Stephanie Maynard

She tried to love him.
She tried to stand beside him through every challenge that came their way.
But he was never willing to love her the way she deserved.
She gave him her time.
Her patience.
Her heart.
All of herself.
And somehow he still made her feel like just another option in the middle of his busy life.
Sighing softly, she stared out the rain-streaked window and shook her head.
Deep down she already knew what had to happen next.
Not because she didn’t love him.
But because she finally loved herself more.
Somewhere along the road of falling for him, she had lost pieces of herself.
The parts that once made her feel alive and happy.
Now she was waking up to a different truth.
One that whispered clearly through the quiet of the storms.
Move on.
Close the door.
Don’t look back.
When his name flashed across her phone screen, her heart sank for a moment.
Not because she wanted to answer.
But because she knew he would never truly understand why she was leaving.
She pressed decline.
Then exhaled slowly, feeling something unexpected wash over her.
Relief.
No more arguments.
No more defending her worth.
No more explaining why she deserved more than crumbs of affection.
Because love shouldn’t need instructions.
The right person should never have to be taught how to love you.
So she made a decision.
She was going back to the woman she once knew so well.
The one who understood exactly how extraordinary she truly was.
Herself.
She had set aside her pride and her self-respect for far too long.
All for the attention of a man too consumed with himself to ever put her first.
And she was finished with that chapter.
So she stepped onto a new path.
One she should have chosen long ago.
Leaving him behind.
And finding herself again.
She knew the love she carried for him wouldn’t disappear overnight.
Some feelings linger long after the story ends.
But loving him could no longer come before loving herself.
It would hurt.
She knew that already.
Her heart would whisper his name.
Urge her to call.
To text.
To reach out just one more time.
But she also knew something stronger.
It was finally time to let him go.
She had been unhappy for too long.
And choosing herself was the only way forward.
Healing would take time.
Memories would fade slowly.
But they would fade.
And she would rise stronger because of it.
Because she deserved more than what he gave her.
No…
She deserved the very best.
And she would never again accept anything less.
Now it was time to fall in love with life again.
With the quiet beauty of simply being alive.
With herself.
One moment at a time.
One day at a time.
One dream at a time.
A small smile spread across her face.
“I got this,” she whispered with quiet pride.
And on that warm autumn evening, so ordinary and yet so important, something remarkable happened.
She was finally on her way to freedom.
On her way to becoming her own woman again.
And for the first time in a long while, she felt completely happy.
Exactly the way she had always dreamed she would.
And she never looked back.
|ravenwolf

So there's a really great platform out there called Curios that sells ebooks, audiobooks, video/movies, and music. 100% of the sales proceeds go to the creators of the thing you're purchasing. The creators of the platform make their revenue on a combination of interchange on the sales processing and subscriptions for the artists selling on their site. Curios is also far more liberal in what it will publish which is why some dark romance authors have moved to them exclusively.

They're deliberately trying to take on platforms like Amazon. I'm going to try to encourage my friends to support sites like this a bookseller.com as places to get their books.
https://www.curios.com/

Where creators earn more Only on Curios, creators keep 100% of sales and get direct access to their fans/customers while maintaining 100% IP ownership and control. Curios is a direct digital content marketplace for musicians, authors, publishers, comedians, producers, artists, game developers, and more.

The year of the Fire Horse seems to be bringing out some interesting women. Another great beginning to a story.

You have no idea how much I want to make this the opening scene of a book. I hope she's ok.

I don't think it will ever get old to get that first physical copy of something I've written in the mail. 😍

My chocolate apparently thinks it’s time to get back to work.

It's a long, frustrating story, but I finally managed to get the paperback version of Camp Happy un-blocked on Amazon. It's been live in the rest of the world since 1/15. So now I can finally get a paper copy of my own book. :)

Camp Happy: Five women. One rehab casita. Zero patience. Camp Happy: Five women. One rehab casita. Zero patience.

Small win. I'm in the Top 100 Bestselling Fiction for Women's Humorous Fiction. That means I can call myself an "Amazon Bestselling Author".

Before I get too smug, I'd just like to point out that the book next to mine is titled Gator Bait. 😂

Camp Happy makes an appearance on Bargain Booksy today.

Hi. For those of you who volunteered to do reviews you should be able to post them now. The doc below gives you the page links to all the major sites. Bonus points for anyone who posts a review in a foreign language on Everand or Tolino when those go live.

Let me know if you run into issues with any of the sites.

I do now have some review copies from Amazon if anyone else would like to help (or if Amazon gives them a hard time for having a free copy).

I really appreciate the help.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eLfdpw-kfKYblg1s_WDh0CaKOcSDU_paO_vv5VEIOOE/edit?usp=sharing

Steph

Hi. For those of you who volunteered to do reviews you should be able to post them now. I'll add a document with links by site a little later today. If you run into any issues with any of the sites due to having a free ARC copy of the book let me know.

Steph

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