Happy Anniversary, Vampires!

Balloons to celebrate

I've been having a bit of a party on my Facebook page today. It was a bit of a special occasion. One year ago today, To Touch the Sun my vampire novel set in Chicago was published by Dagda Publishing (available on Amazon). In honor of that, Dagda is holding an ebook sale that started midnight Feb. 25 and will run through midnight Feb. 27. For .99 (cents or pence) you can order your very own ebook copy of To Touch The Sun. 

I have to admit there were times when I wasn't sure this was going to happen. As I've stated before, my writing a vampire novel was a calculated thing. I was hoping to interest an agent I was in pleasant communication with whose agency featured a vampire series. I enjoyed reading vampire novels, watching vampire movies, but I  myself never had the urge to write one. I never had a character or story I wanted to present. Since I like to try new things though this gave me the perfect chance to try my hand at a vampire novel.

Unlike past novels I've written where I had the story and characters in my head before putting pen to paper, I went into this project cold. The only thing I had to build on was "vampire chef." Slowly, as time went on, the story grew, evolving as did the characters until at last I knew where I wanted to take the story. 

Love how it looks on a library shelf.

And thus you have To Touch the Sun. You can find more posts on the process and other information regarding the novels in this series blog. I'd never written like that before and it was probably the most enjoyable writing I've ever done. Not only that, by the end of what I thought would be a one off novel, I realized that I had another story to tell. That's why the epilogue isn't so much an ending as it is a jumping off point for the next novel in the series (Ujaali, due out in a few months). 

That's right: I started with two words and I now have four novels (written while hunting for a publisher for the first one) and a spin off novel featuring two paranormal investigators that appear in the third novel. (The agent, however, did not stick around. But that's a whole other story).

The cover makes a good poster too.

I think that's why this novel is so special to me (even though I've written others). It came out of nowhere and really captured my heart. That's why it was so important for me to get it published too. And why I was so thrilled when I finally found a publisher. And why February 25 will always be a special day to me.

So come celebrate with me. I'll probably be enjoying the glow for a few more days So drop in on Facebook and say, "Hi." Visit Amazon and get your own copy of To Touch the Sun. I hope people get as much enjoyment from reading it as I had from writing it.

The Wait May Not Have Been So Bad

I make no secret of the fact that I never had an urge to write a vampire novel prior to To Touch the Sun. I liked reading the genre, I just never had a character in mind or story to tell.

That all changed with TTTS. There was a huge evolution that took place in that project. I decided to take on the project in the hopes of attracting an agent I'd been in cordial communication with, but I still didn't have a character or story in mind. Just a two word Idea: Vampire Chef. I played with plot, narrative, perspective. Eventually I came up with characters I really love and a plot that suits them. I'm sure that's why the series that grew from it is so close to my heart. It came about as such a surprise. 

Once I had the novel (and the agent was a bust--a whole other story there) I became desperate to find a publisher. The desire was stronger with this novel than any other novel I'd written. It took years to find a publisher and I'm happy with Dagda Publishing, but those were frustrating years.

Looking back on it, however, I'm kind of glad for the wait because it offered me the chance to write the next three novels in the series and get to know my characters. Now when I talk of TTTS, I can also talk of the series which lends more excitement to talking about TTTS. I understand Narain, for example, in a different way then I did right after finishing TTTS. I understand the friendship between him and Dom, or the relationship between Narain and Cassie in a much more complete way.

Actually, I do have my moments of frustration having the next three novels written. There are some surprises in the next two novels that I have to be careful not to reveal. But there's an arc to some characters that I'm extremely anxious to talk about it. 

Hopefully it won't be too long before the next book is published. In the meantime, I hope people are enjoying this first one (and looking forward to the next).