Not so terribly long ago, I retitled it, thinking it would “entice” more interest.  The second title was:  “The Billionaire’s E-mail Seduction.”  Under that title, it garnered a little more love, but not much.  It cried out for more tweaking – something more drastic than just a new title.  E-mail demanded a new COVER. That meant that I needed to do a little enticing of my own – or a lot, as the case may be.  AOFM doesn’t work cheap, you know – but then he’s worth the best of everything.

Yesterday, my DH did a yummy new cover for “E-mail” and I can’t wait for y’all to see it.  Did I mention that it’s yummy?  Yep, that’s right – I’m pushing books with the bare-chested hunks again.  After all, the goal of a cover is to get a reader to stop long enough to read the description and check out the sample and then – hopefully – to press the buy button.   But they won’t buy if they don’t stop long enough to look and I do believe my DH’s new cover will get anyone who boogles by to stop, ogle, and check out the book.

The new title for E-mail – in keeping with our newly adopted theme – is “Dangerous Relations:  Seducing The Billionaire.”  The theme or subtitle of “Dangerous Relations” will tie together all our contemporaries right where they take place – at the intersection of love and the law. 

Amazon got the new page and title for the book up by this morning, but I’m still waiting for the cover.  It’s a lot like waiting for a baby to arrive – I know it’ll be beautiful and I am way anxious to share. Don’t forget to check it out because it’s awesomely quackalicious – with a cherry on top!

Regardless of my history as mood philosophy, my historicals still far outsell my contemporaries.  In fact, overall in the romance world everywhere – historicals tend to far outsell contemporaries.  And that bothers me.  It bothers me a lot.  There are some great contemporary writers and some fabulous stories set in our very own era.  I like to think that some of those fabulous contemporaries, a couple of them to date, are mine.  And just like my historicals – my “now” is apt to look and feel a lot different because from over the top, everything looks better. 

I wish we could give contemporaries their own month.  Better yet, why not give them their own season.  Yes, I think Spring should be the era of now.

As we anticipate the “Spring Into A Contemporary” movement, we’re sprucing up our contemporaries with brand new titles.  To be more accurate – we’re adding a subtitle.  The change has already been made to one book - Griffin’s is now – Dangerous Relations:  Griffin’s Law.   We’ll be changing the other one – now titled The Billionaire’s E-mail Seduction — shortly.  The covers of both books will catch up soon too. 

Why the change?  It came about because we were tinkering with the title of my WIP, which is – you guessed it – a contemporary.  I’d been calling it “The Office Ink” or “The Office Ink Spells Murder”.  But while the book centers around a murder – it’s mostly a romance.  This murder occurs at a family law firm.  After my dearest hubby suggested the subtitle, I realized that not only does it suit “Office Ink,” it also suits all my contemporaries. 

My contemporaries are all focused on what happens when love intersects with the law.  Dangerous Relations describes events for the lovers and events surrounding the lovers.  It’s a great “hook” for all of the books and we hope the “hook” reels in more readers to check out how now looks from over the top. 

We haven’t settled on a firm title for E-mail yet.  Adding the subtitle to the front of E-mail would produce a title of unwieldy length.  It’s current title is already a little wordy.  I’m thinking of “Dangerous Relations: Tempting The Billionaire” or “Dangerous Relations:  Seducing The Billionaire”  or “Dangerous Relations:  Enticing The Billionaire.” But that title is still up in the air. 

I do hope that more readers will make it a point to pick up a contemporary – particularly one of mine!  It’ll remind all of us that all the excitement, spark and sizzle of love didn’t end with the Regency era.  Love is as timeless and eternal as forever. We may live in “now” rather than “then,” but we still deserve a happy ending – and some quacking good fun reaching it. 

Join us at QA Romances this year and SPRING INTO A CONTEMPORARY!!!

Right now, Faerie feeds out FREE to all the bookstores from Smashwords – except Amazon.  And the meat-grinder at SW is not for the faint of heart.  Sometimes even John the Magnificent has to tweak things a couple of times to satisfy the oh-so-exacting SW meat-grinder.  Like all wizards, John the Magnificent stays busy.  When he has time to direct his magic to the SW version of Faerie, we’ll get it out there.   

The older “enlarged” version of Faerie also remains in the Forever Series Bundle on Amazon and elsewhere.  I may leave the enlarged version in the bundle.  It gives an incentive to buy the bundle because then it’ll be the only place to read the full, original version.  (Inside every author building a platform marketing genes must grow – otherwise, the author’s career won’t grow either.) 

The edit to Faerie started with an email from the KDP maestros.  They said a customer had complained of spelling errors in the book and asked me to check it out.  The maestros didn’t remove the book or do anything a’tall heavy-handed. They simply made a request.  The huge, hideous error pointed out in the email was that once (and it was only once) I used the word brown when it should have read brow.  Okay, that was snarky, wasn’t it?  I have a little snark inside but I try never to feed it! Anyway, none of the spelling errors was major and in the original 100,000 word plus version I only found about 3 or 4 ( brown for brow, losses for looses, a missing e, and blond for blonde).  All were minor, but all are now fixed. 

The spelling “errors” were smaller than many I’ve run across in books published by the big houses, but that’s no excuse really.  And my snarkiness is like a porcupine’s quills - a defense mechanism.  Truthfully, if an error bothered a reader, then it should be fixed.  And it was.  But that’s where the journey started.  While I was listening to readers, I recalled some of the book’s reviews that complained it was too long.  So I turned a sharp eye to editing for length.

Some of my favorite events are missing from the new version, but they were things that kept Heather and Neil in England for a while after their reunion.  I loved those events because they confirmed that Neil and Heather loved each other.  But a goodly number of readers wanted the story to pace a little faster and now it does.  But it’s not just the plot edits that pace the tale faster because I also edited for word choice.  I tightened the language and kicked more adverbs to the curb than I thought I knew.  But it turned out – when I wrote Faerie, I had a near Guiness Record setting mass of “adverbial knowledge.”  I didn’t just know the adverbs- I loved them in a deep and meaningless way. 

Yes, Virginia, you guessed the next part – I sprinkled a generous helping of my adverbial prowess in Faerie.  But undoubtedly, assuredly and categorically, I guarantee that the remaining adverbs are nearly absolutely necessary. 

Now that Faerie’s had a facelift, I’d appreciate all y’all checking her out, especially if you read or reviewed the prior version.  It’s my understanding that if you email Amazon, they’ll let you download the new one even though the older version is still in your library.  Since Faerie is free, you have nothing to lose by checking out the new model.  If you like the story, you might pick up the Forever Series Bundle which will let you compare and contrast the new lean mean tale with the original gauzy, gaudy fuller version.  The Bundle is only $5.99 on Amazon.

Like I said, right now the trim, toned version of Faerie is an Amazon exclusive. Pick it up free for your Kindle or Kindle Fire (Or Kindle for PC – available as a free download from Amazon).  And be sure to quack back and let me know what you think because the changes to the story were made based on reader reviews and feedback.  See, I love y’all.  I really, really love y’all.  And just like any red-blooded romance heroine, I want y’all to love me back.

The last episode aired was titled “Dark was The Night” and there’s a good summary here  and here to tickle your memory cells – if they need tickling.  Personally, I’m up for a good tickle most any time. But that’s for another blog post entirely.  For this one, I’m doing one of my most favorite things – I’m donning my Swami Cap and guessin’ Grey’s.  Keep in mind, my POV is from way over the top and Sunshine Shonda Rhimes is as likely to have written things the way I see ‘em as I am to win the powerball lottery.  Okay – it’s more likely that I’ll win the powerball.

The whole thing was dark and stormy.  Lots of bad things happened to the characters, with one of the worst undoubtedly being the death of Henry on the OR table during a fairly routine procedure while his wife, Teddy, was operating on an emergency patient.  So Teddy wasn’t there when her hubby died and new-Chief Owen didn’t tell her. By epi’s end she still didn’t know.  And Cristina didn’t know the patient she was called to do a heart procedure on was Teddy’s hubby.  She was rushing through becausec she’d been practicing for a procedure on her “dream list.” And Owen didn’t tell Cristina that the patient was Henry.  She found out after he died.

There was lots of trauma to go around.  Mer and Karev were called out to pick up a newborn infant who is having trouble breathing and must be transported to Seattle Grace.   On the way back the ambulance stalls on a narrow mountain road and a paramedic goes off to get help after warning Mer and Alex that if anything hits the ambulance it’ll explode b/c of all the oxygen tanks.  The paramedic tells the pair to get out but neither will leave the baby. They’re connected to the hospital for advice from Arizona who is in the middle of a procedure with Derek and Mark. Mark tells one of ‘em to leave. Alex tells Mer to go but she refuses to leave the baby. While they argue, something hits the ambulance, they’re thrown around and the OR loses the connection to the phone.

Der is finally struck by how much his wife means to him and he gets all jittery and teary and Jackson has to take over the surgery. (Maybe now he’ll even stop trying to destroy Mer’s career – you think?)  In the closing scene Alex and Mer crawl out of the ambulance – apparently okay – and see a car tipped over and dead bodies thrown around. It’s a tough scene and yeah – I wonder what it portends.  Maybe I’ll blog about those guesses later. The Duck Lady’s over the top thoughts on that scene would likely be far more horrific than whatever Sunshine’s crack writers dreamed up.

But that’s not what this blog is about.  This is about the call Mer/Der got from the social worker indicating that she didn’t think they’d get Zola.  She basically told ‘em to move on.  Der tells Mer that it’s not over – they’ll fight for Zola or get another baby. But Mer refuses and says Zola was their baby and she’s gone.  Mer says she doesn’t want another one and for now McDreamy is feeling a little guilty that he pushed Mer towards motherhood before she was ready. 

But one way or another, the pitter patter of little McDreamy feet seems inevitable, doesn’t it?  So – what route will the stork take to deliver a McDreamy bundle?

In the ambulance, Karev suggests surrogacy.  Now, that’s a thought.  But who would the surrogate Mom be? 

A surrogacy with a mom from outside the cast is one possibility.  There would still be complications aplenty with that, and it’s the most likely surrogacy scenario.  But lets take it a little more over the top and look at a couple of other intriguing surrogate Mom candidates.  First, let’s consider a surrogacy by little sister Lexie.  She’d be a likely candidate.  She’s a do-gooder at heart.  But a Lexie surrogacy makes me wonder how Mark would react. If Mark and Lexie were to get together, Mark would likely start to feel all fatherly towards the little bundle and Lord knows, Lexie would be apt to feel motherly.  That would lead to sparks between Der and Mark and Mer and Lexie now, wouldn’t it?

How about a surrogacy by Cristina? She isn’t ready to be a full time Mom yet. But everyone can see that Mark’s baby sharing arrangement with Arizona and Callie seems to be working out fine.  Cristina might not want to be a full time Mom, but she might think a baby sharing deal with Mer and Der sounds fun. Or it could start as a straight surrogacy but meld into a sharing arrangement by a battle between Owen and Der.  Owen might see such a deal as the only way he’ll have the kid he so desperately wants.  That would be interesting, right?

But this is the Duck Lady – so let’s push it a little.  Mark’s baby with Calzona wasn’t created by any darned artifical process, now – was it? No sir. Mark fathered his kid the old fashioned way.  Wouldn’t that be more natural all the way around? (I’m feeling a “Big Chill” moment.  In my head, the Stones are singing about how you can’t always get what you want but that if you try you might get what you need.  How fitting.)  So that would mean Der doing the dirty deed either with Lexie - his attraction to her was noted in her introductory epi – or with Cristina - we saw those sparks fly when Der was coaxing her back to the OR after the crazed gunman’s attack. 

The Der/Lexie scenario is even a little icky for me to imagine.  I’ll pass on that one. And if it’s too crazy for the Duck Lady, well –  I doubt that Grey’s team of much saner writers would’ve cranked it out.  But – you never know, do you? Back when Der/Mer were sort of together and sort of apart, Der first met Lexie at Joe’s. There was a spark and when he found out who she was, he said it figured that the first lady he’d been attracted to since Mer would be her sister.

But the Derek/Cristina thing – I could see that happening.   Mer and Cristina are close enough to delude themselves that it wouldn’t matter and Owen would at least get a baby who was a little Cristina.  But it would take a bit for even McDreamy sperm to hook up with Super Surgeon’s egg. So there would be more than 1 hook up. Mer and Owen would know the other two were together and what they were doing – unless Cristina went all crazy, upside down sexy on Der and they started slipping off just to slip around.   But once the baby took, then it would be a little being created by Der/Tina.  There would be tenderness and possessiveness, jealousy and giving, sunshine and clouds.  Owen and Der together would smother the heck out of Cristina who’d want to give birth while performing heart surgery. And wouldn’t the kid be destined to be one heck of a surgeon? He or she would probably be born wearing a surgical mask and holding a scalpel.

There’s another route to a McDreamy infant and it’s much, much more likely.  What if DER ALREADY HAS A BABY? The nurse Der dated and slept with could’ve given birth to their child by now.  I’m not exactly sure how Grey’s time runs.  The nurse could have an attack of conscience (or an attack of something) in the delivery room and call for Der. And wah lah – ready made family – just add a Daddy who is more than ready for the job.  Now there would be seeds for conflict, sure enough.  Not much would make Der leave Mer, but to create a family for his child?  That might do it.  He’d at least be mighty torn. 

Okay, it’s also possible that Mer/Der get Zola.  But I can’t see Sunshine just leaving it at that. I’ve handled enough adoptions in my law practice to know how often having a baby relieves the pressure to make one. And once that pressure’s off, Mother Nature steps in and does her job. Yep, I’ve handled a number of adoptions where a Mama who was unlikely to ever get pregnant showed up for the hearing about ready to deliver.  And wouldn’t Mer be conflicted then?  Der would want her off her feet because of how high risk the pregnancy would be.  Mer wouldn’t want to give up her career but even more she wouldn’t want to stop parenting Zola.  And Der would have to play Mr. Mom the neurosurgeon.  Yep, lots of conflict there too.  But it’s not nearly over the top enough for the duck lady so that probably means this scenario is the most likely.

We can all mull over the stork’s route to the McDreamy home on Grey’s.  Mulling is fun – out of that comes everything from fine wine to fine literature and TV.  BTW – if you’re missing Grey’s, don’t forget to check out my tribute to the show. My book, “Griffin’s Law”is available in ebook and paper form just about everywhere.

I think the stork is headed for Mer/Der.  Or maybe it’s not a stork a’tall.  Maybe it’s a DUCK. And we all know how crazy they can be.

The RWA Prez had been judging a Food Network Romance Cakes cooking competition. She ruled out one of the finalists because it showed a married couple.  She said books featuring a married couple weren’t romance novels. 

It’s an interesting question.  What is romance? What books fit the genre?  I guess every reader and every writer has their own definition.  To me, a book is only a romance if it fits three key criteria. 

First and foremost AND forever, amen – to be a romance it must have a happy ending.  By that, I mean that by story’s end the hero and the heroine must have committed themselves to more than a relationship. They must have committed themselves to each other forever.  (My definition of a happy ending is pretty strict for such a loosey goosey duck lady, isn’t it?)

Second, the book must focus on the relationship between a couple. And third, the book must focus more on internal than external action.  It’s both an exact and a very loose definition.  But I don’t think every book that many consider a romance fits.  Several of Nicholas Sparks don’t fit the definition because there’s no HEA. Gabaldon’s “Outlander” doesn’t fit for the same reason. 

A romance novel is a tale of the heart.  Action, interaction, scenery and setting are window dressing. Emotion creates the story, emotion carries the story and emotion concludes the story.

Too many of them are reader-come-latelys.  Yeah, they might’ve been well-intentioned enough back when they started reading romance.  But they hung around with the wrong crowd.  They listened to the wrong sermons and soon enough, they started believing them.  And the young PCP converts were tapped as missionaries – sent out to convert others and convince them that the only good romance, the only acceptable romance was new romance.  Older romance was written in the wrong style with the wrong plot elements. 

Yes,  Kathleen Woodiwiss and Rosemary Rogers (guided by talented Avon Books editor Nancy Coffey) created a genre.  It wasn’t a genre where you might pick up a book on occasion and read it.  It was a genre that compelled readers to buy another book so they could start it the second they finished the last.  It was a genre that incited and inspired a generation of women.  

Perhaps that was all very well – then.  And those women who devoured romance novels like Christmas candy?  Well, they didn’t know any better. Besides, Woodiwiss and Rogers and the writers who learned from them were all the readers had.  But this is a new day.  There are a horde of writers who’ve learned the rules and write the proper stuff.  If a writer is tempted to wander off the true path  – she better not.  The PC Police will get her.

Do they have an APB out for me yet? 

If they don’t they better issue one because I’m about to lay some truth on the readers of this blog.  It’s the kind of truth that clears the system of the Kool-Aid that writers and editors and publishers of the PCP have been force-feeding readers for far too long.  It’s an earth-shattering, life altering truth.  Are you ready? 

Despite the PC Police, there are still writers who cut their teeth as readers of the ground-breaking work by Woodiwiss and Rogers.  Some of us discovered those books at local libraries,  long after they’d been published.  And some of us love them still. 

The work that incited a new genre and inspired a generation can do the same again.  The style and plot elements of a Woodiwiss or Rogers romance have been declared incorrect and offensive by the PCP.  But I understand the power of a good mind trip and I believe that many readers, like me, read romance in order to get inside the heads and the hearts of the hero and heroine. 

Those who decide such things have decided that writers must show, not tell.  Well, I am an indie writer who is proud to claim the traditions of writers who created our genre.  One benefit – and it’s a big one – of being an indie is that the one who decides such things with my books is me. And I’ve decided that if writers want to stop this generation from putting down a book to watch a TV Show or movie, they’d better show AND tell.   

To paraphrase The Duke of Eden - writers had better show and tell or (continue) to say fare thee well to our readers.  Romance grew into the blockbuster genre because our readers preferred to be reading a love story than doing most anything else.  And that was back in the day when the only real distractions from reading were TV and movies.  Today the internet which has opened the doors to careers for indie writers like me has also opened the floodgates to a world of distraction. 

 If we want to do more than cater to readers who pick up our books sometimes – when they have time, then we better forget the Kool Aid and offer the wine.  Readers can pick and choose their entertainment with You Tube and become part of it with Twitter.  If we want to inspire a new generation so much that they turn away from other entertainment, then we’d better learn an old lesson.  What created our genre was writing that carried readers into the minds of the characters and made the readers part of the story. 

But given the excitement level of the other distractions, we won’t engage the readers as much as we have to unless we throw out all the mis-rule of the PC Police.  And that means that even the holy grail of the PC Police must be breached.  (Yes, AOFM, I’m gonna say it – you better sit down.) SO WHAT IF A BODICE RIPS?   Let’s rip some trousers too. 

No, I’m not advocating rape.  What I am advocating is that we stop throwing the baby out with the bath water.  There’s a world of difference between some use of coercion or even force and rape.  There is both dark fascination and universal appeal to situations where desire is inspired against our will, against common sense, even against our morals.  They may be presented straight up involving the hero using his superior strength to prove to the heroine that the desire is mutual.  Usually, in a Woodiwiss book, that got answered by the heroine using her superior wits to show the hero that the love was mutual as well.  The dark side of desire may be presented as a joke, like I did in A Faerie Fated Forever. It may show up in a shoe is on the other foot fashion (involving the hero) as in A Golden Forever. 

The dark side of desire may also show up in a dozen different ways. And, yes, bodices may be ripped.  But it worked in early romance because those writers carried the reader inside the heads and hearts of the character.  It would never, ever, work in grammar school level work where writers are only showing. 

I guess what I’m saying is let’s lock up the PC Police and tell writers that they’d better learn to be as smart as our readers.  It’s harder to mind hop but doing it well opens the keys to all the cages.  Doing it well means that nothing is off limits. 

So, there you have it. I’ve advocated the end of “Show, Don’t Tell” and a return to the era of ripped clothing and no holds barred enticement – even if force or coercion is involved.  I’m sure the PC Police have an All Points Bulletin (APB) Out for me now.

On second thought, they’ve probably skipped the nicety of getting legal process.  I bet they’ve given a shoot on sight order.  I’ll have to pull out the heavy ammunition.  Yes, when the PC Police show up and draw their guns I’ll have to……….. have to…………  rip my bodice.  They’ll faint dead away and I’ll skip right off into the sunset — but I’ll take my readers with me, right inside my devious little brain. 

Why are we transitioning?  Since indie work appeared in the Nook store, my books were delivered by Smashwords.  I stayed with the platform long, long after B&N opened a way for writers to deliver work directly to Nook.  I stayed with the platform even though the B&N “pubit” system allowed authors to keep more of the money they made.  What has finally convinced me to switch is the lengthy delay in getting money into my bank account.

I’m not blaming Smashwords.  Their system is their system and I’ll still use it for Apple, Disel, Sony and KOBO.  But since B&N has a system that functions like Amazon’s KDP, shows real time sales numbers, and pays monthly - economics have forced me to switch to Pubit and upload to B&N directly.

The work is formatted right – I think – and if it’s not, please HOLLA at us by the email link on this site.  We’ll get the covers right on the downloads too, but those pesky day jobs keep getting in the way…

Oh, and if you’re a Cover Bug on B&N infesting a QA/Mary Anne Graham Romance cover expertly designed by John Graham — you better look out.  Mr. Brick packs a nasty punch and he’s hunting bugs.

Traditionally published romances average around $7.99 and new releases by some publishers top the $12 mark.  If you’re trying to make a house payment and keep your lights on – how can you justify spending that money for a book?  Most of us can’t these days.  We simply can’t. 

Yet you can pick up many indie romances for as little as 99 cents.  I published The Duke of Eden on Amazon as a serial before I finished the full.  There are 3 parts of the serial up at Amazon.  Each sells for 99 cents and the full sells for $2.99.  It’s easier to pick up the book in 1 installment, but if your budget won’t allow it, then pick it up a piece at a time.  Most writers who sell serial stuff only put out little chunks, a chapter or so at a time, making the whole book much more expensive than just buying a regular novel. 

I didn’t do that.  I put out big chunks of Duke and only charged 99 cents for each.  And when I published the full for $2.99, I left the serial up, even though it costs me higher priced sales of the full.  Why?  Because I get it. I’m with you.  I understand.  I’m in the same place you are with my budget and I refuse – I absolutely refuse- to unpublish the lower priced option.

Many folks haven’t tried indie romance.  Somehow, they consider indie work to be inferior and unworthy.  Or that’s what they’ve heard, anyway.  Well, in today’s economy when traditional publishers don’t consider your bottom line, maybe this is the best time to give indie romance a shot.  Lord knows, the news is full of gloom and doom.  Creditors are calling, nasty letters come in the mail and many of us are paying bills in chunks.

More than ever, people need regular doses of the kind of hope, optimism and happy endings that they get from romance novels.  Remember the old commercials that talked about “Miller time?”  Well – it’s INDIE TIME. 

Most indie romance sells for $2.99 or less.  You can pick up A Faerie Fated Forever for free at almost every ebook site on the planet right now.  Don’t let the high prices charged by traditional publishers deprive you of the hope and optimism that helps fuel you to keep on keeping on until it gets better.  And it will.  We all know it will. 

By the time things improve, I hope that indie romance has become your first choice.  Indie authors are doing some of the best, most creative, most cutting edge work out there. Once you go indie, you may not want to go back.

And why should you?

Some folks like indies and some don’t.  That’s fine.  If you don’t like indie authors, you shouldn’t buy our work.  Fair enough.  I have no right to force my indie books on someone who prefers traditionally published work. But banning indies?  The group has no more right to deprive others who like indie work of it than I do to force them to read it.  Respect is a two-way street folks.

But reading that thread and then reading some of the reader comments on some of my work have caused me to go back and check a couple of things.  There are comments talking about grammatical errors and misspellings through a couple of my books.  I’ll fess up to needing to fix Brotherly Love in which I kept spelling lose (as in my mind) with loose (as in my accounting methods). 

But the other books referenced?  There’s a comment talking about all the typos and spelling errors in A Golden Forever.  I ran back over that one, and couldn’t find the errors.  However, I ran across several sections where I’d used colloquial phrases or people who spoke differently.  In those sections the spelling is different.  But I really know that scared isn’t spelled scairt. I just spelled it the way the character spoke. 

There are a bunch of places where I write the way the work flows and sometimes that’s not grammatically correct.  But my B.A. is in English.  I underestand grammar and (mostly) I even remember the rules when I write. But I don’t let ‘em fence me in. Sometimes. I don’t like. Fences, rules or people who. Avidly. Support. Either. 

There are surely misspellings in my work.  But I’m going to make it my mission to re-edit everything and to run it through a neat site that checks spelling, grammar, style and punctuation.  I’ve made enough on my e-books to finance that, and I’ll do it because I don’t want any of my “human errors” to keep people from enjoying my books.

Having said all that, I realize that there are readers who won’t like my work for reasons as wide and as varied as today’s virtual bookshelves.  Most of the time I write over the top and take it way past what readers anticipate or expect.  For stretches in my books a lot of the “action” is internal – a conflict a character is having with himself or herself.  I enjoy mind hopping. It’s one of the reasons I read romance instead of watching it on TV – I don’t just want to know what happenned, I want to know why it happenned.  Why it HAD to happen. 

Some readers don’t like it as far over the top as I write it.  Fair enough.  Some readers love the trip and email me asking about the next journey.  Love that.  I’m gonna do the additional editing I can do and then have ErrNET follow behind to catch what I miss.  But the editing site will see some style choices as errors and I’ll disagree and leave them in, just as they are. The style has to stay true to the work.

There are people who don’t like any indie work.  Others just don’t like my work. And there are some wild, free spirited readers who’ll go over the top with me and yell because I didn’t take ‘em higher. You’ll forgive me if I’m just a bit more partial to the last group.

Fences can only confine you if you stay on the ground and refuse to climb to see how high you might go.  And if you keep climbing, you might get to the top and jump off to find that you can fly.  I’ll meet you there – flying over rules and reality, over borders and boundaries, past can’t and must. 

If you’re grounded in reality and rooted by rules, then my work isn’t for you. You won’t like it no matter how it’s edited or formatted.  If you’re a dreamer who opens a new reality with each book then you might like the view from over the top. I’m always happy to fly with readers who have spirits big enough and open enough and wise enough to know that limits are only figments of our imagination.