Her face lit up. "I think I have an answer for that." She jumped up from her chair. "I'll be right back."
She rushed out of the kitchen and came back a moment later carrying her laptop, setting it on the table and angling it so I could see her screen. "Look at this."
I studied the screen, noting there was a list of names with dollar amounts posted on a blog site. "What is this?"
"These are people making money hand over fist writing romance novels."
I whipped my head to look at her. "How?"
"They do it all themselves. They basically become their own publishing company. And these women are savvy.”
"You think I can do this?"
She shook her head, confusing me even more. "We do it together. We write together and divvy up the other stuff based on what we're best at. For example, you know legal stuff, so you could deal with all that. We could ask Amelia to help us with all the social media stuff. I could deal with the other stuff, like hiring graphic designers and website developers."
"How do you know so much about this?"
She sat back and smiled. "I just thought what a great idea it was to make a living writing escapist stories for women. Think about it. You can write anywhere. When I realized that, I started doing more research. I even signed up and took a free webinar."
I tried not to roll my eyes, but I wasn't able to hide the smirk. "Those things are designed just to sell you something."
"I know, and it did. That's why I know so much about this." She took a breath. "Look, there are no guarantees, but neither are there guarantees in any business. Even in jobs, there’s risk. You could get laid off. I understand that there's more people trying this and failing than succeeding, but I figure with the two of us together, we could make it work. At the very least, we could try because we both have time, right? I mean, unless James is going to kick you out tomorrow, you have this agreement with him. That gives you until the end of the year. And..." She gave me another smile. "I've been freelancing as an editor for other romance authors. So I know the mechanics of what they're doing. I know how they write books that sell."
“You edit?”
She shrugged. “I was an English Lit major.”
I shook my head. “Even so, you can't steal their ideas."
"Of course not. But when it comes to ideas, there’s a billion of them. I figure we could write from an alternating point of view. I’ll do one character and you do the other. We can write faster."
This idea sounded ridiculous.
"Look at this." She poked the tabs on her browser, opening various book pages on Amazon. “These are the authors on that list. Look how well they're doing. You really have nothing to lose, Reyna."
"I don't know."
"I’ll email you all the stuff that I've learned and some ideas. Look it over. And if you don't want to try it out as a career option, let's just do it for fun. It’s really the only one of the hobbies we've tried that could at the very least pay for itself."
I reminded myself that I had promised I would try new things and experience life, and while I didn't think becoming a romance novelist was a career choice, it would at least occupy my time during the down moments.
"Okay. I'll look, but no promises."
She squealed with delight. "This will be so much fun."
Beingwith Vivie had improved my mood. I still didn't have my life problems answered, but I knew I wasn't alone. She was right. I didn't need to take on James’s worries. I had enough of my own issues to consider.
I arrived home late afternoon to find Dean sitting on the doorstep.
I parked the car in the driveway and exited. "How'd you get in here?" We were in a gated community. They weren't supposed to let strangers in.
He gave me a sheepish smile. "I told him I knew you."
I arched a brow. They weren't going to let in an ex-fiancé.
He shrugged. "I told him I was your brother here to surprise you for your birthday."
Later, I would have a talk with the people at the front gate.