Thanksgiving 2011

First book in the Sabrina Strong Series

Second book in the Sabrina Strong Series--soon to be released!

This blog was started by me early in 2010, and it was before I knew I was going to get Vampire Ascending published. I had tried with one publisher, but the editor seemed to be wanting to push a romance angle. I didn't write the book as a romance. Fortunately, I had another publisher who was interested in my book, and I had to wait until I was finished wrangling with the first publisher, before I could go with Copperhill Media.

Well, here I am, another year is nearly gone by. I'm about to get the second book in the series out and I'm being told this book is even better. I'm encouraged by this, because I felt it was my best work. I'm hopeful that once I get this thing out there you--readers/fans--will have read the first book, Vampire Ascending, because you'll want to start with the first book, as the second one follows it close behind, and lots of things happen and you really don't want to miss any of it.

For those of you who don't know, I've struggled with sending my book manuscripts out for years. More than three decades have passed since I've begun writing. And I was never able to get even a toe into a door. I was so desperate that I self-published my first fantasy book, "Spell of the Black Unicorn", as I felt that this would be my only way to see anything of mine in print. It wasn't something I wanted to do, at first, but after getting rejections for it, time and time again, and seeing that many authors were being admitted into this exclusive club, plus I had turned 50, all weighted in on my decision.

Spell of the Black Unicorn, my self-published light fantasy

I even did the front cover, since I am an artist as well. I thought it came out rather nicely. My aim was to make it look whimsical. It is a light fantasy for adults. If you are interested you might check it out at Amazon. Both books can be found there. Also, you may click the covers on the right side of my post to go to either book's site.

Anyway, I'm looking back on a year that had some excitement in it, and I've made lots of friends here on the blogs and I'm still learning things. I'm attempting to get my name/works out into anthologies. I'm hoping to gain new readers, of course.

It all takes time, and I get a little frustrated at how much work it is and I feel it's still too much of an up-hill battle.

But I have to remind myself where I was two years ago. I've got a second book in a series coming out. I hope to work on a new mystery series, as my next two books for the Sabrina Strong series are written. They are nearly finished, and I just feel that I need to do something different.

I'd also like to try to get a faster Internet and try my hand at placing a few works as an Indie. But, again, I'm thinking too far ahead. I feel like a racehorse waiting for the gate to kick open. I want to go!

Well, thanks for stopping in on my little chat. I hope it wasn't too boring. I simply wanted to look back and think about how far I've come, and remind many of you that you can get published, somehow, now. Back in the day, there was no such thing as Smashwords or other ways of getting your books published other than going through the grueling task of contacting an agent and waiting forever for a rejection letter. I'm done with those. I know of a couple of people who were going that route and now have self-published, because they want control over their work. It's a thought, isn't it?

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!