Astray‘s release is getting closer, and with it comes a lot of emotions. Most of them positive, of course – I’m beyond thrilled about finishing this book and being able to focus on the sequel. But there’s also a bit of anxiety, that I suppose is inevitable when you’re about to share something you created.

As some of you might have noticed, I call myself a m/m fiction writer in my blog header. On my About page, I write that I write m/m fiction but with a touch of romance. This isn’t because I don’t want to be associated with the romance genre – on the contrary. I have so much respect for the genre and for romance writers, and I’m well aware that the genre has its rules. Rules that writers are expected to follow. There are so many writers out there who can write beautiful, heartwarming stories that are excellent examples of romantic fiction.

I’ve never been a feelgood person. I don’t know how many times I’ve tried to write children’s fiction, only to realize after a while that my plots are much too dark and that they’d make kids traumatized for life. I don’t know why, but my favorite characters have always been villains and my storylines tend to have at least a few dark elements.

That said, romance is the core of all my stories. You might have to wait for the happy ending, and things might be quite awful for the MC on the way there, but there will be a happy ending. I adore my main pairings above everything else and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I don’t know what I want to say with this, really, but the thing is that I just don’t want to disappoint anyone. I know my kind of stories aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, and that’s fine. It’s just frustrating, as a writer, to know that you can’t please everyone.

Basically (and this might be a bit spoiler-y): Astray is the first part of a trilogy. It’s 1/3 of the story. And when I say that my MC’s will get a HEA, I mean it. That might not happen in the first book, though. Just thought I should let you know.