Okay, so if you've spent any time in indie author spaces then you've heard it. Over and over and over again.
Be consistent.
Consistently deliver quality. Consistently hit your release schedule. Consistently market. Consistency is the secret sauce. Consistency is what separates the authors who are absolutely killing it from the ones still wondering why their books aren't moving.
And honestly? The evidence backs this up. I've followed enough wildly successful indie authors like CJ Archer, Morgana Best, Alice Coldbreath, Mina Carter (to name just a few) to know it's not just a platitude. The ones really breaking through — they are consistent. Their covers, their branding, their tropes and release cadence, all consistent. It's almost annoyingly organized.
So I sat with that for a while. Made mental notes. Right. Consistency. Got it.
And then something struck me. Here's the thing: I am consistent. I am very, very consistent. I am consistently INCONSISTENT.
There it is. That's my brand, apparently.
And it reminds me of another piece of timeless advice people love to dish out: "everything in moderation."
What if I am moderately excessive about everything? Explain that to me, Patricia. Because from where I'm standing, I don't do a little bit of anything — I cannonball.
As I've had people point out to me before: "You just like to march to the beat of your own drum." And for a long time I thought that sounded kind of free-spirited. These days I'm starting to wonder if my drum is just... broken. Because my timing is always off.
Add chronic procrastination to the mix and honestly, it's a wonder anything gets written at all.
Also, for the record: having a head full of unwritten characters is not peaceful. They do not wait quietly. They talk. All night. "Can't think, can't sleep, can't breathe" — courtesy of the Chemical Brothers.
So. Here's where things took a turn.
World War III is approaching. Straits closing, fuel shortages and price hikes, supply chain disruption — you know the vibe. And one day I just woke up and thought: if I don't get my act together I'm going to end up pitching a tent in the mountains and breeding goats for milk. Don't ask me where that thought came from.
So this year, I started doing things in baby steps.
I started a garden. Growing my own food, propagating seeds from scratch, following an organic fertilizer guy on TikTok. I cleared out the back yard and have plans for citrus and fruit trees, loads of veggies. And I'm keeping my dahlias alive and thriving. Did you know dahlias were originally introduced to Europe as a food crop? Their bulbs are edible apparently (but please don't go eating stuff out of the dirt just cause I said so... check with an expert first, just in case).
I've stocked non-perishables, invested in solar power bits. I bought canning jars (I do not yet know what to do with them, but having them makes me feel important). I learned to make four ingredient bread. Four ingredients. I feel like a more capable person because of this rustic bread-making skill I've acquired. I learned to make purini — a family recipe, boiled cloth pudding, proper old school — which feels like something you'd make the night before a siege.
And I bought water purification tablets. Because if The Walking Dead taught me one thing, it's that clean water is liquid gold. I am ready. You are all welcome in my bunker.
I am, in short, quietly preparing for the end of the world while simultaneously writing romance novels. Totally normal. Very chill.
But something shifted in that energy. The just-focus-on-survival energy. And I brought it into my writing life too.
Although I'll admit there was a brief intermission in my prepper arc, because the show Off-Campus dropped and listen, I read those books years ago and watching the adaptation was a whole experience. I binged it.
I downloaded the soundtrack and I have not stopped playing it. Jensen McRae's Massachusetts, The Beaches' Edge of the World, Jem Cassar-Daley's Front Left Pocket — these have been on high rotation while I write my medieval stories. Don't ask me why it works. It just does.
Anyway. Back to getting my sh*t sorted.
I looked at my book list. I looked at my chaos. I thought about you, my readers, and honestly felt terrible for making you wait so long. And I made a decision: lean into the medieval and regency romance stories, work down the list, and get them out on time. That's it. That's the plan.
So here's my new publishing schedule: To Tame a Viking Warlord (July 2026), Sebastian: Cambridge Book 3 (September 2026). For my sci-fi romance readers, The Eleventh House (The Friven Empire Book 1) has moved to December 2026, putting it closer to the release dates for Books 2 (February 2027) and 3 (March 2027). And somewhere in the midst of all that, I'm going to squeeze in Captive Hearts: Reluctant Brides Book 6 as a surprise release. WISH ME LUCK!
Between now and then, I am hands-down in the dirt, and heads-down in my medieval and regency romances, building out these series properly before shifting to other subgenres. (I also have contemporary rural crime, dark mafia, dark paranormal and dark MC books drafting in the background — but they will not take my focus away from the historicals just yet.)
Speaking of, I have a new book out. 'Your Money of Your Wife: Reluctant Brides Book 5'
This isn't me suddenly transforming into a rigid, colour-coded-spreadsheet type of person. That's not happening, no one should hold their breath. But it is me acknowledging that the chaos costs me more than it's worth — in stress, in lost sleep, in books that stay stuck in my head instead of getting out into the world.
Consistently inconsistent was fun for a while. Now I'm trying something new.
Consistently showing up. Even if the drum's a little off-beat.
Watch this space. 🥁
Elina xoxo
Image: 1) My prepper stash 2) My dahlias 3) Cleared backyard 4) Purini (cloth pudding)