Stars Dancing [Dreams-To-Lovers Romance]

New day: check. Coffee: check. Discord: check. A DM awaited me when I logged in.

HC: Here's the first five chapters of Shapeless Poetry. Will you beta read for me?

WHAT?! How did my favorite author even know I WAS a beta-reader? Was that something a person could find out with a stream search? No way, everything about my personal life fell under my real-world name Samantha Mooneyhan. HC definitely didn't know about that!

Ayela: I'd be honored, HC

HC: I can pay you 5,000 credits as well as promo Moons Dancing for you once I'm ready to publish.

My eyes welled, but I didn't let them spill over. That would be two month's rent, plus she'd advertise my story in her book which would be huge!

Ayela: That's so generous, HC. I don't know how you found out I beta read, but this means the world to me!

HC: Oh, you beta-read professionally? I didn't know that. I should pay you double then. I saw all your comments in Flopper and knew you paid attention to details that other people miss. You're a very perceptive reader.

My heart swelled. I couldn't imagine a better compliment than that, and would she really pay me 10,000 credits to read her book?!

Ayela: 10,000 is too much

HC: It isn't. This is going to be a huge book. I've already planned around 150,000 words, and I'm nowhere near finished. Might be a series. Not sure yet.

I nodded to myself, that was right then. It was a huge story; much more than I'd ever tackled before.

Ayela: Okay, then we have a deal.

HC: Congrats BTW. Well deserved.

Ayela: lol, for becoming your beta reader?

HC: No, check your stats.

Ayela: WHAT?!

I pulled up my book. Fifty Followers. Hells bells and fuck every dark night. I HAD FIFTY FOLLOWERS???!!!!

Ayela: WTF? Holy turds, HC?! What is even happening?!

HC: 😆 That's Discord, honey! Welcome aboard. Moons Dancing is really good. How'd you get the idea for a story about lovers who meet in dreams?

Ayela: My parents died when I was ten, and I started dreaming that they were still with me, reaching out to me.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

No, too personal. I didn't want to go there.

Ayela: I just have a vivid imagination and wanted to write something no one had ever done before.

HC: lol. You haven't read the Known Cosmos Earth Press Dream With Me Now teen graphics have you? Link: Dream With Me Now Synopsis

I read the blurb about the girl Crystal Startan waking up from a coma and meeting the love of her life in her dreams. Dammit! The graphic novel was five decades old, so I'd never heard of it, but I should have. It wasn't the only media about Crystal; there was a whole series and even— wait, was that animated erotica??!!

Okay, different series of an adult Crystal called Eclipse Chasers of Yester Rear, but still. Wow, the Known Cosmos Earth Press had soooo much more than HC's graphic Red Phoenix.

Ayela: lol! What is all of this stuff? How have I not heard of it?

HC: It's kinda niche, but that's how I discovered the Known Cosmos Earth Press and got my graphic novels published with them. They're huge, actually. I'm surprised you don't know about them.

Ayela: I guess I'm MORE niche! lol. I mean, if it's not sapphic, why bother?

HC: lol! FrFr. But, they've got gay couples too. Not a lot of WLW stories. Unless they pick up yours.

Ayela: Ha! That would be amazing, but a pipe dream.

HC: Don't be too sure of that. Be confident in yourself, Ayela. Your writing is solid, and your characters deep. That's something people cling to in their dark hours, and your authenticity comes through on the pages. You just need to collaborate more, put yourself out there. Do you know how I got started?

Ayela: I'm listening.

HC: I kept dreaming about the Red Phoenix, and one day, I started writing. I couldn't help it; I was possessed, and the story spilled outta me onto the pages. I was so busy with life and work, managing someone else's business, and all I wanted to do was write my story. I had some money set aside for a vacation, but I decided to spend it on self-publishing Red Phoenix. And it did okay as an ebook.

I made all the money back, and a little more. But then I had a nightmare so violent I woke up in utter terror. The whole world was shaking, and a tidal wave destroyed Texas. All of it, just gone. Nothing has ever scared me like that in a dream, but at the very end, I heard someone say, "Five Spheres." So, I researched and found the Known Cosmos Earth Press graphic novels called The Avenging Augment. Have you heard of them?

Ayela: No

HC: They're old, but great! Not romance; action. Anyway, I found out by reading those graphics that Five Spheres is a system in Andromeda Galaxy.

I got chills as her words poured across my screen. I'd never been anywhere else in the 9 Galaxies outside of Earth, so Andromeda seemed too far away to ponder. Why would the Known Cosmos Earth Press publish stories about some small-time system in Andromeda no one's ever heard of?

HC: I read everything I could find about Five Spheres, and I couldn't let it go. So, I contacted Known Cosmos Earth Press and pitched Red Phoenix to them. They sent me a contract for the graphic novel adaptation of my ebook, and the rest is history.

Ayela: It was really that simple?

HC: yes

I just sat there, staring at my screen, not believing anything that was happening. I wrote a simple little love story about two women meeting in their dreams and trying to find each other. It wasn't anything important; why would anyone want to read it?

But maybe HC was right. Maybe people who were lonely liked my characters and felt at home in the pages of my stories when they had no where else to belong. Was there a chance that someday, a publisher would want to pick up my book and distribute it amongst the stars?

And what if they did? Would it be like sharing my whole heart with the Known Cosmos?

I didn't try to stop the tears that time; I let them well up and spill down my cheeks.

Who was I kidding? It wasn't the readers who were lonely and looking for love in the chapters of my book.

It was me.

HC: You still there?

Ayela: yeah. I wrote my book because I missed my parents who are gone. Sometimes they visit me in dreams, so that's how I got the idea for my stories.

HC: I got goose bumps reading that. It's beautiful, Ayela. Don't stop writing.

Ayela: thx 💜

Was this how people got hooked on Discord and made bad decisions? By talking and saying more than they should? Was this a terrible mistake? Why did I just tell someone I don't know about my dead parents? She wasn't my friend. She didn't even know my real name. How many layers of stupid was I?

But did I want to stop? Could I? Or was I already in so deep that there was no way out?

Time would tell, and as for ways out, well, that was something I'd figure out.

Eventually.