What if you always knew the safest path—until suddenly, you didn’t?
Bethany Hart has spent her life using a secret superpower: the ability to see possible futures and choose the least risky path through any social situation. For decades, she’s avoided conflict, surprises, and heartbreak, crafting a quiet, predictable life.
But when a chance encounter with a charming stranger at the grocery store causes her ability to glitch—offering her a glimpse of a perfect future before vanishing entirely—Bethany is left navigating life without her supernatural safety net. As awkward mishaps mount and long-buried emotions resurface, she begins to wonder: has her gift been protecting her, or holding her back?
With the support of her best friend Jenna, her unexpectedly wise ex-husband Caleb, and a mysterious spiritual guide named Fiona, Bethany embarks on a journey of self-discovery. She soon realizes that true strength isn’t found in controlling every outcome—it’s in having the courage to embrace uncertainty.
A heartwarming contemporary fantasy about taking risks, facing fears, and opening your heart to life's infinite possibilities—even when you have no idea what comes next.
Author bio:
Sheila Lee Brown is a writer, artist, and generally very curious person. She spent her childhood playing outdoors in the woods surrounding her home and making up stories with her three siblings. She has tried several careers including teaching high school and becoming a Park Ranger. Sheila currently lives with her husband and their dog and enjoys writing, reading, drawing silly cartoons, and always learning and growing.
Website: http://www.tz-books.com.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sheilaleebrown
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Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/goddessgame1
While researching my novel, I happened to come across...
Goddess Game has been in my mind and percolating since around 2012. It started to become more of the story that is now in 2014, although I didn’t complete it until late 2024. On June 24, 2014, I wrote the following in my evening journaling:
I had an idea this evening on the drive home about time travel. I was thinking that I learned to time travel because I can sit through a situation, withdraw to the present moment, analyze my emotions, and see if they will serve the future I wish to create and then act from that place. If I realize that I want to respond in a way that punishes someone, I can actually choose to move forward to the place in time where I can see the situation differently and go ahead and let it be that way instead of going through the pain that can be involved in waiting for time to pass and anger to dissipate on its own. This is a fascinating concept. And useful. I was thinking it might be an interesting idea for a story. I just do not know where it would go…
The next paragraph in my writing was an attempt at sketching out the idea from a character’s point of view:
I realized that I could time travel today. It just wasn’t how I expected it would be. I imagine it isn’t how many people would expect it to be. I first noticed it after Jasmine apologized to me about the argument we had the day before at work. She admitted that she had been wrong to go to our boss about the scheduling problem instead of talking with me first. My first instinct was to go all smug and say, “That’s right! You should have come to me first. Instead you had to be a big baby about it...” But even as I was thinking the words, I felt a shift and events spinning forward in time. I saw Jasmine getting angry all over again and a friendship ruined for nearly a year before making up when we got pushed together on a project and, then, we wondered how we ever argued over something so silly.
The main issue was that if someone could see the future, wouldn’t they just choose the best path? And, would that negate the learning they needed to fully understand why one choice would be better than another?
I had an English professor recommend that I read Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. I picked it up right away and read through it quickly. I was disappointed because I thought that surely someone raised with access to all that knowledge wouldn’t have to take the detours into materialism before finding his path to enlightenment.
Now that I am older and have had more life experience, I understand the power of living through something and having it reveal who you are. Ideally, a person also discovers the inner power to become what they want to be as well.
Write about a personal experience
I think reading is the seed that grows writers. I often saw my mom sitting on the couch and reading. It seemed a natural thing to do.
By the time I made it to junior high school, I had already read quite a bit. I was intrigued that words on a page could cause me to feel things. It really was like experiencing different lives.
About this same time period, I decided that I wanted to try my hand at writing a short story that would cause the reader to cry. I had an idea and I went to work. I suppose I had a natural instinct for framing, because the story began and ended with the same sentence:
“Don’t cry. I’ll be your friend.”
I find it funny now that I began it with a request to not do the very thing that I hoped the reader would do.
The story itself was about what you would expect from a 7th or 8th grader. It told the story of two kids that meet on the first day of school and they become best friends. Later, one of them dies from an illness and it causes the other to go on and become a doctor. The end of the story happens as the doctor dies, and he’s in the afterlife all alone and thinking about the patients that were still in his care and the things left undone in his life. In his despair at this turn of events and aloneness in the voice, he sits and begins to cry – much like on his first day of school. That’s when he feels the hand on his shoulder and…
Writing that story was a fun experiment. I watched my sister’s face as she read, looking for the slightest twitch of emotion. As she hit the ending, the tears began to flow. It was a success!
To this day, my sister will tell you that it was a great story. I’ve read it since then, and I know it really isn’t, but the emotions she attached to it have stayed with her all these years.
That’s the magic of writing. It’s also what inspires me to continue.
"Write about a trend or your genre
Writing a book in the domain of women’s literature has caused me to look at myself in a different way. I am a woman, and I am feminine in a lot of ways, but I am also not what I would describe as girly or interested in the things that marketing companies say that women should like. I don’t wear make-up. I am not a big shopper. My husband has more shoes than me. The color pink makes my eye twitch. I also was a Park Ranger for five years and you have to be a certain sort of person to do that job.
I’m not pointing all that out because I think anything is wrong with those interests or that I’m somehow better because I don’t enjoy those things. (By the way, I may not have purses, but backpacks…oh, my…I love a good backpack!). I mention all that because I was nervous about writing a women’s literature book and potentially not sharing enough commonality to connect with readers.
I enjoyed the idea around Goddess Game and pushed on. The theme of working through and learning from life challenges actually gives us the tools and confidence we need to achieve all that we want in life was relevant to me as I was writing it. It also is a message that fits any human experience – not just women.
It was important to me that the characters feel like people anybody might know and that no one was an outright enemy. The conflict takes place within Bethany, and, while there are reflections of that in her outside life, there is no one out to get her. The only person keeping her from living her best life is herself.
This really hit home with me and I hope it does with readers as well. When we take on shifting areas of our life, things may get chaotic, and sometimes going back to what is comfortable seems safest.
However, whether we are successful or not, we’re always learning and growing. Take the win or take the knowledge. Both are gains."
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