Watching Mistakes Happen

I write humorous romances.
If I could write any other tone,
I would
because humor is very personal
and doesn’t sell well in romance.

One of my writing buddies,
a writer who crafts wonderful angst-filled romances
readers can’t read enough of,
told me yesterday
that she has sold a romance spoof
to her publisher.
This will be published under her existing pen name.

I suspect this will be a disaster.
It will lower sales
of her backlist.
It will significantly change
her brand.

But I said nothing.
Why?
Because the deal was done.

As difficult as it is to do,
I have to sit back,
watch this mistake happen,
and then help her however I can
to recover from it.

Sometimes you have to allow
other people to make mistakes.