The Story Behind Evolution of a Sad Woman by Gale Laure

I am asked constantly what inspired me to write Evolution of a Sad Woman, my mystery, suspense, thriller and romance novel. I always respond that it just popped into my head one day.  That is the truth.  I believe my story came from a divine presence that wanted the story told.  I can offer no other explanation.  When you pray for an answer, and in my case it was a story – and it happens – you have your answer.

I sat down at my computer and began to write my story.  I did not have to pause, to think, to decide what to write next.  It just flowed upon the paper.  My characters were around me.  I saw the story unfold inside my mind.

My novel, Evolution of a Sad Woman, is a mystery, suspense, thriller and romance book.  I have been asked how I made my story so many genres.  My answer is that the story is multiple genres.   My story is a lot like life.  It is multiple genres.   Again, this story must be told.

When asked how I made my characters so realistic, I can only respond that the story made them come to life.  They were meant to be realistic.  Each one has its own personality.  They react much the way humans do.  Each one reacts in a different way depending upon their personality.

The romance in my novel was captured only by the beautiful love between the men and Kizzy.  Their relationships were unforgettable much as this story is unforgettable. Their love made them happy at times and sad at other times much like a real love story.

It always amazes me the message that people get from a novel.  The author always has a message inside.  My readers received my message.  I never knew I had other messages lurking within the pages.  One reader told me she never realized how much a man could love a woman.  After reading my book, now she does.  The male readers found the suspense heart pounding and learned how much a book can make you feel. Others were influenced as to how one person can totally influence another person’s life. One reader was just drawn to tears.  She said they were happy and sad tears all mixed together. The sixteen-year-old Kizzy fascinated another male reader when she walked down the stairs.  He said he fell in love with her himself.  Of course, he was sixteen years old again.   Each one received their own message.  This had to be the divine presence at work.

Well, the divine presence has been at work again.  My next novel, The Bunkhouse, just popped into my head one day and so has several other future novels.    I know when I get the story from my divine presence it will surely be a divine story – just like Evolution of a Sad Woman!

Gale Laure, a native Texan, is the international selling author of Evolution of a Sad Woman, a mystery, suspense, thriller and romance novel .   She resides in a small suburban town in the Houston area with her husband and family.  Laure’s hobbies include genealogical research, movies, creating stories for the children around her, involvement in her church and people watching. She is busy at work editing her second novel, The Bunkhouse, and writing the sequel to Evolution of a Sad Woman. It is entitled Alana – Evolution of a Woman.  As mysterious as her  book, Laure writes under a pseudonym.  Adamant about maintaining her privacy and the privacy of her family, she keeps her identity a mystery!

For more information about Gale Laure or her novel, Evolution of a Sad Woman,  visit www.galelaure.com or her blog  www.evolutionofasadwoman .

The Story Behind Dispel the Mist by Marilyn Meredith

While I was doing research for the last Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery, Kindred Spirits, I met and became friends with a Tolowa Native woman who lived in Crescent City CA. One of the many things she told me about was the Tolowa belief in Big Foot, including many recent sightings.

I did some research on the Internet about Big Foot and while I was reading, a site came up telling about another large creature called the Hairy Man. Imagine my surprise when I learned that a pictograph of the Hairy Man, a woman, and child are in a rock shelter in a place called Painted Rock. Painted Rock is on the Tule River Indian Reservation which is very near my home. I borrow a lot from the Tule River Indians and the reservation for my Deputy Tempe mysteries, though I am writing fiction and have changed the names of the Indians and the reservation.

When it was time to write the next book in the series, I began thinking about the Hairy Man and the Painted Rock site. I e-mailed the local college’s anthropology professor and asked where and what it looked like out there. He invited me to go along on a field trip his class was taking the very next Friday. Of course I went.

The Painted Rock site is tucked away at the far end of the reservation. A cave like shelter was created by huge boulders, one sitting atop two others. To get down to the cave, one must climb down the side of one of these very steep boulders. I’d never have made it if two of the young male students hadn’t helped me down.

The inside of the shelter is decorated with all sorts of very large and colorful pictographs of a coyote, moon, frog, centipede, the river, geometric figures—but on the inside wall is an eight-foot-tall depiction of the Hairy Man. Alongside him is a five-foot female and a three-foot child.

While listening to the Indian guide’s explanation of everything, I busily took notes. He looked at me sternly and said, “Don’t ever come down here at night.”

I asked, “Why not?”

His answer was, “There are too many spirits here at night.”

Of course I never would, I could barely get down there in the daylight, but I knew Tempe would definitely have to go there at nighttime.

My visit to the Painted Rock and the legend of the Hairy Man is what inspired Dispel the Mist.

I had more fun writing that book and talking about it than any other book I’ve written.

You can read the legend of the Hairy Man and the first chapter of the book on my website: http://fictionforyou and the book is available as an e-book or trade paperback directly from the publisher: http://www.mundaniapress.com or any online or regular bookstore.

Marilyn Meredith is the author of over twenty-five published novels, including the award winning Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series, the latest, Dispel the Mist from Mundania Press. Under the name of F. M. Meredith she writes the Rocky Bluff P.D. crime series. No Sanctuary is the newest from Oak Tree Press.

She is a member of EPIC, four chapters of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, WOK, and on the board of the Public Safety Writers of America. She was an instructor for Writer’s Digest School for ten years, served as an instructor at the Maui Writer’s Retreat and many other writer’s conferences. She makes her home in Springville CA, much like Bear Creek where Deputy Tempe Crabtree lives. Visit her at http://fictionforyou.com/.

THE TARGET by J.R. Hauptman

I got the inspiration for writing my book from my life experiences as a professional pilot. I enlisted in the Army immediately after high school graduation and during basic training, I took the test for Officer Candidate School and scored quite well. With good recommendations from my commanding officers, I was selected for the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant later that year, barely one month after my twentieth birthday.

In the following years I won my wings as an Army Aviator and while flying multi-engine cargo and reconnaissance airplanes, I took part in the Army Air Mobility tests and ultimately, I flew combat missions for two years in the Viet Nam War. Leaving the Army after eight years of service, I went to work for a major airline based on the west coast and settled into California suburban life with my family. After a few more years, we moved to Colorado and made our home there as I flew from my airline’s Denver base. During these times, the airline industry was tightly regulated and although advancement was slow, we were fairly well assured of a steady job.

I served on the Boeing 727 as Second officer and as First Officer but I was with the airline for over eleven years before I checked out as jet Captain. While I never made the top pay levels with the passenger carriers, the pay was still quite good and we enjoyed the many outdoor activities of life in Colorado.

In the late nineteen-seventies, disturbing rumors of plans to deregulate the airlines began to circulate among airline employees. More disturbing were the rumors of how it might affect all of us. Deregulation was intended to increase service and competition and ultimately benefit the American public by lowering fares and using seating capacity on the airplanes more efficiently. The new law hit the industry like a fast moving storm and the airlines and their managements had never experienced anything like this in their careers. One famous carrier entered an aggressive expansion program, buying and leasing dozens of airplanes and hiring pilots faster than their uniforms could be tailored. Unfortunately, this airline had chosen to expand in the face of the recession of the early nineteen-eighties and soon went bankrupt.

Other carriers, some made vulnerable by under capitalization, were circled by corporate raiders, waiting for the opportunity to attack like hungry sharks. My own airline became a target when the stock price suffered during labor strife. The takeover was consummated through the use of “Greenmail” financed by “Junk Bonds”, low quality, unsecured corporate debt securities. Sound familiar? It should because this is where the shoddy securities practices of today began in earnest.

The ultimate vulnerability for airline employees, particularly for those in the unions was the fact that companies undergoing Chapter Eleven Bankruptcy Reorganization were at that time allowed to unilaterally abrogate their labor contracts. For more than a year after the takeover, our union, the Airline Pilots Association, (ALPA) held its collective breath awaiting the inevitable move. We were aware of how the surviving airline had restructured into a maze of separate holding companies but few knew the details of how so much of the debt of the parent company was thrust onto our own airline to the extent that it would be impossible to service that debt. In short, my airline was deliberately put into the position where bankruptcy and reorganization were the only course.

Just as certainly, as the bankruptcy occurred, the labor contracts were abrogated. Union employees were allowed to return to work if they would agree to take fifty percent pay cuts and agree to company dictated work rules and schedules. It was an offer the unions had to refuse or lose all credibility. In protest, the leadership of the unions called for a strike and the memberships voted to do so. The airline continued to fly using management pilots and the few union members who decided to cross picket line and fly as strike breakers. The battle began in earnest when outside strike breakers were hired
There followed a bitter two year struggle that ended with the defeat of the unions. Some of the striking union members went back to work under company imposed rules and others decided not to, citing their inability to work for a ruthless and unethical employer. Some pilots caught on with other airlines and others left the industry entirely, ending their lifelong careers.

For some, it was a matter of life and death as there were several suicides, one of whom was the former CEO of our airline. The CEO of the surviving carrier was called “The Most Hated Man in the Airlines” by more than one pundit. Unsurprisingly, he faced death threats on his person but it seemed that he relished the attention and swaggered about surrounded by security toughs, at least one of whom was known to be an international assassin.

At this time, most of us are repelled by the horrible incidence of mass killings and the fact is that rational people don’t set out to kill their boss or to massacre the innocent. I wrote my book as a study on how a normally rational person can find himself driven to carry that out, as well as to serve as a cathartic in maintaining my own rationality.

In view of current events, most notably the greedy awarding of billions in bonuses to Wall Street bankers and brokers, and the populist outcry in response to this abuse, raises much darker issues. Airline deregulation was the first act in what has become the unconscionable abuse in the banking, securities and utilities industries that resulted from the general deregulation.

The pundits may joke of the “mob of people with the pitchforks and torches,” but what we may be facing are the opening acts of bloody and chaotic revolution. We have to hope not, but hope is not enough; we must act.

J.R. Hauptman is the author of  the murder mystery novel, The Target: Love, Death and Airline Deregulation (Caddis Publishing).  You can visit J.R. on the web to find out more about his exciting new book at www.caddispublishing.com.

A PURE DOUBLE CROSS by Mystery/Thriller Author John Knoerle

I had just completed a mystery novel based on family history – “The Violin Player” (Mayhaven Press) – and I was looking for new fields to plow.

I have always been enamored of hardboiled fiction and the films noir so I rented some 1940s movies in search of inspiration, and sat back to watch.

I thoroughly enjoyed the classics – The Big Sleep, Murder My Sweet, The Maltese Falcon, Out of the Past, The Dark Corner. But the private-detective-as-gin-soaked-Galahad genre had been done to death. How could I top Raymond Chandler and Dash Hammett?

Then inspiration struck when I least expected it.

“T Men” (1947) is not generally ranked in the top tier of the films noir, it doesn’t feature big stars or a name director. But it got my attention.

The film is about Treasury agents who go undercover to track down a counterfeit ring. The grinding tension of constantly pretending to be someone you’re not appealed to me as a mystery writer. One scene in particular crystallized it.

The head T-man is leaving a restaurant with his mobster ‘buddies’ when he encounters an old girlfriend. She greets him by his real name, he pretends he doesn’t know her. The mobsters eye him with murderous suspicion.

I decided to write about such a character, a guy who is always on guard, not so much from fear of a violent death – though that is always a possibility – but on guard from a more existential fear of being ‘found out.’

And who better to embody that than a former spy for the Office of Strategic Services, the World War Two version of the Central Intelligence Agency.

The fear of being ‘found out’ snakes off in all directions, then makes a U-turn in the direction of our hero. Hal Schroeder is forced to ask himself who the hell he really is, and what the hell he really wants.

His search for the answer to that question propels “A Pure Double Cross” to its sensational conclusion.

John Knoerle’s first novel, Crystal Meth Cowboys, was optioned by Fox for a TV series. His second novel, The Violin Player, won the Mayhaven Award for Fiction. His new novel, A Pure Double Cross, is Book One of the American Spy Trilogy. John lives with his wife in Chicago. You can learn more about John Knoerle at www.bluesteelpress.com.

The Story Behind the Book is part of the pre-tour package included with certain tour packages.  John’s tour will begin on March 1 and continue until March 30.  If you would like to visit his tour stops, visit www.virtualbooktours.wordpress.com in March.

Technorati Tags:
John Knoerle, A Pure Double Cross, Blue Steel Press, virtual book tour, blog tour, virtual blog tour, book promotion, free book promotion, free online book promotion, how to promote your book, promote your book online, ways to promote your book, book promotion tips, book promotion company, book promotion sites, book promotion websites, book promotion online
Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |

SCATTERED LEAVES by Richard E. Roach: “…I had no story in mind when I started.”

Our guest blogger today is Richard Roach, author of the suspense/mystery novel, SCATTERED LEAVES.

You can visit his website at www.richarderoach.com.

I started writing one foggy night back in 1957. The rig was making a trip (changing the drill bit) and I sat alone in a lab filled with gas detection equipment that was so small you had to turn sideways to enter. The unit, as we called the lab, sat on the end of a drilling barge that rested in about ten feet of water on the bottom of Lake Calcasieu located in South Louisiana about spitting distance from the Gulf of Mexico . The lake is large enough that in daylight you think you’re in the gulf because you can’t see the shore line. I decided to pass the time by writing a western.

After I had about thirty pages written, I showed it to my wife and a friend. They laughed! This upset my gentle nature and I threw the pages into the garbage and vowed never to write another page.

As time moved along and sanded my rough edges smooth, I began to have the itch to write once more. In 1974 I started my own company producing gas detection instruments that I had invented (designed). I had a small building jammed against a convenience store in which I had the operation plus an office, a typewriter, and an ammonia-type printing machine…the writing bug bit again and SCATTERED BLOODY LEAVES was born. In a future draft the name was changed to SCATTERED LEAVES.

I had no story in mind when I started. I wanted a John Wayne type of character for my male protagonist and a female star as beautiful as Lana Turner and tough as Bonny Parker. Beth Ann Pettijohn filled the bill perfectly. She had the looks, the brains and the mental fiber to match my expectations. I had lots of bad guys in the story but the super-bad guy, the one that murdered poor June, the woman who loved everyone, was part American Indian and he loved no one. He was a psycho; his daily thrill came by torturing his wife (Joy), I won’t go into the details at this time, some innocent person might read this. Since I’m part Indian, I know how mean they can be, but no, he isn’t based upon one of my insane family member.

Because the super villain felt he was so tough, I allowed him to escape to The Big Thicket and fight it out with McCord using dynamite and a BOW AND ARROWS. That’s a no-mans-land between Louisiana and Texas near the gulf. I’ve hunted and fished there and know the terrain well.

Thanks to the help of Sarah Schwersenska, Multi-Media agreed to publish my blathering. Everyone needs a little luck and when she read SCATTERED LEAVES she became my angel.

Technorati Tags:
Richard E. Roach, Scattered Leaves, mystery, suspense, guest blogger, virtual book tour, blog tour, virtual blog tour, book blog tour
Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |

Beneath a Buried House by Bob Avey: “…a personal need for an in depth exploration of character propelled the book to its finish.”

“Beneath a Buried House”, the second book in the Detective Elliot series, came to life in a frenzied atmosphere of deadlines and writers block. After suffering a year of block and self-pity, I turned in desperation to an older story that I’d previously shelved, a character study, which I adapted into an Elliot novel.

I needed a second book, a follow up to “Twisted Perception”, which was the first book in the Detective Elliot series. If I was going to be a mystery writer, I needed to act like one. It seems odd when I think about it. I started out writing short stories best described as being in the Twilight Zone genre. My favorite authors were and are writers like Dean Koontz, Stephen King and John Saul. So, how did I end up writing mystery? It’s a long story, but I’ll dip into it briefly. I’ve been writing most of my life, but it wasn’t until my late thirties during a rather interesting and creative midlife crises that I began to take it seriously. In light of this, I began searching for a writers group in which to join. Having recently moved back to the Tulsa area, I contacted the library for help and they put me in touch with the Tulsa NightWriters, a group that I still belong to. As an offshoot to the club, several of the members had begun meeting one night a week to critique each other’s work and I soon joined this subgroup as well. To sum it up, the members of this offshoot were a rather conservative bunch, not much caring for either the genre or the form I’d chosen. They suggested that I abandon short stories and begin a novel and indicated, perhaps a bit more subtly that I also choose a more serious subject. I followed their advice and wrote “Twisted Perception”, the first Detective Elliot novel. Having had some success with it, I decided to do a follow up book, which was “Beneath a Buried House”.

Having made the decision to write a second Elliot book, I should have dove right in after finishing the first one. But it didn’t work out that way. I became aware of an author’s need to promote their work, and as I began to research this area I became a little too caught up in it, putting off the writing of the second book until I had the first one well on its way to success. That’s what I told myself. However, after a few months of enthusiastic promotion, when I realized I needed to get started writing I couldn’t do it. Writers block had set in. I continued to procrastinate for a few more months, writing a scene here and there only to stick it in a file and forget about it when an opportunity presented itself. I’d picked up some literature promoting a writers’ conference that offered an interesting contest. Attendants of the conference could send in a synopsis and the first three chapters of their current novel for a New York agent to review. The winner of the contest was guaranteed to have their manuscript read by the agency. I entered the contest and won. The only problem was I didn’t have the manuscript completed and the agency wanted to see it right away. So I drove straight home after the conference, found an older story I’d worked up and, in a heated mix and match of stories produced the first draft of “Beneath a Buried House”.

One of the reasons people read is to gain a better understanding of human interaction and the emotional joys and conflicts associated with relationships. However, the flip side of the coin, the writing of story, the laying down of words on paper offers its share of self- discovery as well. In light of this, it could be said that while the need for a second book got “Beneath a Buried House” kicked off, a personal need for an in depth exploration of character propelled the book to its finish. The story I’d put aside only to resurrect as an Elliot novel was nothing more than an elaborate role-playing exercise in which I immersed myself in an effort to better understand the world around me.

On further reflection, the impetus behind a large portion of my writing is a deep-down desire to understand myself, and the people around me. However, I hope that putting myself behind the eight ball in order to get it done is not a precedent that I will continue to follow.

“Beneath a Buried House” is available at:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Beneath-A-Buried-House/Bob-Avey/e/9780937660812/?itm=1

http://www.amazon.com/Beneath-Buried-House-Bob-Avey/dp/0937660817

Bob Avey is the author of the mystery novel, BENEATH A BURIED HOUSE. You can visit his website at www.bobavey.com for more information about the author and his book.

THE HERETIC by Andrew Feder: “…like an artist sketching his rendering on canvas.”

First having been personally regressed so I wanted to create a story connecting past lives. I also have been intrigued with history since my youth. I chose the Alexander the Great period, because Alexander fascinated me with his military and political strategies which were so far ahead of his time. But during my research, I realized that his personality has lightly been dealt with—so I furthered my research of Alexander about his personal life’s events and his own idiosyncrasies. During my research I found him still a teenager emotionally but a prodigy like I said well ahead of his time. So that became the start but only the start. I researched Greece & Crete along with Alexander for about a year before I finally sat down and wrote “The Heretic.” And when I began to write like watching a movie, it was drawn from my images into paper like an artist sketching his rendering on canvas.

Alexander the Great was a truly unique conqueror and leader, because he utilized political beneficiary as one of his main tactics to gain control of a country. He would allow the people to retain their satraps (leaders) in place as governors while also allowing the people to maintain their customs and religious beliefs and yet maintained control by virtue of his benevolence. This strategic political method was certainly well ahead of his time. Alexander was not ethnocentric and also believed that all people were the same without any ethnic or racist or religious superiority beliefs—something that even the Romans felt—Romans were superior to all others and so on. Also Alexander’s aspiration to unite people as one without any fascist or racist policy such as a belief that the Greeks would be above all other people including those he conquered was certainly a unique philosophy well ahead of his time. And notwithstanding, his military accomplishments in so little time at such a young age is beyond anyone’s accomplishments in world history. And his historical accomplishments certainly affected every single subsequent event in Man’s history including today’s culture and speech, so I was quite fascinated by Alexander the Great and what he created in such a short time.

I wanted to show a cultural reversal of what would be considered norm or okay in a society; here Aias is the minority—a heterosexual in a society that is more homosexual or more correctly bisexual. I tried to display how what a society considers morally bad might be morally good or okay in another culture. I also tried to show that how people tend to show their prejudices based upon what they conceive is culturally okay, but in reality have no basis in what is really morally good. We tend to judge upon our own misleading concepts of what we devise as moral but in reality are just cultural differences. Thus Aias is placed as The Heretic of his society not just for his religious concepts but for his cultural as well.

And finally it is the Heretic who challenges us with our own belief system no matter what place, culture or time he/she might be found. The Heretic allows us the opportunity to grow and progress. Aias is that individual. He went against the grain of his countrymen both religiously and culturally, and by his very actions and demeanor he challenged the belief systems of his day.

Andrew Feder is the author of THE HERETIC.  You can visit his website at www.andrewtheheretic.com.

THE POETRY OF MURDER by Bernadette Steele

The Poetry of Murder was inspired by my current residence; admiration for poets; subjects that intrigue me; and the need to create mechanisms that would naturally generate future story lines.

For the past four years, I have lived at the International House at the University of Chicago. International House is located in Chicago in the south-side community of Hyde Park. International House is a graduate residence for students from around the world and it hosts many cultural and educational events. The gothic architecture of International House and the University of Chicago campus and the cozy atmosphere of Hyde Park with its townhouses, Queen Anne homes, Gothic Revival mansions and tree lined streets made it the natural setting for a murder mystery written with an amateur sleuth. I was attracted to the idea of contrasting the majestic architecture and academic persona of Hyde Park with the bad behavior of the characters who live in this community. During my many walks around Hyde Park, I often wondered what went on behind the limestone walls of the university and the hand carved double doors of the large homes that adorn the community.

I decided to have my amateur sleuth, Geneva Anderson, be a poet because to my knowledge poets are not typically portrayed as being crime-solvers. I admire poets for their ability to turn words into verse that can speak to the soul and comfort the heart.

I have always been fascinated by psychoanalytic therapy and the hidden subcultures in America. In The Poetry of Murder, Geneva attends psychoanalytic therapy sessions. I believe that psychoanalytic therapy can and does help people to confront and resolve issues. We all need someone to talk to and sometimes family, friends, and spiritual leaders are either not available or are just not sufficient.
Psychoanalytic therapists generally spend time listening to patients talk about their lives. The therapy provider looks for patterns or significant events that may play a role in the client’s current difficulties. Psychoanalysts believe that childhood events and unconscious feelings, thoughts, and motivations play a role in mental illness and maladaptive behaviors.

During Geneva’s treatment, her therapist provides an empathetic and nonjudgmental environment where she can feel safe in revealing feelings or actions that have led to stress or tension in her life. In Geneva’s case, simply sharing these burdens with another person has a beneficial influence.

In the novel, I also explore the topic of hidden subcultures in America whose members are from social classes and professions that we would least suspect. There are a countless number of hidden subcultures in America whose members invest a large portion of their time and money into such things as collecting exotic knives, baby dolls, rabbits, go-cart racing, and etc. One of the supporting characters and Geneva’s sidekick, Zain Valdez, is a fencer who becomes involved with the hidden subculture of underground fencing. The idea that there are organized groups of people who meet in secret to carry out activities that don’t fit the norm fascinates me. These subculture groups have their own vocabulary, traditions, and rules that bind them together.

Because The Poetry of Murder is the first book in a series of mysteries, I had to set up certain elements that would facilitate the stories for future books. One of these elements included having her live at International House, a place where people from all around the world come to live and where various cultural and educational programs take place. A second element was to have her be a poet with extensive financial resources. Thus, enabling her to have a reason and a means to encounter a variety of situations in which she would meet people and travel. The third element was to have Geneva participate in psychoanalytical therapy. This story element helps to bring out issues that the character faces and aspects of her personal life.

As the Geneva Anderson mysteries continue, I look forward to seeing Geneva solve more mysteries in Chicago while working with her therapist and navigating her love and writing life.

Bernadette Steele is a native of Chicago, Illinois and is currently a PhD candidate at the Illinois Institute of Technology. She is a technical writer, website designer, speaker and the author of The Poetry of Murder. Visit http://www.bernadettesteele.net  to learn more.

Searchable Whereabouts by Tinisha Nicole Johnson

It took me about four years to write my mystery novel, Searchable Whereabouts. This book is actually my fourth book I wrote, if you count a poetry anthology. However, it is the first to be published. 

I have long loved mysteries. I first remember watching Kojak – that’s probably taking me way back. When writing Searchable Whereabouts, half-way through, I didn’t know what else to write about, but I pushed myself and soon ideas began to flow.  

Needless to say, after I did get the book finished, I was ecstatic, I was proud of myself and felt a sense of accomplishment. I thought this was my best work yet. I now know that writing a book can be the easy part. From the day I wrote the last word, it took me about a year to find a publisher. I was faced with many rejection letters. I almost gave up. However, with this book, something told me to keep sending it out, so I did. 

I’m glad I didn’t give up on my passion. Now all I have to do is go back into my computer and pull out the other books and get those published.