Not too many people know I wrote a smutty book.

I’ve always wanted to write a book. It’s been on my bucket list forever, since I was little.

I remember “publishing” a neighborhood newsletter when I was about ten or eleven years old. I would go around and spy on my neighbors, then write about what they were doing on notebook paper divided into columns, with a newspaper-like masthead at the top. I hand-wrote every copy and then went around trying to sell them to the neighbors I had spied on. Oh, my.

Funny that 50 years later, I was actually writing for the local newspaper as a stringer and an obit clerk.

Anyway, about 15 years ago I joined a local writers’ and community theatre group. That group was so much fun! There were about 12 of us in the group, mostly academics in the English department of the university where I worked, and some others from the general community. We would write poetry and short stories and critique each others’ work while drinking boxed wine and eating mixed nuts and chips. We also wrote one-act plays and performed them for audiences, so we all became actors too. Ah, those were good times.

Eventually, the writers’ group disbanded as people’s lives changed and we lost our venue. But the memories live on.

While in the group, I had started working on a sexy novel that took place in and around a small-town university. It was just for fun, but I did hope to eventually publish it. Every once in a while I would take it out and write a chapter or two, but I just couldn’t get the momentum to finish it.

Then, in 2015, I heard about NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month. The premise: Write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. That’s just 1,667 words a day. I can do that, I thought! And so I registered on the site and got ready to finish my book.

I had a full-time job and a side business selling vintage stuff on Etsy, so this was NOT a piece of cake. But I had committed myself to doing this, and I’m a little competitive – even when competing against my own brain. I got up early and wrote, I stayed up late and wrote, and at the end of November I had just over 50,000 words.

The key to doing this blast-writing is to not go back and edit what you already wrote before writing new stuff, and that was my biggest problem before. Every time I would sit down to work on the book, I would go all the way back to the beginning and edit, and then try to add new chapters. But by the time I was done editing, I was tired and had no time left.

NaNoWriMo is actually a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that provides tools, structure, community, and encouragement to writers of all ages. When you join up, you are joining thousands of other writers who all encourage each other. And it costs nothing to join! There are even local meetups in some cities where you can commiserate with your fellow authors over pizza and beer. I did that, and it was so fun.

So, with my VERY rough copy, I spent the months of December and January editing the book and formatting it for self-publication on Amazon. It wasn’t as hard as it sounds. And finally, it was ready for publication.

My pen name, Marlee Keyes, is a conglomeration of my middle name (Marlene) and my paternal grandfather’s first name (Keys).

Side note: I used Scrivener by Literature and Latte as my writing platform. It made writing a book so easy! I don’t know how I ever wrote without it. There are so many cool features, and it’s totally customizable to your habits. I was able to put a list of all my chapters down the side of the page so I could instantly flip around or even move entire chapters. I also had character sketches, location descriptions, important dates, etc., all on the side of the screen so I could just refer as needed. What color was Joel’s hair again? Oh, that’s right, salt and pepper. What are Maggie’s three cats’ names? Right there on the side of the screen so I don’t have to search back through miles of text to find them. Scrivener is amazing, and affordable. There are probably hundreds of things it does that I’m not even aware of yet. If you are a writer, I highly recommend!

The Book

Okay, so back to the book itself. Here’s the synopsis from Amazon:

Maggie has it all – a great job, a beautiful home, designer clothes, and two wealthy married lovers who supply her with sex, jewelry, exotic trips, and fancy meals. What she doesn’t have is all the bulls**t that goes along with marriage – dirty socks, sports on TV, cooking, bickering – yuck. Maggie’s problem? She is obsessed with Carlos, a co-worker who is half her age. Maggie will stop at nothing to get Carlos into her bed. She fantasizes about him night and day, even when she’s with Joel or Benjamin. She’s never had trouble getting men interested in her before, and it drives her crazy that he’s with Lana all the time and is not falling under her spell. Is she getting too old? As Maggie gets more and more desperate to win Carlos, her life begins to fall apart in a big way…

Still [Boy] Crazy After All These Years contains explicit sex and is intended for mature audiences only.

So if you’re a person who reads erotica, or what I like to call “housewife porn,” (you know who you are), you may enjoy this book. It’s available in paperback ($8.95) or Kindle version ($1.99). If you have Kindle Unlimited, it’s free!

Get it here!

And if you do choose to read it, a review would be greatly appreciated! ♥

• Life in General