DU and the rollercoaster...

It's WAY too early in the morning. It's exactly 5:44AM and I've actually been up for almost two hours. Why? Because oldest daughter (who's a senior in high school this year) wants to do the visit thing at RPI up near Ithaca, NY. It's a two-and-a-half hour ride and both her Dad and I are up, showered and ready to go. She's barely breathing...

Anyway... Dreams Unlimited. Now that was a lot of fun. I always figured that SF and romance were made for each other. But I was SO tired of reading the "costume dramas" of futuristic romance and tired of the techno overkill of SF. So I wanted books that were going to meld the two genres together into a thing of beauty.

See... I figured it was a pretty simple concept. If I wanted to read those books, there surely had to be authors out there who were writing them. And if I wanted to read them, there had to be others who would also read them. Pretty simple, right?

And it worked. And then I expanded in another direction. Erotic romance. No closed doors in the books I was going to publish. See, there was really only one publisher out there who was publishing books specifically for women who was also willing to push the boundaries of "what was acceptable". Black Lace out of the UK. Problem was they had no restrictions whatsoever. Threesomes, foursomes, bondage and SM. Not that I have a problem with that, but their writing had quickly degerated into nothing more than Tab A goes into Slot B. I wanted the emotion that goes with it. I wanted the romance. Good romance should be erotic. But trading partners based on whoever happens to be in the room is not erotic.

Call me a Puritan. Heck, call me American with our "prudish" ways. But I wanted romance with explicit, sliding and preferrably wet parts...

So erotic romance became part of our catalog. And boy did that stuff sell.... LOL!

Yeah, we had a hit.

So conferences started inviting me to participate and talk about it. (My advice? You ain't writing this stuff for Mom, babe. Just let it hang out and follow the characters and don't worry that everyone is going to wonder what on Earth is going on in your bedroom. ) I had more submissions than I knew what to do with. And sales that kept me burning disks and CDs for all hours.

So what the heck happened? Life. My girls hit their early teen years and needed Mom's attention more than hopeful authors. Okay, the authors themselves might b!tch a bit about that, but my girls mean more to me than anyone on Earth. Get over it.

So, at the very beginning of a sharp curve that would lead to riches and fame, I found a home for my authors and closed the doors. We weren't making enough money to hire people to take over for me, so I had no choice. Now, if I'd had a true head for business and understood the first thing about a business plan, I would have found investors to help us over this crucial crunch. But I'm not a true businesswoman. I understand marketing and promo. I can sell water to a Navy tar, but I still don't know the first thing about how to get investors. And faith ain't gonna pay the bills.

Funny. I'd figured it would take us 5 years to go from red ink to black ink in the ledger book. It took only three. We were actually making a profit when I closed the doors. And now another company took our idea, started their own company and I've been told they're pulling in seven figures a year. Good for them. I'm glad to see my idea paid off. And some of the authors I launched are over there making good money for themselves. I don't know if it's six figures, but I know it's at least five.

And I got to know people from all over the world.

One of our authors was from Australia. A wonderful woman. And one of our greatest fans was also from the way Outback of the same country. She literally lived the life straight out of The Thornbirds. Her husband went to town twice a year because they were 600 miles in the middle of nowhere on a sheep farm. And she thanked God for her computer and our company. By the time all the supplies were bought for the next half year, there would be no room left in the truck for books. So she bought our releases faithfully and she swore we saved her sanity during the long months of isolation.

Can you get a better compliment? I don't think so.

So it was with long teeth that I closed the business. And I kind of got lost the next few years. Became more involved with the fire dept and became an EMT, volunteering three shifts a week on our local ambulance while the girls were in school. then I went to work for a local university...

Initially working nights in the dorms. Nights that tend to shift more towards partying than studying. Oh, the stories I could tell about what your kids do when they're not in class. Kinda makes me want to put my own high school senior under lock and key...

But that's another entry. What can I say? A man I work with taught me quickly to shake my head in exasperation and simply mutter, "Damn kids..."