I usually don’t talk about my personal life. Sigh! The latter half of 2023 wasn’t the easiest for me. With illness, looking for a new apartment, personal woes, it was safe to say my energy depleted. January started off better with the release of Nova 2 and the Sunshine Book Festival but, I find myself still in a bit of a rut especially with writing. I’m constantly thinking about ways of improving my writing. And things I need to leave behind. So, I have made a difficult decision. As of 2025, I’m stepping out of the romance genre indefinitely. 2024 will be the last time you see anything dealing with romance from me for a few years. I already have a few things lined up: Coryville Part 2 and a possible Christmas Anthology.

You’re probably wondering why the turn of events. Well, I added paranormal romance to my list of genres at the end of 2022, while I was finishing Coryville and Rose Manor. I was going to release them under another penname, but I just decided to keep it under Latrell. This is something I thought long and hard about. Now, less than two years later, it’s become apparent to me that I no longer have the inspiration to write romance. Essentially, writing romance is akin to writing fantasy to me. Hear me out. I know fiction is fiction, however; I put some of the things and experiences I have encountered in my life in my books. Nova was my anger. The Friend Trilogy was my loneliness. When it comes to romance, I pull it strictly from my imagination.

Currently, I do not have any romance in my life, nor have I ever. That’s why it feels like writing fantasy for me. I haven’t been able to pull it from real life experience or encounters. Surprise. That’s my little secret I’ve been hiding for a while.

Now, maybe in the future I will gather some sort of inspiration. However, right now, I just do not have it in me. At times, I feel lost. Do my characters have enough chemistry for it to be believable? Is this romantic gesture being done correctly? So many wonders when I’m writing romance. As of late, I’ve been writing a Christmas romance short story and I’ve been racking my brain on whether these characters have that spark or show a real attraction for each other for the story to be believable. I guess that’s where a beta reader comes in.

Anyway. I intended on releasing Coryville 3 and 4 in 2025 and 2026, however; with them being in the early writing phase and having not worked on them since summer, that’s simply not going to happen at this time.

So, that’s that. Back to horror and sci-fi I go.