Want to feature Tempting Beat on your blog?

Okay, first off I want to share what's the best news of the month. I seem to have gotten my writing groove back! That means I'll be done with Hearts of Metal book 7 by the first week of August. THEN I hope to get going on the next Brides of Prophecy novel before I get started on the first book of the NEW SERIES I JUST GOT SIGNED FOR!
I'm still not allowed to say what it will be about, but I can say that there will be 5 books!

Next news is that my virtual tour for Tempting Beat kicks off on the 11th. If you want to feature my book or review it, you can sign up HERE.
Hosts and those who visit the spots on the tour will be entered to win a $15  gift certificate for Boroughs Publishing groups books.

Misc news:

Oh my goodness, I had so much fun at the Dead & Company show. If my next Hearts of Metal novel didn't take place mostly in winter, I'd have yet another scene set at the Gorge. This time, we could see it from our campsite!

And the view of the stage at sunset was epic:

Personal Stuff:

Life has been going pretty well. Aside from stealing exactly 4 drags over a two day period, I've been staying off the cigarettes. Making my own vape juice has really helped with that. I invented a new flavor: Honeyduckle! (It's honeydew and honeysuckle).

My son started a job at a grocery store this week and I'm hella proud of him.

On the not so great news, I think my laptop is on its last legs. It did get a new lease on life when we upgraded the RAM, but I've had to replace the keyboard twice and now the new keyboard glitches out and pixels are dying on the screen. I have a USB keyboard ready for when the keyboard fails, but with book sales being down, I had to spend my backup laptop fund on keeping up with my dental debt and student loan payments.


So, I gave in and set up a Ko-Fi account. If you feel like chipping in three bucks, here's the link: https://www.ko-fi.com/V7V7G3RE

Of course, I prefer to sell books, but I had a lot of nonreader friends who asked me to set up something else.

Anyway, I rambled more than I expected. Next week, I'll share the blog tour stops and some other news!

Thank you so much for being one of my readers!
((Hugs))

Brooklyn Ann

Series by Brooklyn Ann

Scandals With Bite

(Regency paranormal romance)

Books do not need to be read in order

Bite Me, Your Grace

One Bite Per Night

Bite at First Sight

His Ruthless Bite

Wynter's Bite

The Highwayman's Bite

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Brides of Prophecy

(Paranormal Romance/ Urban Fantasy) 

Also don't need to be read in order until book 5...kinda

Prequel: Tesemini (Free)

Wrenching Fate (FREE!)

Ironic Sacrifice

Conjuring Destiny

Unleashing Desire

Pleading Rapture

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hearts of Metal

(Contemporary Romance)

Standalones that intertwine

Kissing Vicious

With Vengeance

Rock God

Metal and Mistletoe

Forbidden Song 

Tempting Beat

-----------------------------------------------------------

For excerpts and special content, visit BrooklynAnnAuthor.com

I love hearing from readers! If you have any questions or comments, feel free to send me an email!

Contact@brooklynannauthor.com

CONTEST: Weird Sh*T Found in a Writer's Desk Drawer.

Okay, I've cleaned my desk out approximately 5 times in the 10 years I've had it. Today I opened a drawer for my cat to step on instead of my laptop (I'm training him) and I noticed more than a few oddities languishing inside.

Here's my at-a-glance inventory:

A Rose Rock from Oklahoma that my Aunt and Uncle gave me when I was 10.

2 industrial files (for metal, not fingernails)

The "N" portion of a 75 Chevy Nova logo

A Pen that resembles a bone.

A multitude of business cards

Miscellaneous nuts, screws, and bolts.

Feeler gauges

Tacky glue

Sega Genesis Booklets for Sonic The Hedgehog and Mortal Kombat II

A Maneke Neko (Japanese Lucky Cat) Chopstick Rest

CD Scratch Remover

A Wrench painted like a Christmas Ornament.

Sewing needles (I can't sew)

Scissors

Flashlight

A cigarette case

A bag clip

A steel... marble?

A knife

Misc office supplies and business cards.

This makes me curious about what other writers have in their desk drawers.

And now I want to run a contest.

For the chance to win a $35 Barnes & Noble gift card, open a random desk drawer and tell me what's inside. I'll assign some judges and announce a winner on Monday.   

REAL Character Mashups: Do any other writers do this?

I have two friends who are both computer guys as well as musicians. Both are also excellent with intellectual debates. Other than that, they're complete opposites. One's country, one's rock and roll. Needless to say, I'd been dying to watch them have a conversation/ debate.

The opportunity arrived on our annual 4th of July barbecue. As there were many fun guests, great food and festivities going on, it took awhile for me to get them together and talking. Maybe they waited until I was done with my hostess duties to indulge me, or maybe they just decided to placate me since I wasn't exactly subtle as to my intentions. Either way it was well worth the wait and I got a front row seat.

As I'd suspected, they got into an epic debate about computer stuff. 90% of it was gibberish to me, so I had to observe their tones, facial expressions and body language to figure out who scored a hit. It was as fascinating as I'd hoped.

Which brings me to my question: Do other writers do this? I know we all create interesting fictional characters and thrive on watching how they react, but does anyone else do this with real "characters?" Does anyone else think, "I want to see how this guy reacts to that guy?"

If so, how does it inspire your writing?

Writing, Reading, and the Inherent Dangers Therein: Guest post by Elise Rome

Thanks so much to Brooklyn Ann for inviting me to blog today! When she first approached me about the idea for this post, I immediately said yes. She asked me to write about how we readers-turned-writers can turn off the “critique” side and read just to be a reader again.

The truth is—at least for me—I’m never “only” a reader anymore. I’ve spent too much time editing my own work and critiquing others’ manuscripts. Even when a friend asks me to just do a beta read for her (i.e. reading full manuscript without comments and instead giving summary of feedback at the end), I can’t help myself. I have to turn that track change marker on and mark anything I see that could be improved. Even when I tell myself that I’m just going to read a book for fun, I might not be as analytical about what I read, but I’ll still be reading along and hit something—a specific plot device, perhaps—and my writer brain will wake up and shout, “Look at that!” I’m tempted to say it’s a curse, but I have to admit that I like it. =) More on that in a minute.

For example, right now I’m re-reading one of my favorite books of all time, DEVIL IN WINTER by Lisa Kleypas. I haven’t re-read this book since becoming a writer, and although I still love it with an equal amount of passion as before, I’m now able to notice things about Ms. Kleypas’ (who just happens to also be one of my very favorite authors) writing that I never noticed the first time around. Here are just a few things I’ve seen:

1)      She gives one or more paragraphs of information about a specific historical fact or tradition. It’s not coming from the character, but from the author herself directed at the reader. We’re always told to show, not tell, but this is very obvious telling.

2)      In the hero or heroine’s POV she gives physical tags about that specific person—taking a step out from the third person limited to omniscient and back again.

3)      She repeatedly uses the same words when describing her hero’s mannerisms. For example, he raises a brow sardonically or murmurs wryly.

All these are things that I would mark up in a critique, and yet, here’s the thing that strikes me as I’m reading this book again. Despite the three instances I mentioned above and any others I may come across in the future, I’m still enjoying the book. I notice these issues and move on, but the book still works! In fact, I can’t turn the pages fast enough. Perhaps even more importantly, I remember that when I read DEVIL IN WINTER for the first time, before I started writing seriously, I didn’t notice any of these—and I loved the book. Makes one wonder about all the “rules” we have as writers…

As a result, I now have two differing opinions on reading books from a writer’s perspective. First of all, I think it is a blessing rather than a curse to be able to notice what works and what doesn’t work in books other than our own. I believe this can only make our own work better, because we’ll be able to translate that knowledge into our manuscripts. Secondly, however, I think it’s important to realize that just because we see something “wrong” as in the Lisa Kleypas examples given above, this doesn’t necessarily mean that it was wrong for that author or that book. We personally may not like writing like this in our own work, but instead of calling something wrong and turning our nose up at someone else’s book, we should instead look at how that author makes the “wrong” look right.

Again, using the examples from DEVIL IN WINTER from Lisa Kleypas given above:

1)      Although she gives the reader direct information about historical information, she only gives enough of it to satisfy the reader’s curiosity—and then she moves on. Because of this, rather than it slowing down the pacing or shouting at me as author intrusion, I appreciate this piece of knowledge that doesn’t detract from the story but rather enhances it.

2)      Although she gives the POV character physical tags that they wouldn’t be able to see in their POV, it is subtle enough that as a reader I still feel like I’m in the scene with the characters, and I even feel that I know them a little better than I would otherwise if only given access to their direct POV.

3)      The consistent use of certain adverbs and adjectives in the hero’s mannerisms keeps his character consistent, reminding the reader of the villainous bad boy persona we were introduced to at the beginning of the book.

As you can see, analyzing how an author violates “rules” and yet makes them work can be just as effective as analyzing how an author does something “right” or does something “wrong” that we should try to avoid in our own writing.

As for trying to read for pleasure and leaving our writer brains elsewhere, I have to say that I think this is one of the inherent dangers in becoming a writer. You’re never not one. However, there have been a few times when I’ve had success with getting lost in a book, and that’s when I’ve given myself permission to enjoy the book as it is and later come back to it for a full analysis of what worked and what didn’t. I’ll cross my fingers that this approach works for you, too! =)

As a reader-turned-writer, what do you think is the most valuable part about reading other authors’ work? Have you had success turning off your writer brain for the sake of pleasure-reading? If so, how?

Getting back in gear

I've missed a few blog posts this week...and the ones from last week were late. I've also been minimal in my social networking...and I've only averaged 4-5K a week in my #WIP this month. Still, this is pretty good for me. Since my mom died on Valentine's day of 2009, I'd alternated between a numb, mindless state and a quivering ball of misery every February. Although, come to think of it, I don't think I'd had good Februarys before that, being that it's the time I'm at the verge of screaming in impatience for winter to be over. I HATE winter.

This year, however, I had enough good days to get at least something done every day...except Tuesday, I slept through most of that and spent the rest reading. 

But now it's time for me to get back in gear. My goal is to finish the first draft of this novel by May....and I want my rock star novella finished by the end of June....and sometime soon I need to do a final polish on WRENCHING FATE so I can find a home for it. And of course there's edits and revisions on my remaining projects. 

With that said, my blog will be reduced to two posts a week...though I'm planning to get more awesome guest authors for you guys, starting with Grace Burrowes next week and Shana Galen in Mid-March for sure. I'm still working on convincing Bonnie R. Paulson to show us how to make spreadsheets because these are invaluable not only for keeping tabs on yourself, but also for tax purposes.

In the meantime I'm going to be working hard to get caught up on this novel. 

How's your productivity been? How do you catch up when you're behind?

My 2011 Recap

Some things I did okay. Others....not so much. Either way, it's been a great year. 

1.) Get the first two books in my BRIDES OF PROPHECY series polished enough for my agent and then ready for her to submit to publishers: I got them polished, though I'm still tinkering. My betas are raving about em, but other things happened with another project and I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this series. I'm still working on them, though. They will have a home someday.

2.) Complete another manuscript. I completed a few short stories, a novella, and wrote the beginnings of 3 more novels. Hooray for progress!

3.)Blog at least twice a week. I nailed this goal, for the most part.

4.) Have at least one awesome guest author every month. Not so well here. Some months I had none, others I had four.

5.) Become more regular on Twitter and Facebook: Ironically I did better with FB than twitter.

6.) Get up to 3000 followers on Twitter: For reasons stated above, I only got to 1650.

7.) Keep the house clean and organized. HAHAHAHAHAHAH! No.

8.) Lose 20 pounds.. I think I lost about 8. Well.....I lost 10, gained back six, then lost four...or something.

9.) Learn how to use a sewing machine to make/ repair clothes. Didn't happen...although I did find someone willing to teach me how to sew by hand.

10.) Keep my marriage healthy, happy, and full of passion. I think I've done well with this and I still have a big crush on my husband.

11.) Become a better mother. I noticed I've been yelling a lot less. :)

12.) Get a tattoo...or 2.  I got one!

                                                      

So, I think I did okay. Especially since I achieved my long time dream of getting a book deal! 

OTHER EVENTS/ Accomplishments:

On May 30th, I celebrated my 1 year wedding anniversary (though we've been together for 8 years). I drew him a portrait of our hero, Ronnie James Dio:

This really helped me get back into art so I also did a painting of a '64 Volkswagen Beetle for my neighbor:

And a poster of the IRON MAIDEN album, "Killers." 

My husband grew an excellent garden this year, yielding around 200 lbs of tomatoes (making several jars of salsa,tomato sauce, and stewed tomatoes), 20 quarts of pickles, 24 cabbages (which made 3 gallons of saurkraut)  And lots of lettuce, broccoli, and peppers. Our herb garden thrived as well, along with our strawberries. 

He also got his deer, so we filled our freezer with meat.

I'm finally getting the hang of making friends, so not only did I get to know more awesome writers and formed a critique group, I've also branched out with other friendships. I'm pleased to be doing karaoke again. 

I think 2011 was a great year and I hope 2012 will be even better. 

The Holiday Craziness

The holidays are an explosion of insanity for anyone, but for writers, it's even worse. Between the rush and pressure to finish the Christmas shopping and subsequent wrapping of gifts, there's always holiday events and parties to attend, the regular day job...and cold and flu season to contend with.

But the writer still has work to do. Projects still have deadlines, whether real or self-imposed. The self-imposed ones are the hardest. I believe that for the aspiring writer, the holidays are a dangerous time. With all the chaos, it is tempting to put a project away with a tentative promise to oneself to dig it back out in January. Or even worse, it can be tempting to just give up. Contracted authors have it a little easier, in that they have no choice but to push on.

And push on I will, daunting as it is. Despite the holiday craziness, I will keep writing. I have 3 projects, but will expend the most effort on the one which has a home. I will also do my best to keep up with my critique of a friend's novel. ...and I'm making a quilt for my oldest stepdaughter. It won't be done by Christmas, but I hope make progress on it. And if my house has to look like it threw up for the next few weeks, so be it.

How are you managing the holiday craziness? What do you do to keep your sanity?  

My Letter to Santa.

Dear Santa,

I think I've been pretty good this year and I am splitting my list into two categories: Things I want and things I need:

THINGS I WANT:

The stuff I mentioned on last year's post.

And speaking of shirts, I also found some that reference one of my favorite novellas ever.

I also wouldn't mind the ones for Stebbins or McVries:)

Music enlivens my muse, so the 2 newest MEGADETH albums wouldn't be amiss.

Since I'm working on Regency romances, I'd also adore the miniseries, LOST IN AUSTEN....um, for research...not that it was fun or anything...hell, who am I kidding, IT WAS AWESOME!

An MP3 Player: I used to borrow my son's...until I accidentally washed it with the laundry. I got him a replacement for Christmas (SHHHHHHH!!!) and I'm totally jealous!

M'kay, now for things I need:

One of those air spray can thingies for blowing the dust out of electronics. I'm sick of doing it with my mouth.

A laptop cooling pad...because frozen corn never makes a level working surface.

A new set of clunky, cushion-y headphones. They are imperative for late night research and muse-summoning.

Ear Plugs. Because my husband snores.

Book gift card...because writers don't just "want" books, we NEED them!

And finally.....

The continuation of the love and support of my friends and family. ::looks around:: It looks like Christmas has come early in that aspect! Thanks so much to everyone and Merry Christmas! 

NaNo Recap: Triumph or Fail?

As I mentioned in this post, I decided to try my hand at NaNo at the last minute. It was completely unofficial. I didn't sign in to the NaNoWrimo site. Hell, I didn't even put up a progress bar. I did it unofficially because I anticipated being pulled away to work on something else at any moment....but I still wanted to write. I needed to write.

I got about 5K into another rock star romance novella before, sure enough, I remembered a friend's birthday was coming up, so I had to work on a portrait of his favorite IRON MAIDEN album cover.

I'd lost my 6B pencil, but I found it so I gotta shade it in more.

And of course since it's November, I ended up with a terrible cold that lasted nearly 2 weeks...while I was working on the portrait. 

After I finished it, I lost grasp on the former project. But I still wanted to write. So I decided to be evil and write the opening of the 4th book in my urban fantasy series that one of my betas had been begging for. I sent her the first few paragraphs. Yeah, she wants more. And I would have given it to her.

But then my editor asked for the concepts of my next 2 books. I've never written a synopsis for a book I hadn't written, and now I had to do 2. EEEEK! 

After much stressing, I pulled it off, and it was fun! I like these stories and can't wait to write them! Hell, I already got started before I heard back.

Thankfully, she LOVED them! 

So, I wrote approximately 11K for NaNoWriMo...not only did I fail to get the requisite 50K, but it was on 4 different projects.

But I think I still WON because I was WRITING. And I have the beginnings of many pleasant journeys before me.

What do you think. Did you do NaNo? How did it turn out for you this year?

Different Friends, Different Gifts

When you make friends with someone, at first a lot of the bond goes to the "Me too!" moments. But as the friendship deepens, you get to know their differences. Some are surprising, some are fascinating. Many, you can learn a lot from.

I have such a friendship with fellow authors, Bonnie R. Paulson and Shelley Martin. We are all romance writers, mothers, and wives. But we are of different faiths, listen to different music, and have different interests. Bonnie's passion is dirt biking, Shelley's is Japanimation/ Manga, and mine is heavy metal & horror movies.

We also have different strengths with our writing.

Shelley's is definitely VOICE! One of the most difficult aspects of the craft to master, Shelley lends voice to her characters like a natural.

Bonnie's skill with visceral descriptions and heart-wrenching emotion is just as inspiring as it makes one seethe with envy.

As for me, I *think* my strength lies with creating unique & memorable characters. I don't think I've ever had a "normal" protagonist in my work.

As for weaknesses, I think I'll leave that for our critique sessions, editors, and book reviewers.

Anyway, what inspired this post are two things:

1.) One can learn a lot from the strengths of her friends in real life.

2.) In fiction, the best stories are where the characters learn and grow from each other's unique gifts. Stephen King's IT is a wonderful example. Yeah...like I'm going to miss an opportunity to plug my favorite novel. :)

What about you? What strengths do your friends have? What gifts of yours enhance the lives of others? If you're a writer, how do your characters' differences enhance your story? If you're a reader, what novels have done best with variety in characters?

6 Reasons you need more "babies."

Of course, this is how we feel when we have to "kill" them. 

Not human babies, silly. More “word babies,” or stories, poems, articles, etc. I cannot believe how many people write only one book and lay all their hopes and dreams on it. I never went that far, but I was guilty of putting my one book on through the submission process and endlessly obsessing over it for a long time before starting a new one. THIS IS BAD!!!

Why?   

1.)Most published authors can tell you that their first few novels were rejected before they made their big break. Stephen King had several novels and countless short stories rejected before he wrote CARRIE and became my hero.

2.) If you’re not occupied with another project and wasting your time stalking your one project, you might just do something stupid and blow your career. Like publically complaining about rejections or the publishing industry.

3.)You’ll never grow as a writer. To become better at anything, you need to do it a lot. If you don’t write a lot, then you’re not much of a writer. How many paintings do you think Da Vinci did before the Mona Lisa?

4.) If all you ever talk about is your one “baby,” people are going to get bored quickly….unless it’s TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

5.) If your one “baby” dies, it won’t be so devastating if you have others. Knowing you have other stories to market gives you unbelievable confidence in this difficult industry.

It gets easier when you have more..seriously. On another note, this was a great album and was about killing babies in the metaphorical sense i.e. child abuse, govt. issues, drugs, etc.

6.) When you do get a publishing contract, it’ll likely be for more than one book. Nobody likes a one-hit-wonder….again unless it’s TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

Monster Project

As you can see, the progress bar for the loosely titled: Queen of Prophecy is already at 50%. That's not completely accurate since the thing only shows word count.

Allow me to explain:

This novel was actually the 1st one I ever wrote. I started it at 15 and finished it at 18. At 20, I finally got a computer and typed it up. I queried it a little and earned some well-deserved rejections. At 21, my 1st marriage ended (No surprise there) and I stashed away the floppy discs, forgetting about it for the most part while I dealt with that crisis. Eventually, that story and many others came back to me, and I realized 2 things about my 1st novel.

1.) That story was not the beginning. A bunch of other stuff happened first...2 books worth, to be exact.

2.) That story was to "BIG" for a beginning writer. To achieve the level of awesome it's capable of, I needed way more knowledge and writing experience. Ironically, I ran into the same issue with what is now Book 1, WRENCHING FATE. But now I think I have it solved.

Now that the 1st two books in the series are completed, I'm finally ready to tackle this monster of a project. I'd tinkered with it 2 years back (Hence the 40K already complete) Out of a 100K original draft, only 40K was worth salvaging. I can only chuckle, knowing I shall likely cut a bunch more before I'm finished.

Most of it will likely have to be started over from scratch, yet instead of dismay, I am excited...and a little daunted.

Have any of you had a "Monster Project" like this? How did you handle the situation? 

A Writer's Work Week

Much of the world begins their work week on Monday. I try to do the same. It works easier during the school year. The kids leave in the morning and I crack my knuckles and attack the keyboard. In the summer, it's a little more difficult. I have children underfoot and twice as much housework. Still, a writer needs stability.

Some Mondays I manage to get an impressive outpouring of productivity. I manage to get my blog post in, meet my writing or editing goal for the day and even slip in some valuable social networking.

Other times, however, I'm overwhelmed with errands and other "real world" drama and get nothing done. Or there's the times where I'm either sucked into a good book or distracted by the usual plethora of diversions on the web.

This seems to ruin my week. It seems if I don't accomplish something on Monday, it sets a pattern for the rest of the week. I then find myself working on the weekends and generally bumming people out with my grumpy determination to ignore the fun and keep my nose to the grindstone.

On the other hand, if I do too much on Monday, I get tempted to slack off on other days, thus falling into the same trap.

How about you? When do you start your work week and what are the benefits or pitfalls?

The Awwww Factor.

Last night I posted this on Facebook: "I realized Eloisa James has surpassed Judith McNaught as my other favorite historical author. She's still a tie with Virginia Henley. Not only because McNaught quit writing historical and gone to corporate guys (eww) but like Henley, James sneaks in bitchin' history lessons & she's daring.
Still, McNaught was queen of the "Aww" factor. But now I've discovered Julie Garwood for that."

The next morning, both Eloisa James and Virginia Henley responded to my post! After I was done doing the happy fan-girl dance, I realized that it would be great to do a blog post about the "Awww" Factor. I still maintain that McNaught reigned supreme with it...then again, Garwood wields that weapon formidably. 

The Awww factor is, well, anything in a story that literally makes the reader melt a little and go, "Awwwww!" It is a very difficult thing to achieve. There is a fine line between cheesy and Awww. Witness the many epic failures of dozens of romantic comedies. I have failed in at least 80% of my attempts. "This seems forced" "A farce" "Cliche" or "Flat out corny, please cut" my readers will declare. 

But every once in awhile, I succeed. There was the scene in which my autocratic rock star hero (who had just met the heroine) soothed her from a nightmare by singing her to sleep. "Awwww!" my readers responded, and I melted even more than I did during writing that scene. And there was the one in my Brides of Prophecy series...but I don't know how to describe it without revealing spoilers. 

Really, that's all I can think of off the top of my head. The "Awww" factor is THAT hard to nail. What are some of your favorite "Awww" moments, either in books or movies? What do you think makes or breaks an attempt at an "Awww" factor? Is it magic? Or is there a science to it?

Btw, I still adore Judith McNaught, hell, I named a character after her. But she did something else that really bugged me. After one of her novels is an excerpt of an awesome time-travel that I would have pawned something so I could buy and read it right away. Turns out, that book never came to be. Do you have any idea how frustrating that was?!! Oh yeah, we're all readers here. I know you do. :)

Since I've Found "My People."

My first years of writing seriously were incredibly lonely. Not just because I am by nature a reclusive person, but also I felt like I was cast adrift. The workings of my imagination were constantly at odds with what I knew were the rules..and worse, details I was unsure of such as whether to end certain bits of dialogue with a comma or a period or did I veer too far from the MC's POV?

When I first (and wrongly) began querying, I was even more at odds. Which agents would be a good fit? Was my query right? What was wrong with my 1st chapter? (Besides having a prologue?)

But then I found "my people:" other writers. I found them on twitter, on Querytracker, facebook, and finally in my town.

Since I've found my people, not only has my writing improved by leaps and bounds, I have gotten further than ever in my quest for publication.

Since I've found my people,

I now have a support system. With my people to cheer me on, I write ten times more than I did as a loner.

I don't feel like such a freak for my reclusive ways. Apparently, many writers are like that. When I drop off the face of the internet, they understand and welcome me back with open arms.

I now have a small fan base. Two of my best are a fellow writer who fairly drools over one of my heroes, and a reader another writer hooked me up with and now wants to read everything I write.

Since I've found my people,

I am no longer alone.