Pole dancing?

       I haven't written a blog in MONTHS! but that doesn't mean I have some awe-inspiring words to impart. I wish I did. I'm about to publish book #21--that's about as exciting as I can get. Burning Night was inspired by a woman I met while out walking in the desert. She was fifty years old, living in a utility van, had dyed blue hair, and was a former stripper. I was immediately intrigued. She was here to participate in a pole dancing competition, something I didn't know existed--but when I googled it I was surprised to find out how popular pole dancing is--and it isn't about stripping anymore. It's about exercise. And after looking at the pictures I definitely know why! Those women are STRONG!

       And so I began writing about a woman who was abused as a child and who took up stripping in order to make ends meet. The story veers off in several directions and there is also a sub-plot--the book this character is writing. I called it Burning Night after a made-up festival on the longest day of the year (think Burning Man) It is psychological, and a woman's desperate search for herself, and a love story, told in the first person. Here's the blurb:

This is the turning point…

When Collie flees an abusive husband she’s also escaping her sordid past. But when her money is stolen, the only way to earn it back in time for her trip to Alaska, is to do the very thing she hoped she left behind. Burning Night festival is only a month away and she simply has to be there.

Exotic dancing at her age seems laughable, but the woman who owns the bar thinks differently. Meanwhile she’s met a much younger man who is undermining all her good intentions.

As the past catches up with the present, terrible memories rise to the surface. Can she untangle the threads of her life before it’s too late, or will her dreams be lost forever in the web closing in around her?

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The story takes place in the town of Lovell (really exists) close to  the Bighorn Medicine Wheel in Wyoming, and takes the reader on a journey to Alaska for the longest day of the year--(think aging hippies, lots of marijuana and other drugs, as well as rock music, and debauchery) Mysticism and letting go of the past are all themes that run through the book. I found this PERFECT cover at www.selfpubcovers.com. 

Didn't mean for this to be an advertisement for the book, but it seems to have turned out that way. Sorry! 

Next time I will explore the more lucrative marketing I've been doing--my sales are slowly increasing. 

Thanks for reading and keep on writing!!!