Ten books, two years

A couple of days ago, Hell’s Guardian went on pre-order. The paperback is live (and currently en-route to my mailbox). This book marks ten for me. Ten books in under two years. It’s literally a dream come true for me.

Many, many moons ago, I remember my mother typing away at her (now very ancient) computer. She was typing and printing, typing and printing. Then one day she announced she wrote a book. She claimed she was going to take it to the next romance convention and share it with publishers and authors (although she never did). Instead it somehow ended up in our junk room (which believe me you did NOT want to go in there. Seriously, We almost lost a kid in there). When we moved, it was just gone. She couldn’t even find the floppy drive (yes, we had those back then) that it was supposedly saved to.

But I remember her writing it. Since then I always loved writing. I used to write fan fiction with a couple of my friends. We’d get online at night (after homework and dinner of course), and we’d write back and fourth over AIM until my mother told me I needed to go to bed.

Eventually my fan fiction turned into creating my own characters and story lines. I’d watch a show or movie and think that it would be a great story if it was combined with this other one and the characters were more like this or that. Thus came my creating.

For many years I wrote romance novels because I needed a way to escape my crappy romance. I dreamed of what a good relationship looked like and then wrote about it.

In December 2009 (in the midst of a lot of life crap) I came across NaNoWriMo. No idea what it was, but I looked into it. 50k words in one month. That seemed doable. Only problem? I had literally missed it by ONE month. So I signed up for an account and promised I would do it next year.

Next year flew by and before I knew it, October was about to end. SHIT! NaNo is next month! So I quickly logged in, signed up for a novel for that year and in less than a week came up with an idea, characters, an outline – you know, the works. That November I wrote and finished my very first book.

Every year since then I’ve participated and (won) NaNo. In 2012 I became what they call a Municipal Liaison. Basically I set up events such as write-ins, kick-off parties, TGIO parties, etc. I help generate activity and new Wrimo’s. Since then (through ALL my moves), I’ve stayed an ML. I’ve even become an unofficial ML for my publishing company. 😉

In 2016 I wrote (and finished) Cursed Legacy. I edited it, I had a friend look it over. I edited it again.

In 2018 a friend of mine told me about this company she was now with, Crazy Ink. So I looked them up. Liked their page, follow some of the authors, I joined their author group in May. I sat quietly and just stalked. They were living up to the name Crazy Ink, and I LOVED it! In July I decided that I was taking the plunge and sending them my book. I checked the email several times before submitting. WHEW.

July 7th rolled around and it was already a shitty day for me. It would have been my father’s birthday and all night I was awake because miles away in Jersey, my grandmother was dying. I was stuck in Florida. My grandmother passed away on July 7th. So we had a shitty day turned into an even more shitty day. Then I received an email from Crazy Ink. My manuscript was accepted and they were going to publish my book.

Holy shit batman, my book was going to be published! I took it as a sign from my grandmother that the day was meant to be a good one.

In November 2018, Cursed Legacy was published for the world to see. It was insane and I loved it! After that, books just fell. A Warrior’s Soul came out in February 2019 (my first military book), Binding Fate in April, Broken Souls in May, Frozen Bloodlines in December (while I was on a cruise), Orange Glazed Attractions in February 2020 (my birthday), Whiskey & Orange Slices in June, Enlisted: A New Beginning and Enlisted: North Carolina in July.

Which brings me to now. August. When my tenth book went on pre-order and will be released in September with number eleven coming out in October.

It’s crazy. None of this would have been possible though if it was for Erin at Crazy Ink. She took a chance on me with Cursed Legacy, and then again when I became an exclusive author. She has supported not just me, but so many authors. I have SO many on the horizon (no joke, I have spreadsheet to keep me organized). I can’t thank the Crazy Ink team enough. I tell Erin all the time how thankful I am and how much I appreciate all she does.

I do have thank this amazing man I’m with. While we may have our differences and argue he’s always there to push me to keep writing. Making sure I NEVER miss a deadline. I thank him in every book because without his help, I wouldn’t make it.

I’m ten books in. Ten solo books to my name and I am damn proud of myself. So here’s to TEN books. Here’s to ten more, and ten more after that!

Thank you Erin. Thank you for believing in me and for having my back when I really needed it.

Thank you Jame for doing dishes and cooking dinner so I can write. Thank you for making sure I’m on schedule.