Elements Of Mystery

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Oganesson

What the hell am I to write about Ununoctium? Ununoctium was merely the placeholder name which scientists initially assigned the 118^th element in the Periodic Table. Then they officially named it—Oganesson. But that doesn’t help much. So my final short story, is my story of how Elements Of Mystery was born. But first, I should explain why I started writing.

I didn’t start writing immediately. In fact, I thought about it for eight years before I typed a single word on my laptop. But the reason why I decided to write is because of my mother.

When she wrote her debut novel, Make Old Bones, she’d let me read each chapter as she completed it. I wanted to know what happened next. I’m her biggest fan. She claims she kept writing because I wanted to know the rest of the story. All the while, she inspired me to start writing. And I had an idea—cloning.

“I know this girl who looks exactly like you!” I’ve heard this for years, and my response never changes, “I must have been cloned.” And that is how my debut novel, Carbon Copy, was born.

Garrison and I first brainstormed the idea of Elements Of Mystery while drinking German beer at European Street Café in Jacksonville. Our oldest son, David Addison, only a few months old at the time, slept peacefully in his infant carrier. A sleeping baby, a cold beer, and time with your spouse is a treasured moment. Our oldest son is now a Senior in high school!

On our second beer, I told Garrison how I struggled with my title. Since my debut novel involved cloning, I wanted a title which alluded to cloning. My first thought was Doppelganger, a German word for deadly double. But when I discovered Doppelganger was already a book and a movie, I nixed the idea.

I fantasized about writing more than one novel. I loved the concept of a recurring theme in the titles of my books. Janet Evanovich uses numbers, One for the Money, etc. Sue Grafton uses letters, A is for Alibi, etc. James Patterson uses a portion of a nursery rhyme in many of his novels such as Along Came a Spider and When the Wind Blows. My mother’s novels each contain the word “Bone.” She refers to it as her Bone Series. My teenage sons are full of suggestions for future titles for their Oma, but they all involve phallic imagery.

I told Garrison about the title Carbon Copy. We recognized Carbon is an element from the Periodic Table. I believe Garrison first said, “What about Elements Of Mystery?” We loved the idea and toasted his brilliance. The very next day, he bought me the domain name www.ElementsOfMystery.com.

Although Elements Of Mystery was born, I’d yet to write a word of my debut novel, Carbon Copy. From 1995 to 2003, I merely thought about writing Carbon Copy. I’d jotted down some ideas and character descriptions during those eight years, but not any text for the book. Finally, on November 11, 2003, I wrote the first chapter.

Sitting down to write those first words was scary. Time was a big issue, too. My boys were one and three at the time. I had a time-consuming job as Tax Senior Manager. During tax season, I worked many sixteen-hour days. I’d just received my annual raise. The lowest ever—6.5%. I was pissed! That’s considered a great raise now, but back then, my raises ranged from 10-20%. That crappy raise was what finally motivated me to write the first chapter of Carbon Copy. Thank you, KPMG!

Finally, on February 2, 2009, Super Bowl Sunday, I completed the second draft of Carbon Copy. Now the big question—what to do with it?

Self-publish? Find a publisher? With my mother’s struggles to publish her debut novel, Make Old Bones, I initially decided to self-publish. But she talked me into trying to find a traditional publisher. “What have you got to lose?”

I listened to my mother and submitted Carbon Copy to twelve publishers. Three months, and twelve rejections later, I submitted to a publisher who wouldn’t accept simultaneous submissions—Wild Child Publishing. On October 9, 2009, I received an email from the acquisition editor. “Your manuscript, Carbon Copy, has been accepted.”

Yippee! I’m going to be a published author! Within a week, I had my beautiful book cover. Thank you, Valerie Tibbs of Tibbs Design. Valerie has since designed all of my book covers, including Elements Of Mystery. She’s also designed all of my bookmarks, my mother’s bookmarks, website banners, and my mother’s fourth book cover—The Bonnie, Bonnie Bone.

After I signed my publishing contract, my mother submitted Make Old Bones to Wild Child. She’d never considered an eBook publisher. Her manuscript was accepted, too. Our dreams of becoming published Mother/Daughter authors was finally coming true.

I quickly learned that the publishing process takes a long time. In fact, Carbon Copy was not published until June 12, 2012. An author is expected to gear up for marketing. I designed my website, using my domain name www.ElementsOfMystery.com. I started a blog based on Wild Child’s recommendation. www.TerriTalleyVenters.Blogspot.com My publisher also recommended posting a free short story once a month.

On January 1, 2011, I posted my first short story, Silver. I now had followers on my blog who commented how much they enjoyed my story. Each month, on the 1^st, I wrote and posted a new short story, each one titled after an element in the Periodic Table. I loved writing these short stories! Many of these short stories turned into a book—Copper Cauldron began as Arsenic and Strontium, Sulfur Springs began as Sulfur, Iron Curtains began as Iron, and Europium Gem Mine began as Magnesium.

I stayed faithful to this monthly routine for three years. With over thirty stories, I decided to stop giving them away, and publish them as a collection—Elements Of Mystery.

As various elements inspired me, I wrote several more short stories in 2014 and 2015. These were written in between writing Luke’s Lithium, Sulfur Springs, Cobalt Cauldron, Europium Gem Mine, Calcium Cauldron, and Iron Curtains. Yes, I wrote six books in two years. In fact, I wrote Noah’s Nickel in four weeks! A far cry from my first book, Carbon Copy, which took over five years to write, not including the eight years I spent thinking about it.

I credit my productivity to our new home. In January 2014, we moved to, what our neighbors coined, the White Palace. It’s on the St. Johns river with a gorgeous view—so gorgeous I decided to

include this photo of my view.

The master sunroom on the second floor provides the best view. This is where I write. It’s so beautiful, that I just want to spend all of my free time in this room and write. Thank you, White Palace!

In 2004, I changed jobs. Since I only work part-time now, I have more time to write. On my days off, while the boys are in school, I write in the mornings. I force myself to sit with my laptop. That both challenged and intimidated me at first. Most of the time, I don’t know what I’m going to write until my computer tells me. The ideas just come. It’s both scary and awesome. But once I forced myself to sit at the computer when the boys were at school, my writing productivity skyrocketed.

In early 2016 after completing my 11^th book, Iron Curtains, I decided to get serious and finish my Elements Of Mystery collection, only eighty something more short stories to go.

The first thing I did, was organize my existing stories. I made a spreadsheet. I’m a CPA. I listed all the elements in order with their names, numbers, and symbols. If the story was done, I’d mark that element DONE. I also kept a running tally of how many stories were done. I’d look at this spreadsheet, a lot. If I had an idea for a story and couldn’t write it immediately, I made a column for notes so I wouldn’t forget my ideas.

I quickly learned that writing eighty different short stories was hard work, especially since they are all different. Some were easy, since I already had several books written. I cheated a little and used excerpts and deleted scenes for the stories: Lithium (Luke’s Lithium), Boron (Sulfur Springs), Carbon (Carbon Copy), Oxygen (Body Of Gold), Cobalt (Cobalt Cauldron), Copper (Copper Cauldron), Tin (Tin Roof), Europium (Europium Gem Mine), Gold (Body Of Gold), Tungsten (Body Of Gold), and Fire (Body Of Gold).

Based on my mother’s advice, several of my stories were inspired by real news events. I don’t get the newspaper, haven’t for years. But I have the FOX News App on my iPhone. Copper Cauldron was based on my short story Arsenic. Arsenic was based on a news story I read on my FOX News App. The Romanian government taxed witches on their witchcraft income. Then the witches cursed the government. I brought this story to the United States and used Arsenic on the IRS. That was fun to write.

 My short story Rhenium was also a newspaper idea involving the IRS and its new whistle blower rewards. Another fun one was Einsteinium, based on a news story where a divorce attorney billed his client for the hours they spent having sex. Please refer to the glossary for a complete list of which stories are based on real news.

Several stories are based on real events which I discovered via Wikipedia research. Thanks, Wikipedia! I printed all the Wikipedia pages for each element, killing two reams of paper and a toner. After writing a short story, I researched another element. I gathered ideas and noted them on my spreadsheet. Some story ideas are based on the actual use of an element. Antinomy is used in fire retardant clothes. Many stories are based on the person for which element was named. Curium was named after Marie Curie so I wrote a story starring her. One might ask if that is allowed. But the dead have no rights.

Many elements are named after the place they were discovered. Californium was discovered in California, so I used California as the setting. Many elements are named after Mythical Gods, Goddesses, Demi Gods, and Titans. Neptunium was named after Neptune, so that story starred Neptune.

Many of my stories involved ghosts, conspiracy theories, scary monsters, mythical creatures, natural disasters, man-made disasters, and tragic events. In fact, several of my stories end tragically, so to lighten things up, I wrote stories with rainbows and unicorns, literally. Some stories my mind conjured up and some are based on real dreams I had. Some stories were inspired by a place I’ve visited. Some stories, I admit, were a stretch to tie to an element. Lawrencium starred Lawrence who fell from the St. Louis Arch.

As I got closer to the end, I noticed that I had several story ideas with no element, and several elements without a story idea. Again, I used my massive spreadsheet and made two columns. Then I mentally drew lines to connect the two columns. I matched Hassium with the Pokémon Go conspiracy. Again, see the glossary for the various categories my stories fall under.

When I started writing these stories, there were only 110 named elements in the Periodic Table. But scientists kept discovering more! My friends and family would send me links whenever a new element was discovered. Now there are 118 named elements. Some were named just a few months before I completed my collection. If more are discovered, I’m sure I’ll add them to my collection. I loved writing my stories and I look forward to the challenge of writing more as new elements are discovered.

Now, on May 20, 2017, I sit in my gold wing-back chair in my sunroom with the beautiful view and write this last short story. In fact, I wrote all of my books and most of my short stories in this chair with an ottoman. It’s actually one of two matching chairs. But they’ve followed me from different homes as we’ve moved twice since I started writing almost fourteen years ago. Thank you, gold wing-back chairs and ottomans!

Naming characters is fun. I often use family names. Both of my grandmothers were named Lilly. My maternal grandmother had a twin named Elizabeth. I planned to name my daughter Lillian Elizabeth and call her Lilly Beth for short. But I only had sons. So I named the heroine in Carbon Copy, Lillian Elizabeth Allen. Lilly’s twin is Luke Allen. My father and his grandfather are named, Luke. Lilly’s love interest is Grier Garrison. My husband’s middle name, which he goes by, is Garrison. My youngest son is Michael. Grier’s father is Dr. Michael Garrison. My oldest son is David Addison Venters. In Iron Curtains, the President of the United States is David Addison.

My characters cross over to other books in different series. Lilly, Chelsea, Victoria, and Britta all grew up together in Charleston. Lilly stars in the Carbon Copy trilogy, Chelsea stars in Body Of Gold, and Victoria stars in my Under The Magic series. Victoria and Chelsea were second and third girl names if I’d had girls. Speaking of crossover characters, my mother’s heroine, Clarice Campion, is the aunt of my heroine, Lilly Allen. In fact, her characters make a cameo appearance in Carbon Copy and Silver Lining during Thanksgiving.

How do I conjure my titles? Once I decided that each title would have an element in it, coming up with the titles Tin Roof, Silver Lining, and Luke’s Lithium was easy. I decided on the title I wanted, then I worked the element into the book. But for some books, I knew which element I wanted to use, started writing, and then a title popped in my head. For Body Of Gold, the title came to me while Garrison and I were…. you know. For Copper Cauldron, I knew the story was about a witch, but I didn’t know which element to incorporate into the story. Once I decided to use cauldron in the title, I studied the periodic table. I keep a laminated copy handy. Copper caught my attention, it was alliterative and an easy element to incorporate into my witch story. I conjured the cauldron was made of copper and had a specific purpose. Since then, I consistently named my next books in my Cauldron Series—Cobalt Cauldron, Calcium Cauldron, and Chromium Cauldron. Each book in the Cauldron Series focuses on a different witch in the Manchester coven. Each book utilizes a different cauldron with a specific purpose. Future titles for the series include: Krypton Cauldron and Zirconium Cauldron. There are several elements which start with the letter, “C”—Cadmium, Cesium, Cerium, etc. Carbon is already used in Carbon Copy and Chlorine will be used in Key West Chlorine. This will be a spinoff of the Carbon Copy saga starring, Joe. For more about my future titles, please see the glossary.

Between 2012 and 2016, Wild Child Publishing published my first six books: Carbon Copy, Tin Roof, Silver Lining, Luke’s Lithium, Copper Cauldron, and Body Of Gold. They also published my mother’s first three books—Make Old Bones, Bred In The Bone, and The Closer The Bone.

Having my first book published inspired me to write more books. I would not have written as many as I have otherwise. Back in 2008, I actually started writing Body Of Gold before I received my first publishing contract. I’d started taking Taekwondo with my sons. We’re second degree black belts now. I just love saying that. I also had ideas for Tin Roof, the sequel to Carbon Copy. By the time Carbon Copy was published in 2012, I’d written a total of four books.

On October 29, 2016, I remember the date because we were headed to the Florida vs. Georgia football game. My Gators won, of course. On that Saturday, my mother and I heard the crushing news that Wild Child Publishing was closing its doors on December 31, 2016.

After the initial shock wore off, I looked at the bright side. I’m an optimist. Things happen for a reason. Hopefully great things will come for my Elements Of Mystery books. I dream big!

On January 1, 2017, all six of my published books, and my mother’s three published books were taken off the market. We were given our rights back, plus we got the rights to the book covers free of charge. All we had to do was have the Wild Child logo removed.

So now what? Try to find a new publisher for our books or self-publish. This decision was pretty easy. We needed to get our books back up for sale ASAP. Neither of us wanted to start over with a new publisher because the publishing process takes time.

Another decision we faced—What to do with our completed, yet unpublished books. I had five more, and my mother had one. My mother didn’t want to find a new publisher. But I’m the optimist. In November 2016, I submitted Cobalt Cauldron and Iron Curtains to over thirty publishers. I’ve been rejected by half of them. And the other rejections are assumed after six months. But over a year later, more rejections rolled in. Seriously?

In January 2017, we started the self-publishing process. It was overwhelming at first. We had nine books between us to self-publish. My mother is in her seventies. So we was really me. Luckily, self-publishing turned out to be easier than I thought. I started with Create Space to get our books in print. Only our first books were ever published in print, the rest were eBooks only. Create Space lets you transfer everything to Kindle Direct Publishing. Then we, I, figured out Barnes & Noble via Nook Press. I also uploaded them to Kobo and Smashwords which I’d never heard of until I saw that other authors put their books there, too. It’s supposedly better for international sales in English speaking countries where amazon doesn’t have the market cornered, yet. I’ve sold books in Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Denmark, Bulgaria, and even the Soviet Republic of Georgia. Four months later, we had all of our nine previously published books available for sale again.

On Mother’s Day 2017, my mother and I had a joint release date for our next books—The Bonnie, Bonnie Bone and Sulfur Springs. I go on Create Space, Kindle Direct, Smashwords, Kobo, and Nook Press daily to see if we’ve sold any books. And we have. Mostly the newer ones because all of our friends and family bought our earlier books when they were originally released.

Now with five more completed books still to publish, I’m immersed in the world of editing. Going through the editing process six times before, I learned a lot of what to do and what not to do. Editing is not just proofreading. There are always ways to make my manuscripts even better. It’s extremely time consuming, but it is truly a labor of love. I get to read my books again, and again, and again. And my books get better and better with each round of edits.

Fortunately, I have my mother. She reads everything, twice. She reads my words as I write them, but after I’ve proofed and edited them three times. Then just before publication, she reads and edits them again.

Now going forward, I’ve set release seasons for my next books—Cobalt Cauldron (Summer 2017), Iron Curtains (Fall 2017), Europium Gem Mine (Winter 2018), Calcium Cauldron (Spring 2018), Elements Of Mystery (Summer 2018). Chromium Cauldron (Fall 2018), Noah’s Nickel (Winter 2019), Manganese Magic (Spring 2019), Platinum Princess (Summer 2019), and Plutonium Princess (Fall 2019). Although, one would ask—why so long?

Great question. First of all, I don’t want to flood the market. Second, it takes time to edit and market the books. I want to enjoy the journey. If I put my latest books on the market all at once, I lose the enjoyment of celebrating each release date. My writing is my hobby. I write because I love it. If it becomes work, what’s the fun in that?

Speaking of ‘enjoying the journey,’ I have. When I first started writing Carbon Copy, I fantasized about my mother and I both getting our books published. I fantasized about Mother/Daughter book signings and joint speaking engagements at writers’ conferences.

Well, many years later, those dreams came true! We’ve had several book signings, albeit, we didn’t sell much. Plus, we’ve spoken at writers’ conferences a few times. I’m not one for public speaking. I’m good at it, but I just dread it. But after our first presentation, I discovered that I love talking about me and my books with my mother and a captive audience.

Now that some of my writing dreams have come true, I’m hoping that my other my writing fantasies come true, too. These are big ones, so indulge me. I dream about making enough money that I could retire early. Who doesn’t? I dream that one of my books will become an attraction at a theme park, like Sulfur Springs at Disney World. I dream that one of my books will be made into a movie. What writer doesn’t? I’ve even thought of which actor would play the roles.

For Carbon Copy, which I started writing in 2003, I’d envisioned Matthew McConaughey playing the role of Grier Garrison. But fourteen years later, he’s probably not young enough to play a twenty something hero. Sorry Matthew, but you’re still on my list. For my heroine, Lilly Allen, I pictured Julia Stiles or Scarlett Johansson. For Charlotte, I pictured Cybill Shepard. For Sulfur Springs, and all six of my novellas in my Under The Magic Series, I envisioned Ewan McGregor to play the role of Tommy Garrison and Megan Fox to play the role of Victoria Ventures. I even describe my characters as such. Ewan is also on my list.

Of course, my biggest fantasy is to have one of my books win an Oscar for anything—best movie, best actor/actress, best supporting actor/actress, best director, best costume, anything. But most of all, I’d love for one of my stories to win best adapted screenplay. What author wouldn’t? I’ve even mentally written my acceptance speech. Like I said, I dream big.

Now finally, my initial purpose for this story, Oganesson, is to thank and acknowledge everyone who helped me on this journey.

If it wasn’t for Dmitri Mendelev, the Periodic Table of Elements may never exist. He developed the organizational chart based on his dream. In fact, he starred in my short story—Mendelevium. Thank you, Mendelev!

I’d like to thank my reviewers who posted their reviews on amazon, Goodreads, and Barnes & Noble. Most reviews are great, but a few are not. I shouldn’t complain about a three-out-of-five-star review. But those words stung. I shouldn’t take it too personally, but I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t. But every author, even famous ones, get bad reviews. Critics can be douchebags. One reviewer bashed Body Of Gold because she thought it unrealistic that my heroine, Chelsea Lynn Cobb, received her First Degree Black Belt in Taekwondo in only two years. My sons and I actually earned our First Degree Black Belts in only two years. Now that is unusually fast, but we often took back-to-back classes and spent three weeks at Taekwondo Summer Camps which advanced us three belts and six months. Then we went on to earn our Second Degree Black Belts two years after that. I just love saying that! So how can something be unrealistic if it really happened? Another reviewer bashed Tin Roof, the sequel to Carbon Copy. He criticized the characters were not fully developed. But he didn’t read Carbon Copy where the characters were developed. Haters are going to hate. They obviously missed the part in my author bio about being a Second Degree Black Belt. Karma is a bitch, too. Thank you, reviewers!

I love my website! Please check out, www.ElementsOfMystery.com. I designed my first one, but I’m a writer and a CPA, not a graphic design artist. I was very proud of it, but it lacked that professional touch. My husband nagged me to pay someone to design it. I resisted because I was too thrifty. He also wanted to have our house painted, but again, I was too thrifty. We finally agreed to the website instead of painting the house. Good thing for two reasons—we since sold the house and would not have recouped the painting money, and my website is beautiful. Thank you, Station Four!

After Carbon Copy was accepted, I met, via Facebook, numerous other Wild Child Authors over the years. The camaraderie was awesome. We’d cross promote each other’s books on social media, host one another on blogs, and encourage one another during the writing and publishing process. I’ve read most of their books which were all awesome. I’m going to try to name them all. Sorry if I miss anyone. Marci Baun, Jenn Nixon, Cherie Reich, Chad McPhearson, Carol Marvel, Shaun Howen, Cassie Exline, Molly Dean, Carmen, Luke Roman, Larry Payne, and Abbi Glines. Thank you, author friends!

My friends and family know I’m a cat lover. In fact, all of my kitties have made it into one of my books, except for five of the six kittens which we gave away. My first kittens, Summer and Solstice, Soli for short, were born on Summer Solstice. When my brother, Damon, and I shared an apartment in Gainesville while we attended the University of Florida, we decided to get a kitten. Luckily, Damon brought home two Tabby kittens, sisters, so they’d have each other. Summer was my kitty, and Soli was his. After he moved out, he let me keep both kitties so they’d stay together. Both kitties slept with me anyway. After I graduated UF and got married, Summer and Soli followed us to our first apartment, and then to our first house.

Summer and Soli were still alive when I started writing Carbon Copy. They’d often sit on or near me as I wrote. They both got a role in the Carbon Copy saga. In fact, Soli helped Lilly find their wounded cleaning lady, Thelma, who’d been shot by Jennifer Jones and left to die in Luke’s apartment. Summer and Soli are memorialized in my books. Ironically, Luke, based on Damon, ends up with both kitties when Lilly moves to Scotland in Silver Lining.

My next cat was Spot. Yes, I named my cat, Spot, because she resembled a Dalmatian. Spot actually adopted us. She was a stray just under a year old when she showed up on our patio. We started feeding her, and she decided to stay. We kept her as an outdoor cat. When winter came, albeit Florida only has a few days of winter, we brought her into the house. Then she started getting fat! I came home from work on February 12, 1998 and found her in my closet with six kittens! It was a joy raising kittens for three months. But with Summer and Soli, we had nine felines in the house. I somehow talked Garrison into keeping Stormy, the Tabby with white paws and neck. We found homes for Bonnie, Cali (a calico), kitten Spot, Jorge, and Chico. Stormy and Spot have passed, but Stormy makes an appearance in Body Of Gold, and Spot appears in Cobalt Cauldron.

Our current kittens, Mittens and Raven, both starred in a cauldron book—Mittens in Calcium Cauldron, and Raven in Cobalt Cauldron. Of all of my kittens, Mittens helps me write the most. She lays on my Gator blanket which is always on my legs when I write. I even keep writing longer than I intended since I don’t want to get up and disturb, Her Royal Highness. Thank you, cats!

Marci Baun, founder and editor-in-chief of Wild Child Publishing and Freya’s Bower, gave me my first big break. By publishing my first book, and five more since, she motivated me to write so many books. She personally edited all four books in my Carbon Copy Saga. She whipped them into shape and taught me tons of editing and marketing tips. Thank you, Marci!

Many of my friends and family bought, read, and enjoyed all of my books. Two of my aunts, Molly Venters Burt and Sharon Talley Bowman, always bought and read my books as soon as they were released. They loved them! Sadly, they both passed within a month of one another. The rest of my family and friends who brought and read my books include my nieces, Malia and Leila Talley, their mother, Marissa Talley, Aunt Glinda Talley Hill, Cousin Sara Wells Borden, Cousin Jennifer Talley and her mother, Jessica Scuderi, Kim Higginbotham, Dascha Finley Korn, Suzi Baumgardner, Mrs. Vega, Suzanne Noe, Bonnie Ziemathis, Diane Richter, Lisa Adams, Cheryl Moody, Teresa DeLue, and her daughter, Olivia Delue. Oliva, a teenager, even did an oral book report on Cobalt Cauldron. She got an A! Thank you, friends and family!

My mother in law, Celeste Venters, has bought and read every single one my books and my mother’s books. She always buys them on release day and finishes them within a few days. She tells me they’re wonderful, and my ego inflates. She hands out my bookmarks to all of her friends. She also raised her wonderful son, my husband, Garrison. Thank you, Celeste Venters!

My father, Luther Franklin Talley, is the best self-appointed marketing director! He hands out book marks to everyone he meets, proudly. He’s never read any of my books, but my mom reads him many of my short stories aloud during long car rides. He said, “She should put all of those stories together in a collection.” I have. My father is full of entertaining sayings. He is a character and a hoot. One of my mother’s leading characters, Otis, in Make Old Bones is based on my father. In fact, my mother and I often fight over who has the rights to his sayings. For now, my mother and I follow the standard shotgun rule, “I call it.” Just the other day, he said, “That lady has store bought boobies.” Thanks, Dad!

My brother, Damon Brent Talley, and I are only thirteen months apart. We’ve felt like twins our whole lives and we’ve always been close. In fact, I named my youngest son, Michael Damon. My character, Luther Edward Allen (Luke) is based on my brother Damon. He’s Lilly Allen’s twin. The character is so lovable that fans requested for Luke have his own book from his point of view. I delivered. Luke’s Lithium is a spinoff from the Carbon Copy trilogy. It parallels the timeline of Carbon Copy and Tin Roof. I even dedicated this book to Damon. At first, it challenged me to write from a male point of view. But with such an amazing man to base my character on, the words flew from my fingertips. Damon is entertaining and full of hysterical sayings, several of those sayings made it into the book. My brother has two beautiful girls—Malia Cay Talley and Leila Rose Talley. He is such a wonderful, doting father to my nieces. In fact, I incorporated his fatherhood into Luke’s Lithium. He has triplets! I have yet to incorporate my nieces into one of my books. Perhaps soon I’ll either use their names or personalities in one of my creations. Thanks, Bro!

My sons, David Addison Venters and Michael Damon Venters, have never read any of my books. They’re not big readers, unless it’s required for school. But they listen to me update them on my books. Since they’ve studied chemistry in school, they’re fascinated with this book—Elements Of Mystery. My sons are awesome, and I’m very proud of them. Thank you, David and Michael!

Garrison, my wonderful husband of 24 years, has supported and encouraged me during this journey. He bought my first domain name, and several others since. At first, he was terrified to read my books because he feared what my mind conjured up. He’s now read some of my books, and many of my short stories, but my imagination still terrifies him. He’s a wonderful cook! Some of his delectable dishes have made it in some of my books. He takes me to Disney, a lot! Several of the wonderful meals we’ve shared there made it into Sulfur Springs—Victoria and Albert’s, Il Mulino, and Tutto Gusto Wine Cellar. We’ve traveled to Europe many times. Some of the countries we visited inspired scenes in my books—Germany, France, and Italy. His love, encouragement, and support are treasured. Thank you, Garrison!

My mother, Leslie S. Talley, is the reason I started writing to begin with. I couldn’t have done it without her. She’s read and edited every single word I’ve written in my books and short stories. And she wasn’t shy with constructive criticism. She even read my erotic novel, Body Of Gold, which boasts three steamy sex scenes. Yes, I let my mother read my sex scenes. I didn’t even warn her. After reading Body Of Gold, she told me I had a comma splice and that I’d be excommunicated from the Catholic Church! Now that we’re self-publishing, she’s been instrumental in the editing process. We’ve done book signings together and spoken at writers’ conferences. We’ve even started co-writing a book together. Many of our writing dreams have come true. My biggest fantasy is to win an Oscar for Best-Adapted Screenplay, after one of my books is made into a movie. We promised each other that we’d be each other’s ‘plus one’ on the red carpet. Thanks, Mom!

THE END