Love Burned, She Rose Unscathed

Madge sighed. Her frustration was evident as she realized she had forgotten to pick up the allspice on their grocery run. "Anne, darling, would you mind grabbing a pack from that shelf over there?" "Sure." Roseanne knew it was Madge's way of getting a moment alone.

Once Roseanne was out of earshot, Madge said, "I mentioned it this morning. I'm still mulling it over."

"Mulling it over, huh?" Nadine retorted with impatience. "I brought this up three months ago, and you said you'd think about it. Fine. I gave you time, but still no clear answer."

Madge frowned. "We've been working together for years. My forte is crafting suspense and thriller novellas, stories that wrap up within two to three hundred thousand words. And now, you're asking me to switch to online novels? It's like comparing apples to oranges!"

"But it's all storytelling, right? How can it be so different? Literature has a universal language. There's no mismatch!" Nadine's tone grew stern, her smile fading.

Trying to reason, Madge explained, "First off, online novels usually run into the millions of words. And the popular genres online, like urban romance or elite love stories, are not my cup of tea. How am I supposed to write that?"

anything from Bittersweet Youth? You also wanted to switch genres back then,

of Madge's disastrously

got softer, "I know that book tanked your reputation, and you've been struggling to get past it, even

"Yes, if you know I stepped back, why

Nadine pleaded gently. "Bittersweet Youth failed to break into the market because you were too slow to publish. When it was out, the trends had shifted. Teen dramas were

me, right? You've got a slice of the blame pie too. I'm not making excuses. I'm just

but that genre was far from her comfort zone. Her ideas were scattered. How could she possibly write

"But it's different this time. In the online world, urban romance and elite love stories are always in demand. Whether you

Madge's eyebrows knitted tighter.

name changes halfway through a million words. I'm not saying there's no merit to online novels or that I'm demeaning them. They're popular for a reason, but I can't align with

effort to connect, you dismiss it by saying it is not