A Letter To My Fans

I would say that I'm surprised that I haven't posted since July, but that wouldn't be true. I'm not surprised. This fall has been absolutely crazy, and the beginning of winter hasn't fared much better. Especially after I almost took the tip of my left pinky off with the car door.

I have been mostly an optimistic person, but there have been a few really rough patches this year when my depression just about overtook me. I know a lot of you out there can relate.

My partner, Rosa and I are raising my oldest daughter's three children. Jacob,14; Jazmyn, 12; and Julian, who is 5 and very good at it. Jacob is bossy and controlling. Jazmyn is a drama queen and hanging with the wrong people. And Julian is busy, busy, busy and making these two middle-aged women tired.

We get no help from their mother, financially or otherwise, and that's my fault for being too loving of a mother and not enough of a bitch. Rosa's son and his wife help us as much as they can, but it's pretty much just us and the kids.

The lesbians we know, even the ones who have kids of their own, are not social with us because we don't fit into the social or economic class.

Rosa is going to retire in 2019 so she can take care of the kids full-time so; hopefully, they won't turn out to be the jerks their mother and aunt were when they were teenagers. Again, my fault, you can't beat or love genetic assholeness, and those two got it in spades from their dad and me.

So, I've taken on a part-time cleaning job, I work full-time as a librarian, and try to write as often as I can. You can imagine the challenge. But creating a good story and getting feedback from my fans is totally worth every minute I spend spinning my tales.

I have several unfinished stories that I will either complete this coming year or delete forever (well probably not). Anyway, I've set some pretty high goals for myself, and I hope you will all stay tuned for the stories to come.

Have a safe and Happy New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.
Love, M. E.

The Wrap-up of Finding Jenna's Chapter Summaries

This is the last chapter summary post for Finding Jenna. I hope that those of you who have followed this blog journey are as excited about the release of this book as I am. There are thirty-three chapters and an epilogue filled with excitement, courage, and love.

Chapter Thirty-two

Elliot takes his mother to Sandy’s restaurant in Morehead where Darlene and Terry get to meet Sandy. Everyone at the restaurant are excited to see Elliot and happy about the prospect of him possibly coming back to work there. Cara’s mother, Caroline, her grandparents, Ralph and Valerie meet there at the restaurant for lunch. Cara shows up with her new girlfriend, Bonnie. Elliot is disappointed and hurt that Cara doesn’t seem to be able to have the same feelings for him that she did for Jenna, but he knew if was a possibility from the beginning of his transformation.

You didn't think I'd give the whole story away, did you? I hope you'll get your copy of Finding Jenna to find out if Elliot and Cara work things out, and to find out what the final verdict is for Michael Matthews.

Thank you for following this story.

Finding Jenna Chapters Twenty-nine and Thirty summaries

Many apologies, yet again. One of the things about having children in your life, you can never predict how things are going to go. I thought for sure I'd be able to get online and update this blog for you while I had six of my seven grandchildren, but I was wrong. So here we are, just five days until the release of Finding Jenna. I hope that those of you who have been following the blog will be ready to get a copy of the book and find out how everything plays out.

Chapter Twenty-nine

Elliot goes to see his mother at the hospital in Evansville. Terry Howard had already explained to Elliot’s mother, Darlene about the changes he’s been through. Darlene wasn’t all that surprised and was just so happy to know that her child was alive that she didn’t care if he was a boy now. Elliot tells Darlene what happened and visits with her until the nurse tells him he as to go.

Chapter Thirty

Cara and Caroline Marshall are visiting Darlene when Elliot and Terry get back to the hospital. Caroline is happy that Jenna is alive in Elliot. Cara leaves the room to avoid Elliot, but he finds her in the hospital cafeteria. The two of them talk about Elliot’s changes and why he can’t go back to being Jenna. End the end they agree to try to be friends.

Finding Jenna Chapter Twenty-eight Summary

This chapter is the climax of the story. Elliot will face off with his father. It's my favorite chapter of the whole book. Speaking of the book, we are just 10 days away from the official release date. I'm getting very excited and very nervous. I hope it will be well received.  After you read this summary, I have a special surprise for those of you who have been following the blog and the revealing of the chapter summaries. So, enjoy this short peak at this chapter and see what awaits for you on the other side. 

The restaurant is getting busy and Elliot is trying to focus on cooking when he hears a scream come from the dining area. When Elliot goes out to see what is happening he sees his father, Michael Matthews standing in the doorway of the restaurant with his gun pointed at Cara. Elliot gets Matthews to let him take the plates that Cara is holding and uses them as weapons to distract Matthews so he can get Cara out of the back of the restaurant. Elliot puts Cara in his truck and starts backing up when he sees Steven come out of the restaurant with a gun. Steven shuts out the back window of Elliot’s truck. Matthews is waiting for them at the front of the restaurant and starts shooting at them but Elliot gets the truck out onto the highway and the chase begins that ends on a mountain road. There Elliot will expose that he was Jenna to Cara and his father in order to save Cara’s life. 

I know that only a few people have been following this blog and I deeply appreciate your visits. So much so that I have a gift to give away. Actually, I have five gifts. I bought 5 proofs of Finding Jenna for the Indie Author Fair I attended last weekend and no one wanted a copy, so I hope you will. The cover didn't turn out like I wanted it to so I had to fix it, and I forgot to put in page numbers. There are still a few minor grammar errors, but other than that it's the same book that will be published on July 31st. Because you've read the blog and come all the way to this point of the story with me, I'm going to give the first 5 people who respond to the link below and autographed copy of the Finding Jenna proof. I hope you will sign up for your free book. 

Just click on this link for your free book.

http://eepurl.com/dBOLmz

Finding Jenna: Chapters Twenty-six and Twenty-seven summaries

Chapter Twenty-six

Elliot follows the girls home and makes sure they are both safe before heading to his trailer in the woods. When he gets there he notices tire tracks that shouldn’t be there. He loads his gun and goes into the trailer. Whoever had been there and searched it had been a pro. They left very little traces of their invasion. Elliot let's Mark know about this new development.

Chapter Twenty-seven

When Elliot gets to work Sandy tells him about a man coming to the restaurant looking for him. The man turns out to be Terry Howard, his father’s former friend and the detective from Evansville in charge of the case on Jenna’s disappearance. Elliot calls Mark to tell him about Terry coming to the restaurant but doesn’t get the chance because Mark tells him about Michael Matthews finding out about the dead girl’s body. Mark tells Elliot that Matthews went ballistic and shot Elliot’s mom and now he’s on his way to get Cara. Elliot realizes the big fight with his father that he’d been waiting for was about to happen.

Finding Jenna Chapters Twenty-five and Twenty-six

I've been having computer troubles. Someone hacked my Facebook account, and then someone put a virus on my computer. So, it's been a rough couple of days. I got my computer back from my repair guy yesterday, but I still haven't set it back up. Fortunately, I work with computers at my job so I'm able to load some more chapter summaries for you all.

I hope you all are getting excited about the release of Finding Jenna. I know I am.

Chapter Twenty-five

After finishing his breakfast, Elliot tells the girls he needs to go to the hotel room to use the bathroom so he can call Mark. Elliot gives Mark the whole story about the guy in the white truck coming to the hotel room and asking for Jenna. Mark assures Elliot that he will look into it. He also reminds Elliot that the sting the FBI has planned is going to go down very soon. Elliot tells Mark that he hopes he’ll be able to tell Cara the truth very soon.

Chapter Twenty-six

Elliot follows the girls home and makes sure they are both safe before heading to his trailer in the woods. When he gets there he notices tire tracks that shouldn’t be there. He loads his gun and goes into the trailer. Whoever had been there and searched it had been a pro. They left very little traces of their invasion. Elliot let's Mark know about this new development.

Finding Jenna Summary Chapter Twenty-four

Fifteen short days away to the release of Finding Jenna and I'm getting more nervous by the minute. This book is so different from anything else I've done so I'm concerned about how it will be received. I'm sure some fans will be turned off by the transsexual story. Sometimes I feel compelled to write a story that I think needs to be out there. Like Suddenly, there are so few young adult lesbian romantic stories that have a happy ending that I felt like I needed to write one.

Standing Her Ground actually came out of a story I was writing about Kaitlyn's mom, Catherine, and how several countries, particularly in Africa, use corrective rape as a way of punishing lesbians. I will eventually publish Catherine's story. It's funny, I've worked on that story longer than anything else I've written, and it's still not ready. But while writing that original story, I started wondering if something like that might be going on in the United States. It doesn't get reported that way, and most probably doesn't get reported at all, but I'd bet money it happens.

Building Love was supposed to be just a simple young adult love story. I've been watching some young adult shows, reading articles, and listening to the news and found that there is a lot of date rape drug use among teenagers and new adults. It's been quite shocking. But, that's how the idea came about for Patti to be pregnant. I think it worked out pretty good. The story also covers the problem of bullying, which sadly doesn't seem to be getting any better.

My newest story is another one about a pressing social issue that comes about from some sick S-O-Bs sending my granddaughter pictures of their junk on an app called LiveMe. The police are still investigating who sent these and I hope they catch the motherf*ckers. (Pardon my language). The story is about a girl, Heidi, who is kidnapped and kept for almost a year, much like Elizabeth Smart, except Heidi doesn't come home to a happy, loving family. Her mother was cold and a bit controlling before, but it much worse now and blames Heidi for her divorce from Heidi's father. Poor Heidi remains a captive, but this time at the hands of her emotionally abusive mother. The story is told from Barbra (Babs) point of view. Babs, who knew Heidi, but was not friends with her, is asked to help tutor Heidi because she is so far behind in her school work. Babs is very compassionate and becomes determined to help Heidi overcome what she is going through. The story is still in the developmental stages, and I'm not positive about how it will end, but it will be a happy ending because that's one of my trademarks. It will have lesbian undertones with Babs and Heidi becoming close friends, but I'm not going to publish it as lesbian fiction. And I will probably release it under my real name, or another pseudonym.

Anyway, enough of me rambling on. You're here to read the next chapter summary for Finding Jenna, so here it is:

Elliot and Cara both wake up with the feeling that they are being watched. Elliot goes to the hotel gym to work out, and when he comes back to the room, Cara and Megan are freaking out because some guy had come to the room asking if Jenna was there. Someone had also called the room asking for Jenna. Cara shows Elliot a truck in the parking lot of a restaurant next to the hotel where the guy who had come to the room got in a truck. Elliot goes out to confront the man, but the man backs out of the parking lot quickly and speeds away.

Chapter Summaries for Chapters 20, 21, 22, 23

I have to apologize for being so far behind on my posts here. I've been preparing for a presentation on marketing that I did this morning at my public library. It went pretty well and I even learned some stuff from the attendees.

Since I'm four days behind on posting, I'm going to post four chapter summaries. We're getting closer to the release date for the book and I hope these summaries will temp you to buy the book.

Chapter Twenty

Mark and Dana come to see Elliot at the restaurant to let him know that the Cobra Cartel’s meeting has been moved to August. Steven asks about Elliot’s family when he hears Elliot calling Mark and Dana is aunt and uncle. Elliot tells him the story he’s practices about his parents dying in a murder-suicide and the he was raised by Mark and Dana and his maternal grandparents. Cara and Steven butt heads and Elliot has to step in to break it up. Sandy threatens to fire both Cara and Steven if the problems continue. She also alludes to Steven getting in trouble with his uncle who is helping Steven out if he gets fired.

Chapter Twenty-one

Sandy closed the restaurant early on the night of the Fourth of July fireworks. Steven invited all of the staff at the restaurant to come out to where his friends and he were going to be watching the fireworks and partying. Everyone agree to go with Steven. They took different cars and paired up on the way out to the lake, where the fireworks were being shot off. A guy named Chase, welcomed them to the party when they arrived. Elliot felt that Chase might be Steven’s cousin. Chase questioned all of the restaurant staff about where they were from and how they had ended up in Morehead. His questioning made him seem even more suspicious to Elliot. Cara road back the restaurant after the fireworks. When Elliot asked her about her major, she told him she was studying forensics so she could try to find her girlfriend, Jenna.

Chapter Twenty-two

Elliot and Cara are becoming closer as friends. It’s tearing Elliot up that he has to hide the truth from Cara and is hoping the charade he is pulling will be over soon. Steven comes in while Elliot and Cara are talking. He makes some derogatory comments about Cara’s sexuality that sets her off and she quits. Sandy is furious and would fire Steven, but Elliot and she need to keep him close by because they have found out that his uncle, Sam Nelson, is the leader of the Cobra Cartel.

Chapter Twenty-three

Elliot gets a night off and decides to go to Lexington to relax. He goes to a club and is surprised when Steven approaches him. He’s even more surprised to find Cara and Megan are there too. Elliot is suspicious of Steven and Chase’s reasons for being at the same bar, especially after he finds out that Cara and Megan are there. Elliot convinces Cara and Megan to go to the hotel room he already has booked so he will be able to watch over them. He fears that Steven and Chase plan to teach the two girls a lesson for turning them down.

Finding Jenna Chapter Nineteen Summary

Cara and two other girls, Megan and Brittany start working at the restaurant. Steven tries to hit on all three of them, and they all three turn him down. Cara does so by stating proudly that she is a lesbian. By the end of the first night, Elliot can tell that Brittany will probably not be back, but that Cara and Megan will stick around. He worries that Steven is going to continue to harass the girls because he doesn’t take no for answer. When they all leave the restaurant together, Elliot decides to follow Cara home so he will know where she lives in case he has to get her out of the area quickly.

Finding Jenna Chapter Eighteen Summary

I tried to post this morning but Blogger was not being cooperative. I'm getting so excited and nervous about the release of this book. It's very different from anything I've written before. 

Elliot is working with his assistant, Jason Wu when Steven shows up and calls them both girls. It’s an example of how sexist, racist and prejudice Steven is. Sandy sends Steven and Jason off to unload some fresh fish that has just arrived, and then tells Elliot she has some new people coming in for interviews for server jobs. Elliot hears Sandy getting excited about qualifications of the interviewee and goes to see who it is. It’s Cara Marshall, his former girlfriend when he was Jenna. Elliot calls Dana for advice about what to do. She tells him to remain calm and watchful. Dana also tells him that the meeting for the Cobra leadership has been changed from the 4th of July and now they are not certain when the meeting will take place. Sandy brings Cara to the back and introduces her to Elliot. She does seem to recognize him as Elliot feared but he still hopes she hates the job and decides to quit.

Chapter Summaries of Chapter Sixteen and Seventeen for Finding Jenna

Life has been crazy the past couple of days and I'm getting a little behind with my posts. I wanted to make sure I got on here today to post the next two chapter summaries before things got really insane. I have six of my seven grandchildren at the house, so the potential for things to get bizarre is ripe.

The next two chapters begin Part Two of the book. I should have posted that there were two parts when I started putting the chapters on here, but I forgot. I didn't got into the details of Jenna's transition to Elliot. It would have been a long process and would not have furthered the story. In Part Two, Elliot is fulling into his new life as a man, has finished culinary school, and started a job as a legumier chef. A legumier chef is the person who prepares the vegetable dishes at fancy restaurants.

Here are the chapter summaries for Chapters Sixteen and Seventeen:

Chapter Sixteen

Dana and Mark go to see Elliot at his job where he works as a legumier at a popular restaurant. They tell him about Cara tracking his father, and that his father is now tracking Cara. Elliot is upset when they explain that the FBI is going to use Cara to draw Michael Matthews into a trap. But, the Bureau is hoping to catch him with members of the Cobra Cartel before he can do anything to Cara. Dana and Mark try to convince Elliot that he should go to work at a restaurant near Cave Run Lake where the leaders of the human trafficking ring, the Cobra Cartel are going to be meeting around the Fourth of July. They hope he will recognize some of the local hunters as men his father brought home in the past who might be involved with the cartel.

Chapter Seventeen

Elliot started working for Sandy Cannon at the restaurant near Cave Run Lake. He convinced her to make some changes to the design of the restaurant and had already come up with interesting dishes made with wild game to draw in the hunters and fisherman. Sandy hired Steven Hardin, a local fisherman and hunter to work as a bartender hoping he would be able to provide them information about the local hunting scene. Elliot and Sandy also hoped Steven would give them information about the hunters involved with the cartel without him realizing he was helping them.

Chapters Fourteen and Fifteen Summaries

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July holiday yesterday. Things were super busy and I didn't get a chance to post a summary, but I would have posted chapters fourteen and fifteen together anyway. They both have to do with Jenna making the decision to become a man. Above is a before and after picture of trans man Jaimie Wilson. I read about him after I'd created the characters of Jenna and Elliot, but they have a lot of similarities. I'm including a link to his story. It's pretty interesting.

Here are your summaries:

Chapter Fourteen

Jenna gets the wires taken out of her jaw and Dana treats her to dinner out and a haircut. Later, they spend time talking about Jenna’s future. Dana points out that Jenna’s dreams had been based on what her girlfriend, Cara wanted. After some thought and a hair color change, Jenna decides she wants to go into the witness protection program as a guy, something she has always felt she was inside.

Chapter Fifteen

Jenna becomes Elliot Judson Cross in this chapter as she begins her transition from a woman to a man. Dana is completely behind her change and helps Jenna present herself as Elliot. Dana’s boss, Mark Jonas doesn’t recognize Elliot as Jenna until he sees the scar left by Jenna’s father. Jenna realizes that her acceptance of being Elliot means he will need a therapist to help make sure this is the right decision, but he is certain that being Elliot is the way to a happy future. Jenna becoming Elliot will actually make it easier for the FBI to protect him. For Elliot, he can finally be who he truly is without fear of what family and friends will say or think.

Chapter Thirteen Summary

Back on track with the summary posts. Only 28 days until Finding Jenna is released and 20 chapter summaries left.

William Defoe goes into his role as Darren Parker and pretends he was trying to do Michael Matthews a favor when he helped Darlene Matthews pack her stuff. Matthews is angry about it, but blows Defoe off when he offers to hang out and watch a movie after getting a phone call. Matthews heads to Owensboro not long after Defoe leaves his house because he thinks Jenna is in a hospital there. He gets a call from Ruby, a nurse at the hospital letting him know that the girl they thought was Jenna had been released from the hospital into the custody of people who were supposed to be her family. Ruby also lets Matthews know that the leader of the Cobra cartel, C1, wants him to dispose of a package that they both know is the body of another woman who was killed C1 has killed.

Chapters 9-12 Summaries

I'm posting Chapters 9-12's summaries today because they all deal with Jenna being in the hospital. And because this weekend is going to be super busy and I might not get a chance to post. I really appreciate everyone who visits my blog to read about this story. I hope you'll stay tuned in.  Here are the chapter summaries:

Chapter Nine

Jenna wakes in the hospital in pain and confusion. She flailed her arms and legs trying to get up, but was quickly subdued and given a sedative to put her back to sleep. Dana Tamaski, the FBI agent assigned to watch over Jenna hopes it won’t be long before Jenna will be able to wake up and give them a description of the body she saw in the freezer.

Chapter Ten

Dana returned to Jenna’s hospital room the next morning to find that nothing had changed. The other agent assigned to watch Jenna, Ada Parsons and Dana discuss the fact that they need Jenna to be able to describe the body so they can tie Michael Matthews to a missing person.

Chapter Eleven

Jenna wakes up in the hospital and doesn’t remember how she got there. Dana questions her about who she is. Jenna recognizes her name, her mother and Cara, but seeing the picture of Cara brings back the memories of her father beating her. Jenna goes into a panic and the nurses give her something to put her to sleep again.

Chapter Twelve

Jenna wakes up to find Special Agent Dana Tamaski watching her. Dana gives Jenna a legal pad and pen so Jenna can ask and answer questions. Jenna wants to know how long she’s been there and where her mother is. Dana explains why Jenna is there. A nurse comes in the room and Jenna lets Dana know that she doesn’t trust her. Dana calls Jonas and let’s him know about the suspicious nurse and that they need to move Dana. Jonas sends in an extraction team that pretends to be Jenna’s parents and they remove her from the hospital with the suspicious nurse watching their every move.

Chapter Eight Summary

When Darren and Darlene get back to the Matthews’ house, Darren gets a chance to look in Darlene’s trunk for the body when he takes some of her clothes out to her car. The trunk is empty and looks like it’s been recently vacuumed. Darren has one of the crime scene techs check it for fluids with Luminal and an Alternative Light Source torch, but there’s no fluid evidence. The crime scene tech notes that he thought it was weird that there weren’t any fluids in the freezer when Michael Matthews was supposed to be a big hunter and fisherman.

Chapter Seven Summary

Federal agent William Defoe goes back into his role as Darren Parker as he helps Darlene Matthews go back to the hospital where she works to get her phone and purse. Defoe has been undercover for two years closely watching Michael Matthews in an effort to get more information about the Cobra Cartel’s human trafficking activities. The FBI was very close to closing in on the leaders of the cartel, as well as getting more evidence about Michael Matthews’ involvement with the cartel. Jenna Matthews having be rescued from her father has put the operation’s success in question. And, Defoe needs to find the body Jenna saw in the freezer.