I’m about fifteen thousand words into my current project, and… Do I have to be self-aware? I’m beginning to see similarities between this book and the last one, and the one before that. Oh, yes. And the one before that.

My characters and their relationships!

I don’t want to say they’re “trapped” in their relationships. That makes it sound like a movie of the week. But they’re in relationships where both sides have a compelling reason to stay, even though their attachment may be more practical than personal. Saving the world keeps them together. Putting up with each other gives them power or immortality or… whatever. They’re really solid, stable relationships based on something that’s not love. Are they gonna fall in love? No. Not necessarily.

That probably says something about me.

But the uneasiness is in the idea that I might be turning into one of those writers who keeps writing the same story over and over.

I don’t think that these relationships are the story. You can write novels about submarine captains or smart, female detectives, and not repeat the story. There’s no reason you can’t write about people in relationships of necessity. I guess. Maybe.

Did I just talk myself out of that insecurity? No, of course not. It has its up and downs.