For the last year and a half, I’ve shown up on social media almost exclusively as an author. A bookstagram. A writing account. A place built around drafts, book content, edits, cover reveals, and the long, quiet work of bringing stories into the world, indie-style.
In May, after two years of building it piece by piece, I indie published my first dystopian novel, Without Light (The Sanctioned Series). I’ve never been shy about saying it wasn’t a genre I set out to write. I built a world that surprised me with its weight, its politics, its characters, and its insistence on becoming more than a single book. Somewhere between plotting and pantsing, it turned into a trilogy.
I fell hard for that story. For the mess. The moral ache. The people living inside it.
Without Light has been out in the world for several months now. It has sold just over 300 copies, gathered more than 50 Goodreads ratings, and earned thoughtful reader reviews. For a debut indie dystopian with no built-in audience and no massive ad spend, that’s solid. It’s also honest data. Dystopian, right now, is a slow-burn genre. Series momentum takes time, money, and sustained focus.
Book two exists. The story is there. The draft is finished, and I’m proud of it. But this series is expensive to produce well. Editing, printing, marketing, everything comes directly out of my own pocket. More than that, it asks for a level of creative and emotional bandwidth that deserves to be entered into willingly, not out of obligation.
So I’m choosing to pause.
Not because I don’t believe in the work, but because I respect it. I want any decision about continuing the series to come from clarity, not pressure. From readiness, not momentum-chasing. Without Light will continue to be available, supported, and shared. What comes next for that world remains open, by design.
And here’s the plot twist.
Since August, I’ve been living a double creative life. While writing dystopian under my real name, I quietly, never stopped writing dark romance romcoms projects and began the work toward publishing under a pen name, Calla Tate. What started as a pivot turned into momentum. What turned into momentum became joy. Starting in January, at least three dark romcoms will be published or scheduled for editing, and will be releasing in 2026.
I kept that side of my work intentionally quiet. Though a good amount of you knew. I thought invisibility was the same as peace. Somewhere between protecting my nervous system and protecting other people’s comfort, I started shrinking the full scope of what I was building.
I’m not doing that anymore.
This isn’t about conflict. It’s about ownership. Of my voice. Of my ambition. Of the fact that I’m allowed to evolve without asking for permission.
Right now, my creative energy lives very strongly in the dark romance space. It’s responsive. It talks back. It’s taught me something important about myself as a writer: I’m not meant to live inside one genre, one tone, or one carefully fenced identity. I’m meant to move. To follow what sharpens me instead of what confines me.
So what does this mean for writing under my name?
It means a shift.
My website, social pages, and newsletter are becoming a space for me. My life. My reading life. My writing, across genres. Without Light remains part of that story. I also love fitness, home renovations, and décor. I’m dating again at almost forty, which is its own genre entirely. This space is widening to reflect a full, lived creative life, not just a single output.
My pen name, @callatatebooks, will continue to grow in its own lane, with privacy, consistency, and a very different kind of output. That’s where my commercial fiction lives and thrives. My name becomes my creative home base again. The place I don’t have to protect with algorithms or branding fences that force me into one corner of the internet.
You may think this is a terrible idea.
That’s okay.
This isn’t a retreat. It’s a recalibration. One that allows me to keep writing, keep publishing, and keep choosing this career with honesty instead of burnout.
The story of The Sanctioned Series isn’t erased. It’s simply no longer being rushed.
And for the first time in a long while, that feels like breathing room.
***I reserve the right to change my mind at any time and do whatever I want.***
