Who Am I to Write Project Starfish?

One Logical and Four Illogical Reasons (and I probably miscounted)

The idea of a fictional newsletter about a fictional diary from an alternate history world that has sea dragons doesn’t sound like something that fits under the heading “logical”, but…

To Be Briefly Logical:

Let’s start with showing off my writing creds: I am a New York-published author. By this I mean that a New York publisher contracted me to write for them. Which I did. All were historical novels, and all were romances.

If you use your internet-fu to find me on the interwebs, you’ll see that there are two Regency romance books under my name (or if your google-fu is really good, you’ll find a couple of small press novellas long out of print).

Yup, this was me back in … 2004. I have never worn so much makeup before or since!

The last book came out in 2007. My writing career came to a crashing halt — a story I’ll save for another day. Everything is out of print. I’ve spent my entire life writing and dreaming up worlds and it’s just possible that now that I am in my 50s, I might be able to write what I want to, without catering to any publisher demands or what’s on trend.

Yeah, I know, dragons are back on trend, but truly, not my dragons.

Let’s Get Illogical (Illogical)

Illogical #1:

What’s a Regency romance author doing writing fantasy/alternate history? Short answer, because I can. Because I always wanted to. The Regency period is practically a fantasy world anyway (see Bridgerton.)

Illogical #2:

Project Starfish doesn’t niche down. It incorporates all of my loves: history (specifically, Regency and Arthurian (the history, not the literature)), writing fiction, stationery items, making collages, journals and videos. Oh and a smidge of K-Drama.

Illogical #3:

This is 100% play for me.

In today’s hustle culture, it’s all about making money out of our hobbies, of making work out of everything we do — and no, just NO.

I have an income. I don’t need to make money (I recognise this is privilege), therefore this publication is my gift for you. It will be the best I can possibly make it (because I still haven’t quite shaken off perfectionism) and yet it will still be free.

Oh and let’s be honest. From my first novel, with all the work I put into it, I made maybe 0.001c an hour. I may as well work for free. (I made a little more on the books that followed, but nothing that I would call a liveable wage.)

So why NOT write for fun? (Or crochet or whatever hobby makes you happy.)

Illogical #4:

I am ace at going down research rabbit holes. You will find me on the dusty floor of my library, surrounded by books and my browser with umpteen tabs open as I search for more information on something that wasn’t even worthy of a footnote. Sometimes I stumble across a seemingly inconsequential nugget of information on either the web or in a non-fiction book and go “ooooh, what if….?” and then I have to dig.

And then a story or a plot twist idea blooms into being. I’ll be sharing some of the research rabbit holes with you when I am not in “fictional character sharing diary entries” mode.

Will You Come Along for the Ride?

Come on, there are sea dragons, and Arthurian legends, and the beautiful Regency period. What’s not to love here?

Would you agree that I’m the one to write Project Starfish? Are you excited for it? Let me know in the comments (in the Substack app) or hit ‘reply’!