Tag: Passion

Exquisite Pain

Published on by Jan Sikes21 Comments

They stood, forehead to forehead and toe to toe.

“I love you, Kyle,” she whispered.

She lifted her head and met his smoldering amber eyes.

“I love you too, Julie.” He claimed her lips with tender yet insistent passion.

Shivers of ecstasy engulfed her, starting at her head and ending with her toes. This was it! This was what she’d dreamed of but never imagined could happen. After all, she’d never considered herself the stereotypical desirable girl that men lusted after. And especially for a man like Kyle, with his wavy brown hair, chiseled body and sexy smile.

She pressed her warm body against his growing need.

“I could stay like this forever,” she said.

Kyle chuckled. “I don’t think I could. I’d die from need and want.” He ran his hands down her back and cupped her buttocks, pulling her even closer.

He claimed her mouth again and she parted her lips, inviting his tongue inside. She wrapped her arms around his neck and entwined her fingers in his hair, letting the silky texture tease and tantalize.

“Okay! That’s a take. Great scene, Chris and Linda!”

Linda stepped back and cleared her throat. She avoided Chris’s gaze.

And then it hit. First in waves, then a crescendo of pure agonizing, exquisite pain. The kind of pain that only love can bring.

She reminded herself, it’s only pretend.

“Dammit,” she muttered.

This came in a dream. I experienced the exquisite pain that only love can bring. In the dream, it ended with a different scene, but with the same conclusion. I don’t have any idea who these characters are. I’ve never seen either of them and yet I was inside their heads. It makes me wonder sometimes if we travel to other dimensions when we sleep and dream…

All images courtesy of Pixabay.

PLEASE NOTE: I am away for the weekend with my family and may not able to respond to your comments until Monday.

Why do we do it?

Published on by Jan Sikes28 Comments

The Author’s Guild has just published their 2018 Author’s Income Survey.
The largest survey of writing-related earnings by American authors finds incomes falling to historic lows to a median of $6,080 in 2017, down 42 percent from 2009.

For more on this survey, you can click this link: https://www.authorsguild.org/industry-advocacy/authors-guild-survey-shows-drastic-42-percent-decline-in-authors-earnings-in-last-decade/

Hmmm. That doesn’t bode well for us authors. And to be totally honest, I’d be ecstatic to make $6,000 per year from my books. I don’t personally know any Indie author who makes that much money per year from book sales alone.

So, I have to ask myself, “why do it?” Why spend hours, days, weeks and months toiling over work that only a handful people will read?

As most of you know, I never intended to be an author. That was never my goal in life. I just had a story that had to be told and I was the only one who could tell it.

But, since the last of the four books were published in 2017, I haven’t found a place to stop writing. It truly becomes a passion. I looked up “passion” in Merriam Webster’s dictionary and found this:
intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction
a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept

Yep. That pretty much describes it.

The photo says it all. I dared to follow my passion, to tell a story that burned inside me, and it has now lead me to my purpose. That purpose is to write — whether it be stories (true or fiction), magazine interviews, or record reviews — it is now my purpose in life.

Of course, I would love nothing more than to be able to make a living writing. But, based on reality and the statistics shown by the Author’s Guild, that isn’t likely.

There are simply some things in life that are more important than money.

Passion and Purpose!

I’d love to hear your thoughts about the survey and your passion for writing. Does it give you purpose? Do you ever think about stopping? What would you do with yourself if you did stop? Have you ever tried?

I can’t imagine what I’d do every day if I suddenly stopped writing. Nope. I’m going to keep on writing money be damned!