Hello all. I am a writer behind many pen names, and I'll answer to any of them. :) I've been writing most of my life, but to narrow it down, I've been on line ten years in the writing loops. I was on the Harly boards for several years as (EvieMac) and did my stint with critique partners and learning the print world, which was all that I was aware of then . I had written something like 20 books, some 400 pages long before I got in the loops, most of which will remain under the bed buried forever, as they should. The short version is, after going through the boot camp of learning to write a query and synops, being on boards with editors and doing that whole wake up call new writers do when they realize the Industry is tough, despite all the how to books you read and how connected you think you are over the years, you don't know zip about anything really. I'm going to mention though that some 24 years ago I submitted to St. Martin's press and got a request for the whole manuscript. Ufort, I started another job, was working a full and part time, plus with the kids, I never responded and like so many writers with demands on their real life, I put writing behind me, other than reading obsessively, buying research books and RT, still belonging to RWA, for many long years. I missed my boat, or so I thought :)

Anyway, kids grew up, we moved 400 miles, I turned 40... I joined the harly boards. My first query read like the dead sea scrolls. Thankfully some published authors were around and many gave me advice, help-- and slaps up side the head when I needed it. I got that first and only R back, as I should have, considering it must have been torture to read for the editor, because a query at the most is 100 words- by then I'd gotten all sorts of mercy thrown on me by savvy ladies in the publishing world, and thus I set out for the next three to not submit anything until I had studied the craft and learned more about how to write/publish. Fast forward and I was knee deep in crit partners, anywhere from 17 to a group of three. An agent while I was on a board one day said "enough already!" get out there and find your voice, take the risks again. In other words jump out of the nest.

Many of my partners became close on line pals, who were published in e books while still subbing to New York. (I'll gleefully pimp them when they give me permission lol, because they are all published in NY houses now! Those laides Rock!) . Um, anyway I didn't know what that was either (e books, e publishing). I had written other stories and decided to plunge right ino e books, and sent out 10 queries and got back 10 "send the manuscript." And before you go duh! Yes, lol. I was as blind to what I was getting into in e books as I was in print. Print I now knew everything I needed to. e books are a whole different world. I had obligations and contracts enough to last a couple of years, so though I had gotten an agent request and some positive response in print, I now needed to focus on e books and learning everything I could of them.

I got the good, bad and ugly. So I'm telling you, do your research on publishers and what the realities and expectations in the e publishing world are. Some of my publishers went defunct for various reasons, and I've been in the business now long enough to have a few battle scars as well as successes. I give writers the same advice I take myself, and that is writing in any venue as a full time profession is a crap shoot. There are no guarantee's and no easy way to get from A to Z. You control no more in e books than you do in print, and you live and learn and hopefully get smarter with each experience. If you're a serious writer, you write. And you hope from the time it leaves your hands till it gets published it is still something you recognize as your own. Or for that matter, something you can be proud of. Lack of control was one of the reasons I joined the Alinar Publishing co-op. Many of my stories were coming out of contract, I was wiser and my writing had evolved, which I expect it will keep doing as long as I am writing. I'd pretty much invested, time, money, emotion and everything else in e books by this point, and so it was another one of those out of the nest things, when I and my fellow authors here combined our focus on a Co-op venture, where authors would do the work and several formats, the covers and edits, and all the things many do anyway through some publishers, and be able to have something to show for it.

Of course many factors came into it, such as wanting to keep reasonable prices and still pay people we need to pay, and overseeing whom we distribute to, because the pie gets sliced too thin when you over extend -and author's make nothing by the time the crumbs are wiped up. Yet the vision as Lily and I, and Marie had discussed it many times, was to write good stories and make them available to readers. As a writer, it's your job to write the best stories you can regardless of the genre. You cant control everything in the market or the fact that reading is subjective. What you can do is stay consistent and productive, and hopefully focused and be a reader too. You'll never have enough time to write as much as you want. You'll never get rich either .Sometimes you'll only break even. But writing is its own reward, and we love stories and respect readers, and are dedicated to what we do, no matter what process happens afterwards. I believe too in paying it forward... I am thankful always to the on line pals who got me here from the Harly boards, and crit groups, agent advice freely given. I'm aware of all the kindness and yes, tough love, that people gave me when I was green as grass. I am thankful to every reader who buys any of my books. Who sent me a thank you or enjoyed any of my writing. And I have the greatest respect for those authors who set aside ego and center stage grabbing because there is room for every kind of story, every writer who dreams of writing and for the most part we cheer for each other and lend an ear when things go the opposite of what we hoped. Some of the most humble writers in this biz are the best at what they do because they love writing and they read, they enjoy their readers and enjoy enteracting with them when we surface from our obsessions lol. The most professional and well liked among their peers are those who have done the happy dance for their fellow authors sucesses and behind the scenes been encouraging and helpful. And many of those you have to push out on the stage because they simply love what they do. So ending my long ramble, joining Ladies who write IMHO, put me amid two of the best Ladies I've met in my e book journey, and after we're done with all this seriousness, I'm sure you'll see their warmth and humor and talents reflected on the blog. As often as you'll see them telling me, okay, shut up now, you're not writing a novel here! LOL. Welcome all.

Gayle~Eve