I’ve been sitting here thinking about what I should say in my first blog post. To be fair, this isn’t my first blog post. This is just my first post under my pseudonym, Summer Hayes. I’ve been writing for almost a decade now, but never really dove into the romance genre until I met my friend Lauren in a writing workshop last fall. I’ve always wanted to try it but never had the confidence. She convinced me I should give it a whirl. Thus, Summer Hayes was born. Taking the self-publishing route has been a daunting task. Many days I’m overwhelmed with things I should be doing to promote myself. If I’m being honest, I tend to slack on doing the work a traditional house is supposed to do for you. I’m too honed in on writing. After so long it becomes a part of you. Even writing genre fiction tends to grab hold of me, dragging me into a world I can flee to when everyday life gets me down. Let’s be honest. It’s 2024. Things seem dismal. If there’s one thing I hope for in the coming year, it’s that a reader can derive the same pleasure in escaping to the worlds I’ve created as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them.