Good Morning! Here’s the Monday Morning Blog!
Tomorrow is a big day! The Hard Way celebrates five years in publication.
How did it all get started?
If you have read my author bio on the back of either of my books, you will know that I have been a creative writer since I was a kid. Remember those diaries with the little keys and the locks on the sides? I would get one of those for Christmas from my parents every year. It is where the writing started. Recording my day-to-day life in the small spaces allotted. It then moved up to silly plays and story telling on pages of notebook paper. I still have the diaries and some of the notebook paper the stories were written on.
I had the dream to publish a novel
Ever since I was a preteen, I had the dream to become a published author someday. At that time, I didn’t know what the book would be about or when it would be out there for others to read, but it was something I always wanted to do.
I drafted a manuscript years before I started writing The Hard Way. My mentor at the time said that it may be where I would learn the craft of writing for the novel that I would publish someday. I still have that manuscript in a binder and saved on a disk. Who knows, I may publish it someday too.
The idea came to mind
I took a week off from work in mid-April of 2013. I had an idea for a story that was about some kids who pulled a prank. I just didn’t know what that prank would be. While I was sitting at our dining room table, I glanced up at our TV and the news about the Boston Marathon came on. It wasn’t good news. There had been a bombing there. As I watched the coverage, it gave me an idea for what kind of prank the characters in my book could do. Then the writer’s block disappeared, and I was on my way to creating The Hard Way.
The book was finally published
After the book was written, it didn’t get published right away. I was missing one thing, the money to make it happen. Then the man in my life, Jim, said this is your dream and we need to find a way to make this happen. So, we figured out a way.
I found a cover designer, Jennifer Givner at Acapella Book Cover Design, to design the cover and Michelle Morgan to edit it for me. I even had my book club read the edited version of it and be my beta readers. This project was definitely completed with help from a team of people.
When the book was ready, I uploaded it to Amazon KDP on April 12th, 2017 and it was officially published as an eBook.
Tomorrow we celebrate
April 12th will always be a special day for me. I became a published author and I realized my dream to publish a book. Happy Birthday to my first book The Hard Way!
Special Giveaway
The celebrate this milestone, I will be giving away a basket of goodies
An autographed copy of each of the books in The Way Series, The Hard Way and Shawn’s Way
A bookmark to go with each book
Your choice of a $10 gift card to where you get your favorite beverage (some people aren’t into coffee, so I wanted to put options out there)
A fun box it will all come mailed to you in
A special note directly from me to you
Take a look at my April 6th post on either Instagram or Facebook to find out how to enter. All entries must be submitted by April 27th because the drawing will be held live on April 29th.
Have a great week!
