This is, officially, my first newsletter. Once again, thank you very much for subscribing.
As I write this, my second book is a day away from being released. I've learned a lot about the publishing world, and learned that I have a long way to go.
The first few months were a complete horror show. I thought I knew everything ... "there's nothing to it," I said. "People are gonna see my new book with its shiny new cover and I would be the next Stephen King." Or, maybe, the next Dean Koontz. I didn't know jack.
What I did know was that I love writing. I like stories that move quickly, but have some depth to them. I constantly ask "what if." And then write about it. What I wasn't prepared for, and never saw coming, was that stories want to be told. And when I say that, I mean exactly that ... the story wants to be told.
When I first put my fingers to the keyboard to write "In Your Dreams," it was supposed to be about someone being haunted by a ghost, but the ghost was actually the person they used to be in a past life. If you've read my first book, well, you know it didn't turn out that way. Apparently I had little say in the matter.
After the first page was written, and then the first chapter, my main character decided he was going to take the story in the direction he wanted. And he did. I had some say ... but not a lot. So, I've learned to trust those characters and where they want to go. It's like watching a movie in your head for the first time. If anything in my book surprised you, don't feel alone. Much of it was a complete surprise to me, too. But I wouldn't change a thing.
Now, as far as everything else surrounding the story, that was where I really found out I had a lot to learn. My first cover was cool. I liked it a lot. But it looks like the cover of a horror book, and although there are parts here and there that would fit well in a book like that, it is most definitely not horror. This was the original cover ...
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