Busy Productive Time

I’ve been pretty busy over the last few years since…through the pandemic. I noticed my last post here was 2020. Let me give you the blast version of the run down.

2020 – Global Pandemic. Spent a lot of time writing. Also 2020 couldn’t figure out how to make wordpress work the way I needed it to easily, so I chose another what I thought was free web host. Let’s face it with royalties what they are I can’t really justify spending $300 a year on a website. Sorry, not sorry, no go. In any event I got this really cool website up and going. Then I discovered it was only free for a year then said fee was imposed. That took a lot of wind out of my sails. I’m back to WordPress. I still don’t get it to work the way I want it to. I’ll have to work on learning it more, I guess. It’s not always user friendly.

Also 2020 discovered a number of my less racy titles were in the “Erotic Dungeon”. In talking with authors I learned that if Amazon thinks that your title is a little risqué they only allow it to appear if the searcher (potential readers) knows the author’s name and searches on that variable. In effect, if someone searched out a broad category of say ‘romance’ then my title wouldn’t appear. Rip much? Oh yeah. So that resulting emotion caused me to end my long-time exclusive contract with Amazon. I ended the exclusive contract option with them and as the contracts expired, I posted my titles far and wide on other digital platforms. Draft2Digital (thru them Smashwords) and Book Strand, now join Amazon in hosting my books. That took a lot of my time and energy through 2022.

So, in 2020 I launched into a series I named “Seductive Celebrations”. If I was going to be punished in sales for what I wrote. I’d give them something worth punishing. Oh I was a very bad girl. It’s a novella. Blurb: “Vol 1 of Seductive Celebrations Novelette, MFM/MMF; Erotic Paranormal Romance. This is a spicy evening read for your entertainment and enjoyment. Let the Seductive Celebrations Begin. Brielle and Michael orchestrate a birthday celebration Noah will never forget. Brielle crosses the divide between male and female with her fae talent of shape shifting into any form she can visualize. For this birthday party she’s got something up her pants. Michael and Noah open the door to try new things. A birthday is a perfect time for getting down with new experiences. Wolf shifters always enjoy a little rough fun while they share their fairy’s tail. Best Birthday EVER!” https://www.amazon.com/Noahs-Fairy-Tale-Seductive-Celebrations-ebook/dp/B08D6ZRVDF?ref_=ast_author_dp_rw&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.57_gJ9keGYERfTFL_1TuN5viUCztnYopdbKxDmzyY0B7f6vaB2JMkTIIYKuwDdHJ6KDh5CvYcXBQE8Qze8aBqtLmfQ_5AF4lv1R0zQ2ZqMZDVyzFpI0Ur9PXo9DG0cnlDz-948B_pVP6lbpZf3rGe679kRPUVcMtK_1vRkMqiSdy0uxWiXYOJnrGCmgPMvncuCrAgNB05EGHVLuMQie11V-9MyfYdAtzlNk2id8z5ig.jq-ztzUO-miKbf4EkzbKYf2c0P2558DFa8Uw4R12pow&dib_tag=AUTHOR

That temper tantrum led to book 2 in the Seductive Celebrations with “Three Is Just Right.” Another Novella length, Blurb: “I am Jade and I am a complicated piece of ass. That’s what I’ve been told by past lovers and I can see the point. I’ve got barriers around me like a concertina wire fence and hackles like a porcupine. Commitment phobe? Look it up in the Urban Dictionary and you’ll see my picture. But then, you could find my photo and references to me under several entries in that tomb of kink. It’s Christmas and I feel like giving three of my packmates a special gift, a no holds barred, me. All I want in return is a little bit of DNA to satisfy my ticking clock. I was raised by a single mother. That’s my style. I have a choice of a luscious Dar’kind Fae full of mystery and command; a hot ebony feline shifter that makes me laugh and wears his heart on his sleeve; and the gentle giant of a man that packs me full of goodness. Is he bear shifter or bigfoot’s love child? I can’t choose between them. What I don’t expect is the way they will peal away my layers until I’m left vulnerable and ready to accept the future my three unique lovers have planned for me.” https://www.amazon.com/Three-Just-Right-Seductive-Celebrations-ebook/dp/B08FF31HL1?ref_=ast_author_dp_rw&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.57_gJ9keGYERfTFL_1TuN5viUCztnYopdbKxDmzyY0B7f6vaB2JMkTIIYKuwDdHJ6KDh5CvYcXBQE8Qze8aBqtLmfQ_5AF4lv1R0zQ2ZqMZDVyzFpI0Ur9PXo9DG0cnlDz-948B_pVP6lbpZf3rGe679kRPUVcMtK_1vRkMqiSdy0uxWiXYOJnrGCmgPMvncuCrAgNB05EGHVLuMQie11V-9MyfYdAtzlNk2id8z5ig.jq-ztzUO-miKbf4EkzbKYf2c0P2558DFa8Uw4R12pow&dib_tag=AUTHOR Yes, indeed I planned on earning my spot in the erotic dungeon.

Then in 2021 – 2023 I returned to school to get certified for a new career. I really needed income. I worked hard at that and graduated a two-year program with a 4 pt average and a number of academic awards. I was able to re-enter the job market in 2023 and start paying off some bills. Go Me.

In the meantime. I’ll call these 2020 – 2024 the pandemic years. I still had that naggy voice in my head from my x-husband’s aunt. See blog post in 2017 on Never Give UP. That voice kept telling me I wasn’t good enough. It battled with the other voice in my head telling me nice naughty stories to pass on to you guys. I’d promised you guys “Jake’s Bid” It was a story that nagged me quite a bit. It has a Valentines Day setting. It really wrote like a Seductive Celebrations book. However, it was intended to be in the Amethyst Desire Collection because of that naughty amethyst necklace. You will have to be the judge. I finished it a long time ago but toyed with it, worried with it, wrote additional scenes, took the scenes out, put them back in, edited them. Finally this week 2025 I had to just let it go. Maybe you will like it….maybe you will hate it. I set it free. Blurb “Jake has a Friday night ritual of dinner, wine, and cards with his friends Julian and Natalie. Somewhere along the way he fell in love with both of them. He hasn’t been able to figure out how to communicate his desire without the risk of losing the friendship he has with the couple.

Tonight is the night, Valentine’s Day. He purchased an amethyst necklace for Natalie and he’s going to figure out how to tell them he wants to deepen their three-way relationship if he doesn’t chicken out.

While talking himself out of the confession he hears Natalie say, “We’ll play a round of spades and the winner gets to fuck me.” Julian smiled before he added, “And I get to fuck the loser.” His smile broadened as he looked Jake in the eye. “Does that about cover where you wanted to go, Jake?” https://www.amazon.com/Jakes-Bid-Amethyst-Desire-Collection-ebook/dp/B0DSQQ72KS?ref_=ast_author_dp_rw&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.57_gJ9keGYERfTFL_1TuN5viUCztnYopdbKxDmzyY0B7f6vaB2JMkTIIYKuwDdHJ6KDh5CvYcXBQE8Qze8aBqtLmfQ_5AF4lv1R0zQ2ZqMZDVyzFpI0Ur9PXo9DG0cnlDz-948B_pVP6lbpZf3rGe679kRPUVcMtK_1vRkMqiSdy0uxWiXYOJnrGCmgPMvncuCrAgNB05EGHVLuMQie11V-9MyfYdAtzlNk2id8z5ig.jq-ztzUO-miKbf4EkzbKYf2c0P2558DFa8Uw4R12pow&dib_tag=AUTHOR

So there you have it. I am continuing to write and write and write. I am working on the next in the Amethyst Desire Collection which is vol 9 if I count right. It will be titled Jack’s Holiday. It will be a fun F,F,M menage’ romp in a world I’ve not explored before while still under the influence of that crafty amethyst necklace. I hope you will like it. I’m working on final edits and the cover now. That spawned off a side series about those new paranormal beings and I’ve got two novellas in the works there that are MFM menage’. I also started on the beginnings of the 10th Amethyst Desire Collection that has a Yule setting and is a fun another F,F,M menage’. And on a back burner is an alien sci fy trilogy novel. The only tease I’ll give is think tentacle porn. It may stay under my bed for a long time, or maybe not.

That explains my gap in visiting with you. I hope you haven’t completely forgotten about me. I’m climbing, clawing back. Let me know what you think. And as always, the way to help authors is to purchase their work. It’s often less than a starbucks latte. Then leave a review. It doesn’t have to be a book report and don’t put in spoilers. Just a brief and click some stars. I still have reviews out there from vengeful x-girlfriends that were 1 star and said mean things. So, be kind.

My Pandemic Response

I don’t leave the house much these days. When I do I am very very careful. I have medical issues and so does my spouse. We view ourselves as very healthy and plan to stay that way. My spouse and I have discovered that my way of dealing with global trauma is to escape the news and write. I’m in final edits on two, three, now four lovely pieces for your enjoyment. This blog gives you a bit of the back story on each.

In 2016 We had a business trip to New Orleans. The notes for both of these pieces came out of that working holiday.

The first is a story On The Hunt is volume 7 in the Amethyst Desire Collection. Our female character made an appearance in Austin’s Surprise as Austin’s sister. On The Hunt is an erotic paranormal as Eva travels to New Orleans for a job interview and falls in bed, lust and perhaps in love with the local Alpha Garrett.

Simultaneously to writing this “On The Hunt” novella, I did a search in Amazon on a couple of my titles and discovered they wouldn’t come up. Long research project later I found that 7 of my 12 books were in the “Erotic Dungeon” at Amazon. They wouldn’t appear on a search. You could only find the titles through my author page on Amazon. Okay, so I wrote inquiries and long, long, yak, yak the books were reinstated.

In the mean time, two characters emerged in “On The Hunt” that really wanted to steal the show. Brielle and Jade. I had to give them screen time because they were so much fun, full of wisdom and sass. Brielle got her short story time in Noah’s Fairy Tale (available) and Jade played in Three is Just Right (coming soon). They are vol 1 and 2 of a new series called Seductive Celebrations. These delights are sparse on plot and loaded with tantalizing fantasy. Consider them short provocative bedtime stories. Exactly what belongs in a dungeon.

Additionally, Jake showed up with an amethyst necklace for another man’s wife and had to have their threesome story told in Jake’s Bid Vol 8 of The Amethyst Desire Collection. (coming soon). It is a Valentines m/m/f m/f/m ménage story that follows behind Emma’s New Year, moved from vol 5 to vol 7.

So, I am branching out to other publishers and cancelling my kindle exclusives for all my titles. Once they are free of that I will publish over at Smash words and Draft2Digital. I’ll keep you posted on progress to get my books published in a wider platform. Take that you publishing monster. lol.

How are you surviving global pandemic?

Re-Release Day

Dragon Emergence.

Haydn’s found refuge on the earth side of the barrier in the home of the healer, Isobeau. He denies himself comfort and pleasures offered by his freedom.

Rhys is immediately attracted to Haydn. He desires to help the younger man embrace his new life. Unfortunately, Haydn seems stuck, unable to grasp the happiness he craves. Rhys fears Haydn’s continued self-loathing will prevent any possibility of their future together. Drastic measures may be necessary to convince Haydn of his worth and Rhys’ unconditional love for him.

Events in their world are spinning out of control with the emergence of a human as Dragon Guardian. When they both discover they share a secret that may tear apart the leadership of their society, it will take a miracle to overcome the obstacles between them. Haydn must face the choice to remain trapped by his past or to let go and accept all Rhys offers.

Previous released as Dragon’s Unbound

Austin’s Surprise, Vol 5 of The Amethyst Desire Collection

Austin’s Surprise is an erotic M/M Romance Novella and is available from AMAZON for free for the next five days. It is vol 5 of The Amethyst Desire Collection. My newest release On The Hunt is about Eva, Austin’s Sister. She makes a quick appearance at the end of Austin’s Surprise. Check it out as an introduction to the collection and a thank you gift from me.

Love, Eden

Blurb:

Wyatt Andersen has a thing for coffee. He’s got an even bigger thing for The Ground Up Barrista, Austin Curtis. Not sure Austin has the same interest in Wyatt’s brand of strong coffee, he plans on keeping his thing for Austin firmly zipped up.

Austin Curtis dreads another Thanksgiving alone. His business is doing well. He’s developed a faithful following of coffee shop regulars. Wyatt Anderson, a local real estate agent, makes The Ground Up his office away from the office. He isn’t openly gay but Austin would bet a French twist, the man likes more than his coffee strong.

Austin purchases his sister an amethyst necklace for her Christmas present. At closing, he realizes he’s misplaced the blasted stone. Wyatt finds Austin going through the dumpster looking for the lost necklace. Wyatt helps Austin in the search. Opportunity reveals their mutual attraction and sparks fly. Pretty rock or magical amulet, either way, Austin plans to thank Wyatt for the return of the valuable gift with more than Danish and coffee.

Release Day – On The Hunt

On The Hunt is now available at Amazon. See the buy link below. It has been awhile in coming but it is the lovely story of Austin’s (Austin’s Surprise M/M Erotic Vol 5) sister, Eva. I’ve grown to really like this character. She is a folklorist with a lot of diverging interests. In honor of release day, starting tomorrow I’m doing a promo with Amazon to release, Austin’s Surprise for free. Check it out.

Vol 6 of The Amethyst Desire Collection, Novella M/F Paranormal Erotic Romance

Eva, Kaikura Zaieva Curtis, Professor of Folklore and expert in her field is on the hunt for a University assignment in New Orleans. Her brother Austin gave her an interesting Amethyst pendant for an early Christmas gift, which seems to be sparking all kinds of erotic attractions. Disastrous interview over leaving her with a bump on her head and grief for why her mother gave her, a biracial baby, the all too difficult to pronounce name of an African Queen.  Not one to waste time, she has a week to start research on the folklore of VooDoo in the quarter and against her better judgment explore her attraction for one hot off-limits colleague, Anthropology Professor Walsh.

Garrett Lochlainn Walsh, Irish immigrant, wolf shape shifter incognito and Professor for the University’s Anthropology department, finds Eva keenly intelligent, and refreshing. Qualities that for him are incredibly sexy. She is the candidate to beat for Director of the new folklore concentration. He volunteers to be her local escort during her stay in New Orleans, just to make sure she can fit him in.  As a folklorist, some of her interests are a scary turn on, like her up close and personal participation with Voodoo rites in the Quarter. Their weekend sexual romp flares hot and erotic making Garrett howl for a more lasting connection with the impressive Eva Curtis.  Will the pack accept a human as their Alpha’s chosen?  Are those eyes really an indicator of wolf genetics in her family tree or just a trait of her biracial beauty? And the big question. How will she take the news that he spends his time moonlighting as a shape shifting Wolf, Alpha of the local Crescent Moon Pack?

Available at Amazon

Reorganizing such sweet PITA

True Confessions time.

I have loved writing the Amethyst Desire Collection. The stories are either paranormal to contemporary, all kinds of couples and of course they are all adult content with varying degrees of eroticism. That little stone necklace sure makes it around.

Vol 1, The whole thing started with Raynia’s Magic a M/M/F and at times a M/F/M ménage contemporary story. Raynia walked across stage in Dragon Guardian as a customer that Caleb waited on in the beginning of the book. Raynia was strong enough that she needed her own story. Almost simultaneously I ran across an Amethyst pendant in a shop. I picked up the stone and there was the series seeds spring up and taking root. The stone spent quite some time with Raynia. The description was Fall turned to winter and winter to spring. So we are in the springtime when the stone returns to the shop, Salynne’s Crystals and Thyme.

Vol 2 Beverly’s Secret came out of a what if? question. What if when Raynia returned the stone the clerk accidently took it home in her pocket? A fun romp with a F/F love story in a contemporary setting. The setting is springtime.

Vol 3 Phoenix Reborn was a piece I’d worked on haphazardly with a previous girl friend Lisa. This is another fun F/F but paranormal this time. It came from a cos-play experience that got twisted inside out. I really liked the two characters that ensued and didn’t know what to do with them. The Amethyst gave me a chance to bring them out into the open and share them with everyone. There was a teaser about their intro at the end of Beverly’s Secret. So our time table is spring going into summer. A note that their realtor in the story was Wyatt Andersen. More about him later.

Vol 4 Shifter’s Legacy piggy backed with the male protagonist, Nathan making his cameo at the end of Phoenix Reborn. This is another M/F/M ménage story in a paranormal setting with wolf shape shifters. We see a hint to the season from Slades point of view talking about the weather, seasons were sliding into late fall and still furnace hot in Florida….

And here is where we came apart a little bit. At this point I wrote Emma’s New Year. She didn’t tie into any of the other books and all you know is that the setting is duha New Years. It became vol 5. And maybe is a hint that I should stop putting volume numbers on things. LOL.

Obviously there is a big gap from late fall to Happy New Years.

New, Vol 5, Austin’s Surprise. Austin the coffee shop owner of Ground Up as mentioned in Dragon Guardian, and his romance with Wyatt Anderson, a real estate agent. Yes, from Phoenix Reborn. This is a cute M/M with a contemporary setting. It is taking place in the Fall and ends at Thanksgiving.

Vol 6 On The Hunt, picks up with Eva. She is Austin’s sister and the intended recipient of the necklace before all the shenanigans happen to Austin. This is a paranormal M/F and moves to New Orleans for the setting that ends at Christmas.

New Vol 7 Emma’s New Year. A contemporary F/F with a good run of side characters. I hope Georgia gets her story some day. I’ve officially moved it to this position in the series because I didn’t want a huge gap between late fall to New Years to all the way over to Thanksgiving again. I’m sure later I’ll understand why this was so important to me. It has been a bit of a headache to tell you the truth.

Vol 8 Jake’s Bid will be coming out this summer and is a really hot M/F/M M/M/F ménage contemporary story that takes place at Valentines.

On the horizon is perhaps Vol 9 untitled as yet that is a F/M/F Ménage paranormal that will rock your socks off. It happens at Beltane time.

So there you have it, all the questions about that dratted Amethyst you’d ever want to know. Oh? one more?

Yes when will be the final story about that mischievous jewel? I can’t really answer that. Each story seems to spark more and more. Happy reading!

Hello My Friends, Hello

I hope everyone is well and surviving this horrible Covid 19 Virus.  My heartfelt sorrow is with those impacted by it with the loss of a loved one. Loss changes lives.

Something I haven’t been able to tell many people changed our lives in a dramatic way. Two years ago, now almost three, I collapsed in cardiac arrest. Full blown not responsive, can’t get a pulse, no real blood pressure cardiac arrest. I’d had various troubles over the years that I’d passed off as panic attacks. I’d even been in the hospital in 2014 with an ‘episode’ that couldn’t be determined cause or problem. This time they had the ‘episode’ on ekg tape and of course I was “out”.

A team of medical professionals saved my life that day. If I had been out at the farm mowing I probably would not have survived the event. As it happened I was at a truck pull event at the local county fair. The manager of the pull and his wife are EMT’s. They pulled me through. (pun intended). I was shocked twice in the ambulance. While I was non-responsive I was still conscious… inside my head. I sometimes think I have PTSD from those shocks. LOL. Better lit up than dead though.

I ended up with a defibrillator and pace maker installed to ward off future episodes. I’m on some medications that suppress my adrenal production. The cardiologist said I don’t have coronary artery disease….I just have heart rhythms not consistent with life.

I’m saying all this because as traumatic as potentially dying was for me inside the ambulance…my wife didn’t know what was going on from outside the ambulance. She drove alone up to the area hospital in Asheville not knowing if she would arrive and be told that I had not survived the trip. She didn’t know anything other than I was not responsive.

There are a lot of people in that situation out there right now. Their loved ones go to the hospital. They can’t accompany them and right now they don’t know if that loved one will ever return home, or if they will get a phone call late one night that their “person” didn’t survive.

It has taken me almost three years to talk about this on this kind of public forum. My life has changed a lot. I am well. This virus is going to change our world and potentially us as individuals. I am hoping to come out the other side and discover we are ready to make a better world.

I am finally writing again. Just this past week I began the Vol 7 in the Amethyst Desire Collection. It is the story (Novella) of Eva (Austin’s sister, Vol 6 Austin’s Surprise). It takes place in New Orleans.  I did a research trip there in 2016 for notes for this story. I hope you’re going to love it. The story is like the others, erotic. It has shades of paranormal with a little bit of wolf and a little bit of Voodoo. I’m about half way through the draft so I’ll have to keep you posted.

In the meantime, do what it takes to stay safe. I’m working to reconnect with the writing community and my friends there. I haven’t managed to get back into my FB page but I am working on that. I’d love to hear from you. Reach out to me in a comment below or email me at eden.glenn07@gmail.com.

Aside

Austin6 small

Wyatt Andersen has a thing for coffee. He’s got an even bigger thing for The Ground Up Barrista, Austin Curtis. Not sure that Austin has the same interest in Wyatt’s brand of strong coffee, he plans on keeping his thing for Austin firmly zipped up.

Austin Curtis dreads another Thanksgiving alone. His business is doing well. He’s developed a faithful following of coffee shop regulars. Wyatt Anderson, a local real estate agent, makes The Ground Up his office away from the office. He isn’t openly gay but Austin would bet a French twist, the man likes more than his coffee strong.

Austin purchases his sister an amethyst necklace for her Christmas present. At closing, he realizes he’s misplaced the blasted stone. Wyatt finds Austin going through the dumpster looking for the lost necklace. Wyatt helps Austin in the search. Opportunity reveals their mutual attraction and sparks fly. Pretty rock or magical amulet, either way, Austin plans to thank Wyatt for the return of the valuable gift with more than Danish and coffee.

To be released on Amazon in Feb

Never Give Up

I think that about two years ago, I almost gave up writing. I’d been building some momentum publishing short works that satellite around a novel I was working on.  Keep in mind this isn’t the first novel I’d written. I have about four of them under my bed, finished and not good enough to publish.  In any event, I pressed on in the spring of 2014 to publish Dragon Guardian.  I won’t say it fell flat, but I didn’t get the sales I’d been hoping for with the amount of work I’d put into the piece.  Enter discouragement.

I really needed an income stream to help with family finances. I’d published my first work through Rebel Ink Press back in 2011.  I had invested considerable time and concentrated effort into writing professionally. Naturally, I counted the beginning years from 2007 until 2011 as amateur hour, dabble dabble, poke poke.  But after being published with my first short work “The Galloping Ghoul of Hockomock Swamp” I put my shoulder to the wheel so to speak and dug in. By 2014 I ached for a big break and I suppose subconsciously placed that hope in Dragon Guardian.

I never expected to be a person influenced by the negativity of others.  However, just like a ball in a grand game of billiards, a little tick at just the right time can change the course of momentum. That little tick presented itself in the form of harsh criticism from an aging Aunt-in-Law who out of the blue contacted me on FB.  It went something like this. ‘I see you are an author.  My friend Suzy Q is an author too.  She is wonderful. She writes such brilliant stories.  She is quite a success. Why don’t you use your talent to write wonderful brilliant stories like Suzy Q instead of such smutty trash.’ I didn’t quote it because that isn’t exactly what she said but it is pretty close to what I heard. Any other time I could have blew it off.  But looking back, I think her words festered in that pocket of discouragement.

Those voices that were the mainstay of my creative muse.  The voices I’d always heard went away.  Stories in my mind I thought I would never lose were gone. It was just all too hard, too much effort for what? nothing really. My life was more stable and happier than it has been for….I don’t know 30 years or more. Yet, I couldn’t write a word. Paralyzed by something that I logically knew better than to hear and give purchase too.

Eden Glenn was lost and no one really knew. No one noticed. Which in turn my negative mind set turned into…No one really cared. Yet, life went on happily. I have a wonderful spouse. Grandchildren have been born that I embraced with joyousness. I had a heart attack that was quite a life changer. We bought a new home and did a massive remodel project, can we say gut job? Work opportunities shuffled and have settled into something that I love. Entrepreneurship has blossomed in terms of divergent businesses in property management and Essential Oil Education. My Narration contracts continued rolling in. Success on every measure but one. No one really knew, no one really noticed that Eden Glenn has gone into hiding.

And then spring arrived early. Two weeks ago, I started writing again. The whispers are returning. The psychologist in me wants to know why. Maybe the author in me is frightened they will retreat again and the creativity will be lost.I think I’ve found more balance and realism as an author and indeed as a person through the experience.

I think the answer is connection.

I actually think Eden Glenn is back because a couple of dear cherished people, I won’t embarrass by naming, went looking for her and took the time to say. We miss you. You are brilliant. I miss your fantastic stories of adventure and sexy romance. You will write more won’t you?

You never know what influence you will have in the smallest way with a kind word or a moment of attention.  Thank you.Cherry blossoms

Today, I’m a Professional Author, again…still

Today, I’m a Professional Author, again…still.

What does that really mean to be professional versus a person who writes and says they want to be an author. I think of all those people who dream of being published. Or not knowing what they need to do to improve, they’ve lost patience with the system and say heck I’ll just publish this myself. Their plan to wait until people say things in their reviews, to then edit it to make it better (Boy is that my pet peeve).

I really feel the difference today in a piercing way.  I’ve spend many years wanting to be an author. I’ve even been published, how many times…ten I think.  Is ten the magic number for this revealing reflection?

But today, and yesterday afternoon I took a work I been poking at for some time, one near and dear to my heart, and I completely gutted it, Hack and slash time.  Today I took a really close look at what was left and various directions the plot might go in. I will probably slash some more. Was it fun? No. Was it comfortable? NO. Was it easy? No NO NO! Was it right? Yes, Oh YES! It was very right.

The first story was fine, great story, perfectly acceptable with some editing, just the way it plotted out.  I could have let it go as it was. However, the first right answer isn’t always THE best answer. There was a better story hidden in there that I would have missed had I accepted what was comfortable, what was easy, what was fun.

It is like an artist working on a carving for years getting it just right.  Then one afternoon chisels it back to a square block of stone and starts over carving again to reveal what was there all along but she’d missed.

So, today I am a professional again, willing to do the hard work up front. So in a few months…someone will read this story and really want to take the journey with my characters. That maybe, just maybe they might feel something so deeply that they are changed.