If love is the ivy, secrets are the poison.
Aether Psychics, Book 1
After enduring heartbreak at the hands of a dishonest woman, Edward Bailey lives according to scientific principles of structure and predictability. Just the thought of stepping outside his strict routine raises his anxiety.
Adding to his discomfort is Iris McTavish, who appears at his school’s faculty meeting in place of her world-famous archeologist father. Worse, the two of them are to pose as Grand Tourists while they search for an element that will help harness the power of aether.
Iris jumps at the opportunity to prove her worth as a scholar—and avoid an unwanted marriage proposal—while hiding the truth of her father’s whereabouts. If her secret gets out, the house of McTavish will fall into ruin.
Quite unexpectedly, Edward and Iris discover a growing attraction as their journey takes them to Paris and Rome, where betrayal, blackmail and outright theft threaten to destroy what could be a revolutionary discovery—and break their hearts.
Warning: Allergen alert! This book was produced in a facility that handles copious amounts of wine, tea and baked goods. May contain one or more of the following: a spirited heroine, a quirky hero, clever banter, interesting facts both made-up and historical, and lots of secrets. It is, however, gluten free.
If you stop reading here and go buy and enjoy the book, I'm perfectly cool with that. However, I've had a sort of blog post bouncing around in my head for the past few weeks. Waking to an email titled, "Should you quit your day job?" pushed me to think about it some more.
I'm taking the day off from work today to do release day promotion including a couple of online events, a Twitter chat at 12:30 EDT (11:30 central) and then a Facebook release party from 5:30 to 9:30 (link here). I might be sneaking in a massage at some point, too, and hopefully some writing. I had to argue with myself about taking the day to just be a writer, whereas it was a no brainer to take Friday off to go to a continuing education seminar on the DSM-V and ICD-10. Trust me, this is much more fun than that will be.
Why do I feel guilty, or at least indulgent, for taking the time to be a writer?
Mostly, there's the money. My mind tells me I'm losing several hundred dollars by not being at my practice today. This is where I fall into the comparison trap. It often seems like everyone is more successful at this than I am, so why bother? Perhaps I should just put my energy into seeing more patients and building my practice even though busy weeks sap the emotional energy I need for writing.
Then there are all the messages we writers get about the state of publishing, how it's so hard to get noticed because there are so many books out there. That feeds into the "what's the point?" attitude that sneaks around the corner and tries to pounce on me in my low moments.
So why do I bother, and why did I ignore the negative voices in my head to take the day off and fully embrace being a published author?
Eros Element is my fifth published book (seventh completed). As with many people, multiples of five are meaningful for me, so I wanted to honor this accomplishment by giving it the attention it deserves. Plus, I'm passionate about this book - it's my favorite of all of them so far - and with it being the first in the series, I want it to have a strong release.
Most of all, I want to honor this part of myself that wants to create and tell stories. I realized that I haven't been embracing this writing career fully, which has included not getting author photos done. I finally did that last week (thank you, Lorikay Photography!).
As a psychologist, I hear a lot about the things that make people's days difficult. I'm glad I have the opportunity to put something out there that will help someone deal with the crap in their own life. Plus, writing helps me to deal with my own difficulties. It's a win-win, no matter what happens with sales rankings or reviews.
And that, my friends, is why I'm happy to be an author, whether it's a quarter of an hour or a day at a time. Thank you so much for reading!
- Cecilia
