According to common sense and several articles I’ve read (please don’t ask me to quote sources!), there are three major deal-breakers in a relationship: abuse, addiction, and infidelity. In other words, if your significant other is guilty of any of these, run the other way. They won’t change.

Fortunately, my husband is a gem and I don’t have a problem there. But like relationships, careers are subject to deal-breakers too. Sometimes, you reach a crushing moment where you realize you have to end things. No matter how much you love him (her, it, the job). No matter how much it hurts and how lost you feel starting over, this particular thing happened and continuing down the same path would reap more harm to your self-respect than it would rewards.

Last week, this is where I found myself—at the lowest point of the dizzying roller-coaster of publishing, an industry that tosses a writer around like a kid’s inflatable bouncy-house (but isn’t nearly as much fun!). I’m happy to say that today, I received a shining example of the way I believe this business should work. My faith is somewhat restored. At least, it might be creeping back up the next hill on the coaster.

I have discovered a few things as of late: my current publisher, Samhain, is a wonderful place (no, the above was not a rant about them, lol). Small houses are a pleasure to deal with. Digital publishing is awesome. My Kindle is really cool and I’ve been reading a lot more since I got it. I encourage you to do the same—check out small and digital publishers. Check out new—or new-to-you—authors. Take a look at e-readers. You’ll be surprised.

I apologize for being scarce, as I may continue to be for the next few weeks, while I regroup and the vision of my writing future takes on a new shape. Those of you I’ve talked to recently will be pleased to know that I still believe I have a writing future. But it will take some time to get things moving again. I sincerely hope to have a new e-book available some time this year, but to hold you over until then, my first paperback, Sexy by Design, releases on Tuesday, March 2. It will be available (and is already available for pre-order) at Borders, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and several other outlets.

Thank you to my readers and my writer friends for your support thus far, and for tolerating this cryptic message as an explanation for my long blog absences. I hope to be back with a bang (literally, lol) shortly.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 7:35 pm and is filed under Avery's Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.