If I had a nickel…

I clearly remember the first time I actually said out loud, to another human being, that I was an author.

While my daughter was posing her little heart out during her senior picture photography session, the photographer casually asked what I did for a living. I saw the wave of panic wash over my daughter’s face as she silently begged me not to embarrass her with the revelation. As the mother of a teenage daughter, humiliating her to the point of near death had become a daily occurrence. She knew exactly what I did, and the public confirmation that her mom wrote erotica was the most mortifying thing that could ever happen to her. I took a deep breath to speak, and my daughter visibly cringed. “I am an author,” I said casually as the photographer kept his face firmly planted against his camera. The title felt foreign on my lips as I proclaimed it, and I waited anxiously for his response. The words that followed, as he proceeded to snap pictures of my daughter, would be ones that I would hear so often, that they would almost become canned answers.

“That’s cool, I have always thought about writing a book,”

I have to admit, I had been one of those people too. My love of romance and erotic novels goes back decades. After reading one spectacularly dismal erotic short story, I found myself saying, out loud no less, “I can do better than that!” So I set about to do just that. Total honesty here, I have no formal training in writing , and no previous manuscripts sitting around gathering dust. All I had was a hunger for a good dirty story that I would actually enjoy.

I am not a procrastinator by nature. I am a shit or get off the pot kind of gal, so I set about writing my first erotic short story that night. I polished it up, and self published it a week later, starting myself on a journey that has transformed my life. My hobby is now my career, and my humble words have given me a title…Author.

If you have a dream don’t sit on it, do it. My accidental stumble into writing has been one of the best decisions I have made in my 46 years. All great journeys start with one step, or keystroke in my case.