Troy Bennett is a man fighting the demons who tell him he is worthless every day of his life. Demons his mother conjured. He quiets them with alcohol and casual relationships, never allowing any woman to get close enough to him so he will never have to disappoint one. Then on the spur of the moment trip to Panama City Beach with his Ranger buddies, he sees the future he’s always been afraid to pursue exit a Jeep Wrangler at a local donut shop.
Just as Troy and Crystal are finding their footing, she gets the call she never thought she would earn: Crystal Davis is going to Hollywood to be a contestant on America’s Next Chart Topper. What started as a way to honor her murdered friend has now become her dream. Chasing her dream means leaving Troy behind for a bit, and she wonders if her absence will cause what they’ve built so far to come crashing down.
Chasing her dream also means she’s put herself in a place where she’s vulnerable to the side of Hollywood that no one wants to acknowledge. A place where people only care about her and Troy’s story for the audience while behind the scenes, evil, selfish people work to tear them apart.
Hitting Publish
It all started on a rainy night…no, scratch that. It didn’t. Almost five years ago, the country was too divisive, and I was overwhelmed by all the ‘stuff’ on social media. I took a social media break and deleted all my accounts. The problem was, I enjoyed entering sweepstakes, and you have more chances to win if you have social media accounts. What to do, what to do?
I hit upon the marvelous idea of creating social media accounts devoid of anything personal. They would strictly be for entering sweepstakes. That decision led to finding all the indie book authors on Facebook and their groups. I had recently gotten a Kindle, and as an avid reader, I was devouring these indie short stories. Sometimes 2 or 3 a day.
Kindle suggested an author named P. Jameson, who had a paranormal series set in Joplin, Missouri. I used to live there, so I was very interested. The Ozark Shifter series led me down the paranormal shifter rabbit hole, and I discovered TS Joyce. I cannot adequately put into words, verbal or written, how much her books meant to me at that time and still do. It comes out like gibberish. I read everything by her I could find and then got involved with her book groups. I began attending book signing events and joined other Facebook groups that focused on self-published indie authors.
In a group focusing on premade covers, an artist posted a graphic of a woman walking on a beach with shoes in her hands. This cover reminded me of Blake Shelton’s song Sangria, which reminded me of my honeymoon in Panama City Beach, which reminded me,…you see how this goes? And Run to You, Book 1 in the series, was born.
I put it on the shelf for four years due to some chaos, and then COVID came along. While it’s been challenging in many ways, for my family, it has birthed new opportunities. In August, I watched the documentary The Last Dance, which told Michael Jordan’s final season with the Chicago Bulls. I consider myself a native Chicagoan even though I am, in all reality, a former suburbanite. I was there for the 90s. I went in for the nostalgia and to remember good times and shut out the negative and came out of it with a purpose to ‘Be Like Mike.’
No, not a GOAT NBA player. But to find my passion and put everything I had into it. To ignore the naysayers and use all negativity as fuel for me to chase my dreams. I picked up Run to You again in August, and here we are. I’ve published two books in the series, and book 3 is right around the corner.
And the ride isn’t over. Good things are coming.
