
Evergreen Crystals is the fourth in the Leeward Files Series. Most of you were expecting Red Steel and that’s coming soon, I promise, but I thought I could whip out a little holiday romance, give the gals of Leeward their happy endings and move on, BUT….
When I started writing Evergreen Crystals it was just going to be something sweet and fluffy for the holidays. I thought, I’d write a truly romantic story for my heroines and let them have their happy ever after, but I stalled. The quick story wasn’t so quick. In fact, I was having trouble getting started. When I tried to write just a happy romantic story my brain seized, and I couldn’t think what to write. I couldn’t do it. I was getting depressed and worried and it was getting down to crunch time. I mean, if you’re going to have a holiday story, you should really have it out in time for the holidays, right? The writing is usually the easy part because after the rough draft comes the revisions and rewriting, the editing and more editing, the publishing and proof reading and editing some more. Yeah, I was running out of time. Should I scrap this idea of a happy holiday story and just write my firefighter story? But I needed closure for Rae Lynne, Jenna and Dana. They deserved a little happy in their lives.
We often tell people stuff, give them advice but we don’t even hear our own words. This is what happened when I attended a writers’ retreat after a hurricane. My friend and fellow Pamlico Writer Adrienne Dunning went to Murfreesboro for a writers’ retreat. Y’all may remember me talking about my adventures on my website, “An Exotic Retreat in Murfreesboro, North Carolina.” During this retreat I met some amazing people both published authors and unpublished. While sitting around the table our last day together, I was offering words of wisdom to one of the unpublished authors when my friend, Adrienne cornered me and pointed out that I was doing just what I was telling her not to do. I was trying to force the story to be something it was not. As we talked, I realized she was right. As much as I wanted to be a true romance writer, I am not. I like to kill people and blow things up and create mayhem. I like a little romance, a lot of sex added in but that doesn’t lead the story. Once I embraced my darker side and just decided to have fun with the story, it all began to flow. It’s true. Trying to force a story to be something it is not, doesn’t work. Can I write romance? Sure, I can. But if I’m having fun writing my stories my way, why worry about a label, except for when trying to market them. So, from now on, unless I’m writing for an anthology or something, I’m just going to enjoy the journey and write.
I hope you all will check out Evergreen Crystals, and if you’re in Aurora or Eastern North Carolina, Thursday, December 5th at 7 pm, drop by the Hazel Guilford Memorial Library and celebrate with us. We will have games, prizes, gifts and a lot of fun, come join us. Thank you all for your support. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

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