The Abalone Shell started out as a an entry for a multi-author box set of summer/beach romantic novellas and as an experiment in writing a length of story I have not yet conquered. But it has morphed into something much different and more impactful to me personally.

There's something no one tells you about writing for a living, and that's how money and business can take the joy out of it. Writing is a purely creative avocation, and turning it into a vocation requires (if you want to be su...