Their Romance Lives On After the GoodReads Giveaway

Romance lives on with a thank you to the 1534 people who requested Shadows & Silhouettes: Cards of Passion in the Goodreads Giveaway. Congratulations to the 100 hundred people who won the book. I’m tickled you’ll experience the Creativity Summit. For those who didn’t win, I appreciate your interest in Liv and Adrian’s story. I’m tickled that something about my story resonated enough for you to enter the giveaway.

The Book Process

It’s exhilarating to start with a singular idea of “what if” and finish with a completed story. This book has so many “aha” moments. And when a story truly is, “write what you know,” for me, it’s a surprise.

This book came into being because I had created a card deck called Purple Passion Reflections for Women to complete my journal Purple Sex & Love Beyond Your Dreams: A Women’s Guided Journal to Explore Your Sexual Self. When I completed these projects, I never anticipated a romance.

Engaging Other Authors

In May 2023, I shared the cards with my writing retreat friends. The idea popped into my head: What if an author selected one card and wrote a story around it? Each author discussed which character from another series might be great for the effort. How would we tie them together, and they asked me what I would write? I knew I had to turn my reality into a love story, creating cards called Cards of Passion.

And Liv, the creator of Cards of Passion, gave out decks of cards, so like the pants in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, the cards would be out in the world.

Moving From Reality to Fiction

While my imagination created the Purple Passion Reflections cards in the mountains of North Carolina, I wanted to replicate the process in a romantic setting. Having the spillover from different projects into the next one is always fun. As a reader, you can use the cards like Liv did. You can also access the journal, which is structured like the cards. If you want to balance sexuality and observe it from a holistic perspective, this book is your way of doing that.

For Liv and Adrian, sexuality healing is a theme, and you get to step into the world of a sex educator and medical professionals who want sexuality to be central and positive in a human’s life. That is what my professional work has been about for over forty-eight years. As a sex educator, sex therapist, and college professor of human sexuality, I know the backstories of many regarding their sexuality. I’m still educating but using a different medium.

Your Turn

For Liv and Adrian, this is an example of how to move on with life and heal through learning and love. Their story is my gift to the world.

Even if you didn’t receive a winning copy, I hope you might consider reading Shadows & Silhouettes and let me know what you think—sign-up for my newsletter.