In December of 2017 I started writing a book that would change my life forever. Only I didn’t know it at the time. I didn’t know it would be that book that launched something more. Omega Studies wasn’t the first novel I wrote. The first I wrote in high school and it’s been lost to the passage of time. Others I wrote for ghost writing jobs and then under another pen name for a different genre.
Freelancing gave me decent income, but was slowly eating away at my creative soul. Novel writing hadn’t provided enough income to become my full time job. Publishing my own stuff was what I wanted to do, but it seemed so far away. It seemed like an impossibility.
Still I wasn’t ready to give up. So, I tried something new. I tried mpreg romance. It was a test run that I was sure would flop out. Only it didn’t. It paid the bills. Then came Omega Sight and people were still reading. I was shocked.
Health problems got in my way after the third book and my publishing slowed down. My writing ground to a halt. I didn’t know if it would ever work out. Then, my health improved and I came back to write Healer’s Oath (Doctor Bane’s book) and people read it too. I was and am a little flabbergasted when I think about it.
The teenage girl scribbling out a vampire story in the back of her AP classes during lectures would have never thought it was possible. Sure, I’m not rich, but I’m doing what I love and paying the bills. That’s not something everyone can say.
Today, almost 3 years after I started writing Omega Studies, I finished the last book in the Hemlock Wolf Pack Saga. That’s 13 books in total.13! That doesn’t count the three books in my other series in my standalones.
Finishing the last chapter this morning was bitter sweet. I never imagined being able to pursue this series for so long and pay the bills with it. At the same time I can’t believe it’s over. I mean, there are rewrites, edits, and all of that, but the creative part of the series is over.
I’ve always referred to the Hemlock Wolf Pack Saga as my baby. It’s my brain baby. I love my world and my characters. I love waking up every morning and working with them even when they made me want to bang my head on the wall.
At the same time, I look forward to what comes next. I have Fairy Tales to catch up to the timeline. I have standalone ideas falling out of my ears! And of course the illusive Juda and Frost origin novel I’ve spoken about countless times. That one is actually up next unless I crash and burn creatively on it. Which I don’t feel like will happen. I always just give that disclaimer, in case something goes wrong.
It’s bitter sweet to end a project that’s been going on for almost 3 years. They’ve been hard three years in my personal life. Sometimes I think my Hemlock Universe saved me from my own mental health issues. No, I’m not advocating writing over mental health care. It’s just part of my management strategy.
I found strength in my characters. Finishing each book built my confidence in other areas of my life too. Feedback and constructive criticism during my writing process gave me a thicker skin and more resilience. As I created them, they built me up. I’ve made so many friends both in other writers and with readers. Which due to my social anxiety seemed impossible before I started publishing the saga. Not to sound like I’m writing a thank you letter to fictional characters, but without them in my daily life I don’t know where I’d be.
So for those of you who have followed the Hemlock Wolf Pack Saga this far, I extend a huge thank you! I hope you’ll continue this journey with me as I explore other areas of the Hemlock Mpreg Universe.
Maggie Hemlock Books 