First, I wanted to once again thank everyone who donated to the AWH donation baskets for the Lori Foster Get Together. Over $5,000 from the raffle baskets alone was raised for the One Way Farm for Orphaned and Abandoned Children. That’s amazing!

Another nice part of the Get Together was that I got to meet two AWH puppies who were also my authors when I was the ME of Wild Child and Freya’s Bower. Missy Lyons approached my table with an adorable baby perched on her hip, and I discovered Nicole Zoltack sitting at book-signing table. Both are lovely ladies and it was a true joy to meet them!

Now, on to the matter at hand.

Today was my day to blog at Flirty Author Bitches which was a prelude to this blog post.

After much deliberation, after days and days of tossing ideas around with my hubby and three of my close friends, and after worrying, swaying back and forth on a decision, and deliberating some more, I’ve finally come to some decisions that I must share with all involved with AWH and AWH Chatters.

Most of you know that the Brown Family has moved into a new, bigger home. It was a horribly difficult move. Why? Because four out of six days of the move, I did it alone. I’m not patting myself on the back. Oh, no. I think I’m whining more than anything, lmao. There were things I moved I should never have moved. I towed a trailer back and forth between the two houses with everything I could cram into it. And thank God I’m not a li’l ninety-pound stick figure. Otherwise, I’d probably still be mashed somewhere between a mattress and a china cabinet!

Ivory, my twelve-year-old dau, worked her li’l butt off, and JadeyKiss did her best to help, but she’s due to have her baby in about four weeks, and without any big guys to step in due to their work schedules and the hubby unable to take off work (they all helped over the weekend with the really big stuff), you now see why I had to disappear for a while from AWH.

Then the weekend for the Lori Foster Get Together arrived and I drove four hours to it and four hours home. Over this past week I’ve done very li’l except write, write, write, and revise, revise, revise—and SLEEP.

I am so damn tired I find myself nodding off at the kitchen table, the computer, over my laptop, and as I try to watch TV.

But one thing I haven’t said much about is that I have writing contracts rolling in. I’m not one to wave my flag and shout all over cyberspace about my contracts and publications. One thing I learned a long, long time ago is that the readers will find your work and they’ll read what they want to read no matter how much you shimmy around in a bright banner or shoot promo after various promo through the loops. However, I’ve learned the hard way that there are way too many green-eyed gremlins out there in Writer Land for my taste, so keeping my publishing news to my blogs and my newsletter for the most part is the wisest choice for me.

I have four pen names and two variants of my real name that I publish under. I’m open about Molly Diamond’s work because it’s pure erotica for the most part, but my other ones I use for various reasons of anonymity. I’m published with some big guys, and I’m content keeping the who, what, when, where, and why of it all quiet.

With that said, I’ve sold several manuscripts of late, two of which were sold on two chapters or just a few pages. I already have publication dates for these novels and they’re looming in the near future. On top of that, I have a series under consideration too.

Now, mix in my big family, a grandchild on the way, and helping my daughter finish her education so she can go on to college… Well, I have to trim some things down in my life and two of them are the loops and AWH.

Now before the devout AWH puppies howl in protest, I’m not shutting AWH down completely. This is what I’m going to do:

• Over the next week or so, I will be sending a repeat special notice through the AWH Workshop encouraging those there who are not on Chatters to make the shift over to the AWH Chatters group. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/avoidwritershellchatters

• This AWH blog will remain open. Lex is graciously keeping it online. Therefore, lessons, informative posts, articles, and the like will appear here on the AWH blog.

• AWH puppies (students) with questions and comments about said AWH lessons/articles can leave them in the comments, and myself and my mods can answer and discuss things in comments too. This makes it easier for me, too, because I’m stuck with dial-up until something better becomes available in my region.

• AWH Chatters will be the same as it has always been. Promos on Mondays, general questions asked there, chitchat, and so on.

Moreover, I do have a lot of nonfiction material that I want to compile into one big volume for writers that has the same tone and theme of the AWH Books so that’s another reason I want to keep AWH going. One day I hope to have that conference for AWH too.

But right now, I find myself with more obligations and work than I have time. Since my writing helps pay the bills, I have to sculpt my schedule so I can make room for everything.

If you have any questions, you can email me privately or post it in the comments section here.

Change is a big part of life.

I love you all.

Faith

Founder of Avoid Writers Hell