Of biting more than you can chew - oven baked fruit for a sweet, healthy treat

I do believe I tend  to bite off more than I can afford to chew. It's a lesson I keep having a hard time learning, and a mistake I keep plunging myself into. Right now, I'm juggling and the balls are all falling off my hands. Well, no, not really, they are not falling off my hands, but I catch them by the barest nick, know what I mean? Along with keeping this blog up, beta reading for one very talented author, cooking, styling and shooting for an instagram challenge that is meant to up my whole photographic game; I have been working on a new series for a while now - I hadn't yet finished writing The Preternaturals Series when this one popped into my mind - and already have one book written and the second one almost done. And still, I am unsure if I'm going to publish this one. For starters, the main subject is one that has seen a lot of versions, both on paper and on screen. It's like, everyone's done it. It's like I'm late for this ball, as usual, and it will only feel like I'm hopping on the band wagon, tailing after everyone else.

But then again, I am doing my own take, so of course it's different from the rest. It differs not only in the fact that I am me and not the rest, but on many other things too. That's what scares me about it. About the readers' reaction to it. It's not an outlandish idea, I did research into it and some currents defend the location I set the story in as the real one in a legend that has crossed the whole world. I did do a bit of my homework in there. But I know there's a lot more people who disagree with this current of thought then there are those who believe it to be the only possible truth. I fear people will only bash it around because of that choice, of not going for the common belief where it comes to the setting of this legend, and the general belief of the parts each and every character had in it. I fear people won't even bother giving it a chance, offended as they feel for my daring to change something that, well, quite honestly does not even belong to my culture, and to which I am not entitled. And then again, that's not quite what has me on tenterhooks about this work. It's because I'm keeping to the same genre.

I often read that a good writer can work in just about any genre, and should even strive to do so. I seem to have a real hard time with that. I like writing in one particular genre, and that is the paranormal/supernatural/urban fantasy. This time with a dash of historical fantasy thrown in. But yeah, it's vampires and witches again. That's what kind of makes me shirk from publishing the books. I already have so few readers, if I push out another series of novels in the same genre, I won't attract new readers and will probably end up losing the ones I already amassed. But I can't seem to write anything other than witches and vampires. Enter the novella I embarked upon and here I am again, going for the same thing. Despite believing my novels tackle a bit more than the old run of the mill vampire/witch dicotomy. I try to broach other, deeper issues too. Abuse, homophobia, violence against women, incest, betrayal, unbriddled ambition, the evil that men do, I try to tackle it all. Maybe you can't tell. Maybe I'm not doing it well. This novella I'm writing, it ties in with both the previous series and the other one I'm working at. A faint thread, yes, but it's there. And the genre is still the same. But it deals with so much more than just vampires banging a witch or two or killing for blood. It deals with addiction, with body shaming, with violence, domestic abuse, child abuse, bullying. It's all there, but it's still vampires and witches, in the end.

Because that's who I am who I am as an author. I like what I like. And the stories in my head, maybe all of them feature vampires, witches, Fey, can de loups. Maybe I will ever only write in one genre. It is who I am, so I should go with that. It's something I have been learning also through Kimberly's from The Little Plantation Instagram Winter Challenge. I am who I am in my photography too. Dark, moody, broody. I have been pushing myself in this challenge, but mostly remaining faithful to what actually moves me, the dark table mood food photography. Like these, which were taken for Week 2 of this challenge. So here is one of my favourite desserts, should these images wake inside you a craving for something so lush as I tried to make this look. All you need is:

• 1 small pineapple, peeled, de-cored and chopped
• 4 medium sized russet apples, peeled and de-cored, chopped
• 2 pears, peeled, de-cored, chopped
• 1 cup of frozen cassis
• generous pinch of cinnamon

Toss all the fruit into an oven proof dish and mix in the cinnamon, allowing it to coat the fruit. Bang in the oven at 190º until the fruit looks golden and is bubbling. Serve still warm, it needs nothing more, but if you're in an indulgent mood, well, a scoop of vanilla ice cream, double cream or greek yogurt will do the trick. Enjoy, and have yourselves a great weekend!