiers 2 and 3. Tier 3 gets the full finished e-book at least 48 hours before it’s released. All tiers also get cover reveals and blurbs before anyone else as well. Have any questions about Patreon and how it works, comment below.

2023 Personal Year Wrap Up

This year has had some ups and downs, but the major thing that sticks out to me is that both of my kids are now at college. It’s been just the three of us for so long that it was weird at first, but not in a bad way, necessarily.

Except for the times my ex was deployed—he was Army—this has been the only point where I’ve ever lived on my own for any length of time. I have to laugh because even during those deployments I had a dog at the very least…so I still wasn’t alone.

I know everyone sees change differently and I know that for a lot of people having kids going off to college is emotionally devastating…but I like my quiet house.

I like being able to eat whenever I want to without having to think about other people’s schedules.

I like the quiet and being able to work whenever I want to.

I like making dinner once and eating off of it for several days.

Maybe things would be different if my kids didn’t call so much or if they were gone for long periods, but they’re great about calling and telling me about their week or their day and they come home a lot. Their good communication has made it easier but it’s taken some getting used to.

I think my biggest struggle has been not having a schedule.

It sounds silly, but their school stuff and routines were what I built my own schedule around and it was so weird not having that structure any longer. I have to admit that I floundered a bit having too much time on my hands without a plan for how to use it.

So I’ve been working on that and making sure I get out of the house enough to talk to real people and not just the ones in my head. Those guys are fabulous, but I’d like more people that I can talk to in public without getting stared at.

Overall, though, I think I’ve done pretty well this year and I’m so proud of my kids for figuring out what makes them happy when they’re away from home and how they’ve started on the journey to becoming real adults.

I honestly can’t wait to see what the new year brings.

I hope you’re having a wonderful holiday season and I hope you have a wonderful 2024.

2023 Writing Wrap Up

When Sage (the best PA in the whole world) asked me if I was going to a year-end work wrap-up, I cringed and kept putting it off. It felt like I hadn’t accomplished enough this year. I wasn’t comparing myself to other authors, just to my ideal self…and in my head, I’d failed.

I’ve gotten good at remembering that comparing myself to other authors is unhelpful at best and stupid at worst. We all have different goals, different types of books, and different personal struggles. But while I’m generous to myself when it comes to seeing what I’ve done when it comes to other authors, I’m not so nice when I look at what I think I should’ve gotten done.

But when she started going through all that we got accomplished with the German and Italian translations, the anthologies I was in, and the new books that came out, I have to admit, the lists she gave me made me feel much better.

Published in 2023 by Shaw Montgomery/MA Innes

Here’s some stats:

6 titles as Shaw Montgomery and 25 titles as MA Innes including:
-2 Anthologies
-5 German Translations
-3 Italian Translations
-3 previously published in anthologies now solo titles
-3 Bonus Library additions

Plus
Launched Patreon and as of mid December:
-1 full Patreon exclusive story
-7 exclusive bonuses

Launched Cuties n Kink shop and as of mid December:**
-features over 80 product listings

There’s still a little voice in the back of my head that points out what else I could’ve gotten done (leftover childhood crap from a family of Type-A overachievers lol) but I’m really pleased with how much got done.

Between my kids wanting to spend every minute together over the summer and my daughter struggling to get used to being on her own at college (we’re just going to say that August was hard), I had a lot of distractions. But we managed to get a lot done in spite of all that and I’m going to do my best to ignore that annoying little voice.

We’ll let Kevin drown it out lol.

He’s most excited about the dragon books this year because he wants to pet one and go flying. I have to agree with him, but the rest of my college cuties and the translations were wonderful to see get published this year.

And then I think about how much work we’ve done with Patreon and all the cute merch…yeah, we’ve got a lot to be proud of this year.

What’s been your favorite book this year?
Any of the bonus shorts stand out?
Did you find me as a new reader this year?

I’d love to hear what you think because you guys are definitely on this journey with me and I love every minute of it.