It is not pretty in the House of Crystal at this moment

Because my ADHD ass was like...Hey! Heeeeeeeyyyyyy! We can put "Apollo and Hyacinthus" out in, like, five days. Edited twice. I'll zip back through twice more.

But that's not the business.

The business is...filling in ISBN paperwork things. Adding the titles on Amazon. I make my own covers so had to shrink those bastards down to 300 dpi. I have 29 tabs open in my browser, and the air turned a dark shade of blue. Cobalt, if you must know. I'm giving manic an entirely new definition.

AND...the boys are playing tonight. Going to punch our ticket to the NBA Finals. Thunder Up! Woot!

Okay. Back to losing my shit. 

I forgot. Not surprising, really. Have the fucking memory of a goldfish. 🙄

Not a fan.

Antyway...I was so intent on polishing this mfer up to spotless, when the reality of being an indie publisher bit me on the ass. As it do.

It's ME. (cue Taylor and Brendan...because we need matching earworms)

Current situation:

locked in at my desk

Murphy sleeping behind me

70,000 words to eyeball for the 9,756th time

Do I feel pressure?

*Bowie and Mercury play me out*

Apollo and Hyacinthus

"Apollo and Hyacinthus."

First book in my Plot Twist series.

Available June 1, 2026.

****

Forty-year-old LA Bennett lives alone on her rural acreage, determined to keep the world at bay after her mother’s death years earlier. That isolation ends when Hyacinthus, an ancient Spartan prince, appears in her driveway, drawing LA into the investigation of a centuries-old murder rooted in myth. To survive the chaos, and herself, LA must uncover the truth behind the crime she never asked to inherit.

****

Set against a deceptively ordinary town filled with disguised gods, fates, and legends, the story follows LA as she is forced out of isolation and into purpose. Each visitor reveals not only their own pain, but fragments of LA herself—her power, her past, and her responsibility. As myths from Greek traditions expand to include Nordic, Egyptian, Celtic, and Asian beings, LA must decide whether she can continue hiding from who she is, or finally step into her destiny—even if it means she can never return to the quiet life she craves.

****

                                                                                                    Beventi Order Form 

Keeping it real

 Went to Sam's today.

Came home and ate a third of the rotisserie chicken while it was still toasty.

Then "cleaned" strawberries over the sink. Hulled and ate probably a third of those. Over the sink. Like a hedonistic creature never schooled in manners.

It was fucking great.

There's no bigger excitement than a new release

I love what I do. Editing still sucks all the butt, but I enjoy the rest. Even banging my head on the keyboard occasionally when creating book covers. It's exhilarating. Kind of like giving birth, but over a period of a month or two, not a day or two. With no drugs. No doctor. You're free-balling this bitch. 

But that's part of the magic. 

You.

You created something no one else did. You brought a story into existence with only your mind. It's sounds all Science Fictiony when you break it down. And yes, there are growing pains. Bad-tempered characters. Bad-tempered you. Hardships. (Now I want to quote Labyrinth again.) But you did it.

You. Fucking. Did. It.

I used to take three or so days to bask, wallow?, in my finished works. But there's no time for that these days. I usually finish one book and start another, or continue with one, immediately. It's shifting gears but in a different car.

And I love the view.

Are there days I turn the air blue with all my aggravation? Of course. Murphy would agree. Are there days I laugh aloud at what I've written? Yep. Have I made myself cry? Well, fuck. I have. But it's all part of the process, and writers need to embrace every bit of it. 

It's magical and maddening in the same second. Exhilarating and exhausting. 

And I will do this until I draw my last breath.

I've set my release schedule for my Plot Twist series.

Apollo and Hyacinthus   JUNE 2026

The Morrigan   AUGUST 2026

Ace   OCTOBER 2026

Macaria   DECEMBER 2026

The Gordons  FEBRUARY 2027

The first four are finished, and I'm a third of the way through The Gordons. 

I'd like to squeeze in at least one or two erotic and maybe a contemporary romance, but we'll see. 

OH!

And, I can't remember if I already posted this or not, but you can order through me, autographed and I pay shipping, through my Beventi Order Form.

Prices are listed, but I'll run deals several times a year for followers.

Thanks!

Crystal*

Begets begets begets

I like knowing what I have to do the following day. Kudos if I actually put in Notes on my iphone. A lot of times I'll leave my OneNote and manuscript up that shows exactly my next step. I should be killing it on the daily.

Yesterday damn near killed me.

I started out only needing to edit A&H. Doing 100 pages or so at a time and then recombing a couple more times. It's nearly 400 pages.

But I realize I needed to research the tiniest bit on one part. Give myself some more credibility. Then I needed to grab from a later book in the series to make sure I described a character fluently throughout.

Please explain why I have fourteen tabs open in G and am glaring at OneNote like it did me dirty. Then, take into account I actually had 4 fucking manuscripts open at the same time. 

And my short forgetful self often puts tabs on the wrong stories. 

That's a hoot. 😒  

It was like some horrible magician pulling colorful fabric after colorful fabric out of their pocket. 

Stop! STOP!!!

Quit before I wanted, but it was heavy med day, and I was done. 

Told myself I would take it up again today.

🥳🎉

The fun, or some twisted version of it, never ends. 

You guessed it...

...I'm indie publishing my mythological retelling series. I was going to pitch at Romancelahoma this year, but I don't want to wait that long. I feel strongly that the mythological retelling trope is in its infancy. I have 4 1/2 books ready. 

I'm not waiting. 🤷

Worked on book cover. NOT AI. You should have seen my ass discovering new things on Canva. There's a fucking "style" button that can recreate the style from an element to another element. 

I nearly cried.

It was 🥹.

Going for a countdown to cover reveal. 

Available June 1, 2026.

Apollo and Hyacinthus

Plot Twist Book 1

Stay tuned!

Big reveal and availability June 1st! 🥳🎉

Stranger things have happened in the unlikeliest of places

The Honey and I go and drop her car off at the butt crack of dawn for oil change, etc. I offer to have breakfast with her. This is a rare occasion. I loathe mornings. Catch me at 10.

We go to Black Bear Diner. I have this amazing egg scramble something or other with avocado, spinach, peppers, and onion. Pass the tic-tacs. She always gets the pancakes.

We're checking out, and she has one box of leftovers but wants something from the dessert case. The lovely cashier asks if we'd like a bag. 

WE would. 

Honey says "no" at the same time.

I ask who will be carrying, and she says we'll take a bag. 🤨

That's what I thought.

And I make some remark about carrying the bag whilst the Honey does something.

The cashier looks at me and says she's never heard anyone use the actual word "whilst" in a sentence. 

I don't have time to describe the multiplicity of my oddities, but the Honey chimes in that I'm a writer.

😊

This woman is a reader. A fantasy reader. 🥳

She asks for my name; I give her my card. 

She said, "Are you my girl?" 

And I respond, "I might be."

We grin at each other. 💖

A rolling stone gathers no moss

I did it. Took me two days and found another setting on Canva that I love. But I mocked up a book cover for book one in my mythological retelling series.

Because, of course I did. 

I can either wait, or I can plunge my ass directly into the fire. 

Flames, here I come. 🔥

I should be able to have two books of the series in print before I hit Romancelahoma and the Red Dirt Book Sale.

THIS...makes me happy.

Because I can turn around and take them to Book Me Romance 2026 a couple weeks later.

All the woots!

This series will be a new take on old mythologies with an irascible protagonist finding her own way through the absolute chaos.

I love mayhem.

Sorry, LA.

🤣

It's the time of the season for...

 ...awards programs, graduations, and birthday sleepovers. Ya girl hasn't sat her ass in this chair for a long minute. I've missed it.

But too busy being a Mimi, which is one of my favorite labors of love.

Back to the writing. Woot! 🥳

Left off at a place in book 5 that could go two different ways. Well, similar but different. And this has given me time to think about where I would like to go.

Trajectory is key. And with a series, you like your sequences to line up with the other books. Are there breakout and breakthrough moments? Of course there are. There HAS TO BE. But you need to keep some items in sync.

My protagonist, LA, is irascible. Is she cranky all the time? Again, of course not. I'd yeet her ass to the sky. But I need her to be a bit cranky. It's how she's developed the self-preservation she was denied when she was younger. It's her knee-jerk from fear and change.

But you need balance if you're going to have a blunt bitch with childhood PTSD be the main character. I've surrounded her with a blend of people who accept, understand, and challenge her. Because no one is going to let LA crumble into depression/anxiety/PTSD dust. Not happening. These characters provide growth assistance. Sometimes they offer. Sometimes they push the fuck out of her. Both work, in her situation. 

Lean into the characters. If you've empathy, use it. If you're symmetrical, use it. If you love the fucking chaos...Hey! HEEEEEEEY! *waving*...then use that. Each of these provides potential for great storylines. 

Don't doubt yourself.

You're the first to introduce this literary idea?

YES! 

You're the hundredth to introduce this literary idea? But you have a majorly different spin? 

YES!

A couple of the biggest killers of writing motivation are: comparison, lack of confidence, and questioning if you're writing for yourself or readers.

Don't compare yourself. As has been said: those are their highlight reels compared to your struggles. Unfair.

Lack of confidence. Should I? What if I can't sell it? What if my writing is trash???

Let me be blunt. It's my wheelhouse.

If you want to write, then write. Not writing is akin to trying to stop a bullet wound with a band-aid. Thanks, Taylor! 😘

Who am I writing for?

First and foremost, you're writing for yourself. 

Writing gives me the dopamine I literally cannot scrape from the meds I take. One is supposed to hit my dopamine receptors, I believe.

Oh. Is it?

Because, nice try. I don't even think the med is in the same body, at this point. 🙄

Writing, like all the best shit, is a passion. It comes from the soul. And if you're blessed to share your words with the world? Great! And if you only write the stories because you'd be in a padded room with a nifty jacket that buckles in the back...also great!

You don't need the questions. You need the doing.

Get to doing.

Simba 4/29/11-5/10/25

 

Ah, Canva. It's been a minute.

My mind scattered yesterday morning as I thought about possibly indie publishing my PT series. First thought? 

Book covers.

Because they need to tie-in to one another. Some theme I can use for each. I immediately opened Canva, where I make all my book covers, and started.

😑

Mythological art is extremely monochromatic. Lots of vanilla and black in there. While, in fact, these beings are the liveliest bunch to grace a page in a hot minute. These fuckers make Caligula look like an altar boy. They are EXTREME.

I need bold colors and striking themes. Seems I'll have to do more editing than normal on these.

Because of course I will.

In the throes of...

I struggle with forgetfulness and being easily distracted. On the other side of the coin, I struggle with hyperactivity and impulsivity. 

I can taste the second one.

I told myself I would query the first six months of the year, or so. Then I would take my PT series and indie publish. I finished book 4 yesterday. But now realize, after 75,000 words, I need to split it into books 4 and 5. 

Here's the disconnect I have.

Mythological stories are on the verge of being the next big thing on the market. 

I am writing a series about mythological cultures and their problematic beings.

Why am I having such a problem finding an agent???

I plan on pitching at Romancelahoma 2026. That's in early August. If I do not receive any bites for my work, that's my limit. 

Finishing a book every month in a half already has me at a backlog. I have a four-part paranormal romance series I received the rights back to that I need to polish up and publish the 2nd edition. I have a time travel romance from the same origins. 

I now have FOUR of these mythological retellings under my belt, and I'm starting on book 5 today.

I can't wait any longer than that. By the time August rolls around, I'll have at least five books finished, if not more. 

I can release every three months or so and hopefully fill in some of the rest with previous works or finished works-in-progress.

Need to set aside another day, probably on the weekend to query. 

Exhausting, but potentially lucrative. 

We shall see.

On the look back...

...I am weird. And that's perfectly fine. It's my wheelhouse. But I start to question my quirks when I put Fibonacci in my last book of my Urban Paranormal. Because, guys, it made sense at the time. Still does, to be honest. And, well, *avoids eye contact*, his butterfly pattern. 😶

And I feel froggy about it because I've read plenty of books with extraneous material that made my retina ache. I was looking for psychological thrillers, eBooks, at the two libraries I belong. I started a series by a well-known author. And book 2 is about plantations. In depth. With historical names being bandied about. And reenactments. I struggled, people. I only kept with it since it had a paranormal bent. Honestly? I skipped over a lot of the places I didn't find relevant. I liked the first in the series. Not a fan of the second. 

Do writers feel as though they must add all that depth? Or are they like me and stumble down a rabbit hole, make friends, and find oxygen again with a multitude of wacky ideas???

My most recent research finds me G'ing flash methods of cameras. Flash. Methods. Of. Cameras. 🙄

I've looked up expensive cars and their specs. Insects that glow. Foliage. How long to build a certain structure. Ethnic foods. And so many other things to add a little more reality to the scene(s).

The flash method doesn't even NEED to be a part of the story, but I need to understand how it works. 

To sum up...what I'm telling myself is that I'm panning for gold and only giving you the good parts. None of that silt bullshit.

Don't ask me how many tabs I have on my OneNote Notebook for my fourth book. 🫢

 

Back to the mythological party

I will never not take a moment when I read about mother/sons turning to mother/husbands. Like my wee brain simply cannot accept the words in front of me. Gods procreating with clouds and making centaurs. Like...just the schematics alone. The mind boggles.

But what I do enjoy is looking up obscure mythological names and finding interesting stories. And the funniest thing to me? As soon as I "G" one of these names, the first thing to usually pop is a car or electronic device. We have used the hell out of these guys' names.

Today...I'm touring Tartarus. 

👀

It's been everything I hoped for. And more. So. Much. More. 😑

Going to bip back to my book 4. It'll be the longest in the series, thus far. I'm at 68,868 words. I'll need at least 10,000 more words. 

That's me and my Mythological Monday.