WHAT IF ...

The GBE2 topic for this week, "What if..." and I am going to play for the second week in a row!  I never used to miss a topic and then, I lost my passion. Writing has been a requirement for me for years now and all of a sudden, it's not.  The retirement of Roomy had a lot to do with it. Does that sound silly to you?  He was here all day most every day and my writing time was gone. My alone with my thoughts time was gone. My need to write felt alive and well, I wanted to write, but I had no passion. I didn't even go into the office except to pay a bill or make calls or maybe watch the TV on my desk while browsing FB.

Nothing has changed except that I really want to write again and have decided that it's all about just doing it.  Summer chores and the love of the outdoors cut into my favorite writing time slot, but I have also always enjoyed late night writing and I still have that time to myself.  I'm taking this bull by the horns. I have a rewrite that I want done and I am going to get to that beginning tonight.  But right now, I'm blogging!

What if...

My first novel had been picked up by one of the twenty or thirty publishers I sent it to?  It would now be out there in hard or paperback in some bookstores across the country. What if a lot of people really liked it?  What if no one liked it?  What if the publisher had asked for book number 2, my personal favorite?  This one I am sure would have sold well with proper marketing and editing. I love this book and I have wanted it published in affordable paperback ever since the day I finished the rough draft.  It's still on sale at Kindle and B&N Nook, but the sales have slowed.  I get notes from readers and it is borrowed quite often among friends; that speaks well of Beautiful Betsy. It makes me very happy.  But, you know IF any of my books had been picked up, I would be out on tour and working under deadlines and trying to outsell my last GIANT hit and really, that's not me.  I'm a very casual writer who writes much more for myself and a little bit for the love I get from readers who like my style of casual and conversational story telling.  It's fun and it's completely at my leisure.  So IF Betsy had been published, I wouldn't have the choice of writing or not writing. I wouldn't have the option of rewriting The Island Princess. I'd be far too busy to enjoy procrastinating.  It's better that I self-published on Kindle and Nook.

What if...yeah, well, as usual, everything worked out as it was meant to work out. I am getting back to the office tonight and I am going to stick to my newly decided writing schedule because as one of my dearest friends in the world told me years ago, "Writers Write. The good ones, they write everyday if only for a few minutes, they write."

If you think you might like my books, the two still at Amazon and Barnes and Noble can be found by searching Jo Heroux, Author.  Both Beautiful Betsy and Summer in Martinstown are stories of people just like some people you may know.  I created lives and they wrote their stories through my keyboard. Lots of twists and turns and unexpected events will hopefully keep your interest.  Oh, and let me know if you read one and like it or if you read one and have no intention of ever reading another Jo Heroux piece.  Either way, I love hearing from my readers.

What if you're  missing out on a really good read?