I want to talk about “Pancakes for Dinner” by Lizzie McAlpine. Have you heard the song?

I’ve been thinking about using this space as a snapshot work journal of sorts. Going Forward is primarily for monthly recaps–looking back and documenting everything I want to remember five years from now. This series would be closer to journaling, I suppose. Or scripting for the videos I always plan to make but never do.

Back to “Pancakes for Dinner.” I’m working on my next adult romance that I’m resolutely not talking about publicly. Or in private lmao (my agent, my publisher, and my mom know. that’s it). This song almost perfectly captures my FMC’s vibe. There’s this inherent joy and promise in being with your person. Not just any person, your person, however that looks. It doesn’t have to be romantic–it can be platonic, familial, anything as long as they matter to you. For me, connection is the root of any story that I write. I love exploring and developing relationships between characters.

I think about what I tried to do with THE ROMANTIC AGENDA a lot–and why I’ll never do that again. I truly challenged myself to tackle so many different types of love at once. From a craft standpoint, I needed the safety of it being a Romance to help me get to the end. I could talk about that book and all its layers forever but I don’t. And I won’t. But whenever I need a reminder, I re-read a review written by [redacted author]. That was the first time I truly felt seen as a writer. I literally sobbed reading it.

Anyway, the FMC in my next book isn’t in a similar situation, thank god, but she has a similar issue. She’s operating out of a place of unconditional love and overwhelming uncertainty, and makes some really, really rash decisions. But under it all she really just wants to have “Pancakes for Dinner.”

and that’s all she wrote.

PS
Happy Book Birthday, Joy. Yes, I know it was on April 12th. I promise to make it up to you and Fox in the epilogue.