Big news is coming on the Just Life front, but today, just a bit of reflection on the journey it's already been.

When I started writing this series in 2022 we were living in a post-pandemic world. People were still relearning how to connect and build community. We were rocked socially, politically, and emotionally by the way life had (once again for us millennials) suddenly changed the rules. 

Just Life was conceived as an answer to that longing to be part of a community. To reach out and touch the lives of other LGBTQI+ individuals, but not having the social capital or time to actually accomplish it. It was conceived as a 'cozy' read and an escape from the heavier books I'd been working on (A psychological thriller and a YA sci-fi). It started there, but it quickly became so much more.

Before I'd even finished penning Jamie's story (Tuesday) I'd plotted out the rest of the omnibus. My original intention hadn't been for it to be categorically LGBTQI+ fiction. I tend to write queer characters into any story I write because--shocked face--they are in all those spaces and deserve to be written as they are. As I crafted the rest of the original omnibus, I realized that (Shelley, Camilla, Dex, Tyler, Pella, and Nat) were all part of this community. Some were queer in their own identities, others were by association, but there was a story to be told here because I needed that queer joy in my life, and I wanted to share it.

So why am I all up in my feels about a four-year-old project?

I've decided to start releasing it to the world, and as I give each novelette a fresh scrub, I'm transported back to 2022 and the first days I spent with these amazing men, women, and non-binary characters.

So these are the final days when Jamie, Shelley, Camilla, Dex, Tyler, Pella, and Nat are just for me, but I'm so excited to give them to the world and see the connections people make with them. 

-KD