Today we have a guest post from Julie Schriver who is another of the authors contributing to the Shades of Love anthology and a member of the BBW Romance Writers group. Her story, Love by Proxy, is out now and available from this link. 

Hello, my name is Julie Schriver, and this is my very first  blog post. Hopefully, it won’t turn out to be just a confusing jumble of thoughts.

First off, I want to say thank you to David for allowing me a small voice on here.  You’re very kind to invite me to make a guest post, and I’ll do my best to not make myself look like an idiot.

As has been posted about previously, I am a part of the group of writers who has, with much hard work, frustration, and ultimately elation, finally realized the end goal of our endeavors.  Our paranormal romance anthology is being published by Mundania Press.  One story is being released per month, and later on all of the stories will be put together in one anthology.

For me, this journey has been an incredibly educational one.  I could fill a book with the things I have learned from the talented people I’ve come into contact with while being a part of this project.  I will be forever grateful for having known and worked with them, and I hope we will continue to remain friends even after this collaboration is behind us.

This will be the first time I’ve had anything published, (Thank you, Mundania!), but I’ve been writing, mostly for my own pleasure, since high school.  It’s always been something I’ve truly enjoyed, although I never dreamed I would actually write anything that other people would want to read.  The stories that I write are a part of me, not in a biographical sense, per se, but they have been wrung from my imagination.  For this reason, I was always too timid to share my “brain children” with anyone.  Joining the BBWRomanceWriters group and jumping into this project was a big step for me in overcoming my fears and putting myself out there.  Truly, it’s been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

My contribution to the anthology, Love By Proxy, is about a woman, Gwen, who’s always fought her ability to see and converse with spirits.  Everyone, even her own family, believed that she was mentally disturbed when she would try to talk to them about what she could see.  She was finally able to break away and build herself a new life far away from everything that she knew.  Armed with an art degree, she settled into a small town in Colorado and opened up a shop where she sells her own artwork.  She lives in an isolated, old farmhouse that she shares with a spirit named Rose, a saloon girl killed by a stray bullet over a hundred years ago.  It’s a unique friendship, but it works for both of them.

Gwen is finally happy, but that happiness is threatened when a developer, Evan, blows into town wanting to build a new residential subdivision right behind her home.  More people means more spirits will be attracted to the area, and she is terrified that she won’t be able to hide her abilities any longer.  Her fight to stop the development is a losing battle as the townspeople are very much in support of Evan’s ideas for the land.  It also doesn’t help that she’s beginning to have feelings for him.  She will eventually have to decide whether to stay and hope for the best or leave the place she’s come to love.

If you’ve read this far, thanks! I hope I haven’t bored you too much.  If you decide to take a gander at my story, I hope you enjoy it!