Into the Unknown - Progress and Check in

Into the Unknown is the third book in my Running Rampant series. I am currently editing it, but it should be available in the coming months. What I thought I would do is share with you the description and the cover. 

I used the same amazing artist as I did with the other two cover. Unfortunately, I haven't updated my blog at all in a few years so I have a bit of catching up to do. I will be sharing those as well.

Into the Unknown isn't available to purchase now.

Keiran Hyde, the ousted leader of the Shadowtail pack, wanted something more. A life of peace. A family and a future. When Alisa begs him to take her children because of a threat to their lives, he finds out that he has been a father for years. Shocked, he saves his children by taking them to Roaring Fork, TN only to be greeted by someone from his past. Someone he has always loved. Someone who still has his heart. And now, he is faced with more secrets.

Michelle Gibson didn’t expect to come face-to-face with the only man she had ever loved. Meeting him again opened a lot of closed doors, revealing secrets that she tried to keep hidden. Faced with the brutal honesty of her heart, she will do anything to keep Keiran in her life. Even through the pain of the revelation that Keiran was a father to her daughter Desiree.

When the threat of old enemies forces both of their hands, Keiran and Michelle are thrust into a plot to take down the Seattle Elite forever changing family ties. The only thing keeping them going is the truth that they are better together and will do whatever it takes to stay together. Even with a new threat on the horizon. The Resurrection of the Sisters of Twilight.

Royal Road is Perilous

I finished my novel - Into the Unknown. I am ecstatic. In my excitement, I decided to try something new before publication. I was going to release it chapter by chapter on two web-novel sites. One of those was Royal Road.

Let me preface this with the fact that I know the genre I write in has stigmas. I find them ridiculous because romance writing has a huge market where women are the main readers. I am extremely proud of what I write. I do not and will not be shamed for it. I am also capable of writing other forms of writing. Even some of the most experienced writers have problems writing intimacy and sexual content. I can. I do. And I am okay with the fact that I can.

My series Running Rampant is set in the modern world in a ficticous town of Roaring Fork, TN. This series is about Werewolves who turn into normal wolves and not some Hollywood created half man/half wolf. It has very little content where wolves are actually wolves and not humans. And it has zero wolf-on-wolf sexual content.

Whether it does or not, doesn't mean the content I wrote has less value.

So figure me surprise when I find that my story has been denied because the moderation team "believes" I have sexual content in my books. 

Wait...what? The website that has no less than 2500 HAREM stories where one individual keeps and entraps tens and hundreds of women to use at his pleasure? The website that has the ability to have sexual content and mark the story as having sexual content?

The reputation on this website is BRUTUAL. The readers are destructive toward authors and each other. There is so much negative behavior. And that is on stories that do not have sexual content.

Look, I am not saying I don't write erotic stories. I am not ashamed of that either. I am freaking good at writing sex. I am freaking forty years old. But Into the Unknown has around 2-4 chapters out of 30+ chapters that have sexual content. It is less charged than my other content.

You can say I am salty if you wish. I am not. I already have my content available on another website. What I have a problem with is the stigmas that exist for romance writers. What I have a problem with is that I am looked down upon because I write romance or "smut" as people call it. From my friends. From other writers. From random people who have no intention of writing...and from some people who don't even read.

If I write content that even the most seasoned writers have no ability to write, why is this a problem?

Romance writing is ZERO different than the same hours and hours and hours spent writing sci-fi or fantasy, or lit-rpg, or horror, or fiction.

I, as the writer, take the time to plot, plan, write, edit, and toil over my manuscripts. I am creating a world. I am creating characters. And I do it because women should feel intimate and sexually charged. They should feel wanted and appreciated. They should have fantasies. And if I can be a part of that mindset that frees a woman from the bounds that are put on her...heck yeah!

And the sad part is...even with writing this I know the stigma will continue. And that makes me sad. I was denied an opportunity today because someone allowed their own bias to make a snap decision based on zero evidence. The chapter I submitted had violence. It had fighting between two werewolves, one with the intent to kill. And still, the content was denied because of an assumption and bias on sexual content.

Thank you, Royal Road moderators. You made sure I won't use your website. As a writer. As a reader. I hope that you do better for future writers, but I am fairly certain that won't happen. If you allow the destruction you do with readers and what they are allowed to post in the comment section and to each other...you don't actually care about the writers that create the content.

It is a sad, sad world.