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When I was doing standup comedy for a living, I worked with Tim Allen a lot, before he got famous. I knew Tim had made it big when I saw his name as a clue in a TV Guide crossword puzzle. Well, I may not be that famous, but I just discovered that one of my ebooks is being offered as a torrent. These days, that counts for something. My work is now virtual currency!

Honestly, my initial reaction was, “Hey! That’s not cool!” and I looked into having it removed because of copyright infringement, but then I thought again. My reason for caring is because the book is out of print, not because of the pirating issue. I’m rewriting it, and I didn’t want the first version of this book to be available anymore.

Meet Lola Garnett, a bored housewife, mom and office drone who wakes up with unexpected psychic abilities, and no instruction manual, and Twink, the reluctant, sarcastic fairy assigned to assist and educate her. In this first book in a series, middle-aged Lola has resigned herself to an unsatisfying life of servitude as a wife, mother and office drone. The American Dream she's living feels more like a coma, and she secretly longs for a more meaningful life. In a perfect demonstration of "be careful what you wish for…" she gets her wish when she wakes up from a nap one day with extrasensory abilities and powers. The adventure really kicks into gear once she learns that her condition is the result of a botched spell coming from across the street, where her wanna-be-witch neighbor, Melinda Underwood, is foolishly playing with powers she doesn't understand. Lola’s untrained intuition tells her that Melinda intends to use her equal, yet opposite, powers for evil against innocent people. With the help of a tiny, sarcastic, ethereal sidekick, can Lola overcome her helpless resignation to overthrow Melinda's evil plot and, while she's at it, find her own self worth?

Cover art by Justin Spyres

I originally wrote Be Careful What You Witch For! in the first person, as Lola Garnett, an Ohio woman who wakes up from a nap with magical abilities and no instruction manual. She is eventually assigned a pissed off fairy as a sidekick/instructor. Hijinks, of course, ensue.

The problem is that Lola isn’t a writer, she’s just an average person, so the writing style is intentionally obtuse. When it was time to begin writing the sequel, I wanted to tell it in the third person POV so I won’t have to limit myself to just what Lola could know about. But that means I had to rewrite Book One, first. That’s what I’ve been working on, and it’s slow going. I’d really rather just move on to Book Two.

So I’m thinking … maybe this is the Big U’s way of telling me to just get on with Book Two and don’t bother rewriting the first book. Maybe the fact that it’s already out there, beyond my control now, means that I’m supposed to let go of it. What do you think? If you’ve read the book, visit my Facebook page to let me know if you think it’s fine, as is, or if it needs to be rewritten as a third person narrative.

Thanks!