Looking Forward to the Teenage Years

By Elizabeth Lapthorne

More than ten years ago, incredibly sick with the flu and bedridden for over two weeks, I followed, enthralled, on the EC chat loop while readers and authors collaborated on a series of fun, free short stories. It revolved around a special, mythical place—The Lonely Hearts Hotel. Readers added to a table on the database section of the Yahoo group— character ideas (names and one or two sentence descriptions) and a list of objects were given as props. Mysterious suitcases, handcuffs, rubber duckies, and so on.

Authors were challenged to take the characters and one or more items and create a sexy story with them. I played along, got caught up in my characters, and the short scene became a novella-length story. Next thing I knew, my friends were urging me to submit the story—and the rest, as they say, is history. Justin and Caroline still bring a smile to my face and ten years later I remain proud of Payback, my first book.

From day one all the way to my most recent email with my editor, all the staff I’ve come into contact with have made me feel a welcome, respected part of EC. I’ve spoken to possibly hundreds of people, both within and outside of EC, and everyone agrees EC has a close-knit, warm and professional feel. EC hit the market with big names, big sales and effectively they play with the big boys—but still retain the backyard feel from where it all started. It’s an amazing journey and one I plan to continue on with.

I’m only one of a bunch of decade authors for EC: the Original Bad Girls of Romance. All of us are doing various promo in conjunction with EC, freebies, blogs and fun things on Facebook, Twitter and so forth. Friend us and come join the fun!

EC has flourished in the publishing industry, growing and changing with and ahead of even the big boys in New York. I’m thrilled and proud to still be an active author with them. I’m also excited and looking forward to what the teenage years bring to us all. Awkward, pimply and gangly are not on the agenda, I’m sure. I see more of a lush, curvaceous growth and settling into our own skin, rediscovering and improving upon our sexuality and all the risks, dares and adventures that one could possibly hope for.

Bring it on, I say!

Feel free to email me at elapthorne999@hotmail.com . I love to hear from readers and fans.

Website: elapthorne.mmebj.com/index.html