STAKE-OUT Two Year Anniversary
Holy Hell. Can you believe it's been TWO YEARS since my debut novel, Stake-Out, was released to the masses? It's been quite the journey in two years.
In the summer of 2014, I was ready to quit writing. I had received over a dozen rejections, many of them personal and quite disheartening. My mother said, "Give it one last try, and then if nothing happens take a break and try again in a year." She refused to let me quit.
I run a book review blog, and an author contacted me for a review. His name was Joe DiCicco, and he had a vampire story called Her Final Sleep, published by a small press called Vamptasy Publishing. After I read and reviewed his book, the publisher's moniker intrigued me, because the series I was trying to sell was about a half-vampire FBI agent in Chicago. I do things in threes, and so I sent out three final queries, one of which was to Vamptasy. Four months after sending the query, in October of 2014, I received an email from a woman named Sarah Davis Brandon, informing me that she not only wanted to publish Stake-Out with Vamptasy, but sign my entire series as well! I screamed, I cried, I think I jumped on the bed, if I'm not mistaken. I had just turned twenty-one, so you can rest assured I got drunk that night. But before I got drunk, I read over the contract, signed it, and sent it back to Sarah with my gratitude attached.
It was the most amazing day of my life thus far. I don't think any words could accurately capture the feelings I felt when I got that email. I still sit here sometimes and think, How is this possible? I'm just a kid from Chicago who has an unhealthy obsession with vampires.
Since Stake-Out's release on May 19th, 2015, I have done more in the publishing world than I ever thought possible for me. I've published (to date) four novels, eleven short stories, one novelette, and have much more on the way for the second half of 2017 and through 2018. I've dipped my toe into genres I never imagined I'd write (BDSM), stretched my own limits with horrifying research (writing the upcoming novel Never Again), and discovering more about myself as I continue the journey started here, with a 41k word novel about a cop and a vampire.
Thanks to all my readers for sticking with me, to the new readers who discovered me along the way, and to everyone who might discover me and one day look back at this post. It's you, the ones who share, pimp, purchase, and support that keep me going.
Thank you to my mom, for being such a bad ass and never letting me give up.
Thank you to Sarah Davis Brandon, Rue Volley, and Elizabeth Anne Lance amongst all of the other amazing authors within the CHBB/Vamptasy/Hot Ink Press/Encompass Ink family.
Want to read the Paranormal Detectives Series for yourself? It's available FREE for Kindle Unlimited users! http://smarturl.it/ParanormalDetectives
