Page 204 of As The Shifter World Turns

Everyone gathered around me for a group hug. I had no idea what normal looked like, but I was ready for it.

Daire

“I don’t understand!” I slumped into a chair in Micah’s back garden. Nate sat beside me and Elune was in her highchair while Micah fed her something he said was strained vegetables but it made my stomach turn. She was enjoying it though. “No one’s interested in our project.”

I’d made use of every contact I had, cold called production and streaming companies, even knocked on a few doors. But as Micah and I had no experience in the reality TV business, no one was willing to invest money in a couple of newbies.

We had advertisements ready to go on our website and social media for the participants’ auditions. That would take a while to weed out the unsuitable ones. But we couldn’t sign anyone up until we were certain the project would go ahead.

“Maybe we should forget about our careers as reality TV moguls and sell.” Micah had never been hugely enthusiastic about the project. “Give the motel a paint job, make the garden out the front look nice, update the pool surroundings and try to make a small profit.”

“There is another way.” That was Nate who’d kept pretty quiet while I’d ranted and raved. Micah had asked me to keep my voice down because Archer, who was pregnant, was napping.

“Oh yeah? Spill.” I’d gone over it a thousand times and hadn’t come up with a solution.”

“You do it yourself.”

Do what myself? “I’m not interested in renovation. It's a huge pain in the backside.”

Nope.My bear hated being around construction.

“I’m with you there,” Micah nodded and added.

“No. Instead of handing the project over to a production company and you and Micah taking a cut, film it yourselves.”

My mouth dropped. Nate knew me as well as anyone. He was my mate. “Filming with my phone may be fun to keep as memories but hardly professional enough to add to my gardening videos channel.” And the main way to make money like that was to get advertisements. I didn’t see how it’d work.

Nate drummed his fingertips on the table. “Here's the thing. You know a professional videographer. One who wouldn't charge you an exorbitant fee.”

“You?” The icky looking vegetable mess flew off the spoon Micah was holding and landed on the grass. Patch raced over and sniffed it. But even he turned his nose up.

“You’d do that?” I asked my mate.

“I just said I would.”

“But that doesn’t solve the problem of getting people to see the program and being paid for it.”

Micah and I were so new to this, Nate was drip feeding information as if we were kids. But kids were IT savvy. Maybe we should have asked Toby!

“Make the first few episodes free and then put the rest behind a paywall. It’d mean more work for you and Micah and a big learning curve, but all the profits would be yours.” Nate shrugged. “It could be the start of a whole new career.”

I scratched my head. “Do you think we could?”

“We won’t know until we try,” Micah said. But there was a gleam in his eye I hadn’t seen since we sold our original business.

“Perhaps after the baby’s born, Archer might help too.”

Micah’s mate had worked with us in our other company and he was itching to get out of the house and start a new project.

“I’d need an assistant. Maybe a part-time one,” Nate informed us. “I was thinking of asking Neil. He’s an excellent photographer and he knows his way around making videos.”

“Let’s do it.” I hugged Nate and shook hands with Micah.

88

SOMETIMES YOU JUST GOTTA ASK

Martin

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