My Coffee Addiction

Monday Mancraving: From the Vault

Why I Hate Bound to Two Bears... and Why I Need to Stop

Bound to Two Bears is nearing its five year anniversary later this year. It was the catalyst for a twenty-three book series, translated into Spanish, French, and German. Two spin-off series spawned from that pool - Project Zed and Midnight, Mississippi. And yes, I do still have plans for a Bear Mountain Next Gen series (the muse has been going in a new direction and took me off course.)

But I kind of hate that first book.

I was in the middle of writing a Sci-Fi story that was giving me a headache and wouldn't go where I wanted it to go, so I decided to write something quick and fluffy, just to shift gears and work on anything else.

Bound to Two Bears wasn't supposed to be a big deal. I wrote it quickly and tossed it out to the world—as I often did in those days.

It was supposed to be a one off. One and done. No series. 

Yet, there was something about the world I'd hinted at that was intriguing. Before I'd barely finished the first one, ideas for more came. Characters started whispering in my mind and telling me tales. I wanted to dive back in.

Then the readers came and either loved it or hated it. There seems to be few in the middle of the road. When I first published it, I was firmly in the loved it camp. The ones who loved it were vociferous in that love and wanted MORE.

And I gave them plenty more.

Years passed. I grew as an author and I started seeing all the shortcomings with that first book. What I could've done better. What I should've changed. I added the 1.5 book, revisiting that story—in my attempt to give them a little more.

Tonight, as I write this, I was sharing in an MPREG group and I almost shared this book and didn't. I didn't want folks to read that and that book be their first impression of me as a writer. 

Yet, look what it created.

It gave us a whole world of loving bears, bear cub babies, and Project Zed, which I am INCREDIBLY proud of.  It was a stepping stone I had to be on to lead me to books like His Surrogate Omega and One Wild Heat.

There is no me now without Bound to Two Bears.

It shows me just how far I've come.

That book holds a promise that in five more years, I could grow even more. 

I need to stop apologizing for it, being ashamed, and accept that it is what it is... a book that held a lot of potential that a BUNCH of amazing readers apparently saw and came along with me for one wild, amazing ride. 

I love you all for it.

My Coffee Addiction

Monday Mancraving: From the Vault

My Coffee Addiction

Monday Mancraving