About Me — J. Raven Wilde
Author of steamy romances
I make up stuff and people buy it. I spice it up a bit though. Add some hot alpha shifters, cowboys, or men in uniform that’ll have you cranking the AC up.
Hi! I published steamy romances under the name J. Raven Wilde. I love chocolate, coffee, hiking, camping, and traveling. I also love to write.
I’m really into fantasy fiction and paranormal romances, especially all things Fae and shifters. I have always wanted to be a writer, I just didn’t know I wanted to be an author until much later in life.
Mistakes Are Lessons Learned
I published my first book (not a romance) in 2013 when I was in my 30s with a small publishing company that turned into a vanity press. Due to all the nightmares I had with them, I decided that the next book I publish will be completely different and so, I started looking into what it would take to be an indie author.
Being an indie author was completely foreign to me. I didn’t know you could self-publish your books. I didn’t know the process. I had a lot to learn and I was going to spend as much time as I could researching what it meant to be an indie author and how to publish my own books by myself.
I’m New Here
In 2017, I published my first steamy short story and I was hooked. It was my first book as J. Raven Wilde and my first self-published book, however, it was the 2 book that I have published.
I didn’t always want to write romances. I was interested in writing fantasy fiction at first, but after reading a few steamy romances and finding out that there was a larger market for it than what I was originally writing, I decided to give it a try.
I wasn’t sure which genre of romance I wanted to write in. I loved reading almost everything I could get my hands on so, I wanted to write everything. However, in this market, you have to write what the readers want to read.
I learned what readers wanted after I published my 5th book. Soon after, readers were coming to me with requests for more of this and that. I tried to give them what they wanted but, at the time, I had a demanding full-time job that had me working a lot of overtime that it was hard to keep up with my writing.
My World Fell Apart
Last year was the hardest I’ve had to endure. I was completely stressed and overworked that it affected my physical and mental health. My BP dropped and I struggled to keep it elevated.
Due to having low BP, I was suffering from syncope, which kept me home a lot more than I wanted. I’m not a homebody. I love the outdoors. I was slowly getting back into running after a back injury a few years ago.
I wanted to train to run a 5K and ultimately do a Spartan race, but I was feeling so exhausted due to my job that I didn’t have the energy to get out of bed most mornings, let alone work out.
The doctor told me that I had to quit my job or it was going to kill me. I listened and quit last June.
I worked at a factory, on an assembly line. When a lot of jobs were shutting down during the pandemic, our employer had us working more. We generally worked 10 1/2 hours a day, 4 days a week, however, they had us working 10 1/2 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Some areas were working 11 hours a day, 7 days a week. We worked over a month without a day off in my area while some areas had been working every day for months without a day off.
We started to have such a high turnover rate as a lot of tenure employees were quitting. I was one of them.
Shortly after I left my job, my boyfriend of over 2 years and I split.
My perfect little world had crumbled.
I fell into severe depression. Writing had always been my passion and I couldn’t find the motivation to get the words out, let alone drag myself out of bed to sit in front of the computer.
I felt like a failure. How can I write happily-ever-afters now when the one I loved left without a reason why.
Working On Me
I had to work on me and try to find myself again. I needed time to heal.
Little by little, I’ve started to come around — I found myself getting out of bed and getting outside and going for a walk.
I have always enjoyed hiking and camping, as well as running. Yes, I enjoy running for fun, as well as fitness. Probably because I enjoy food, haha!
In order to get back into hiking, I had to get my BP back on track. Baby steps.
Writing Again
In getting myself back up again. I’ve started writing again and I decided to start sharing some of my work here on Medium; my steamy romances.
So, if you would love to follow me here on Medium or check out my books on Amazon, I would be overjoyed.
