I know, a proper life update has been due sine February, but as per usual the days slipped into weeks and then months…
There are a lot of changes that will be coming down the pipe this summer. First of all, as soon as I am done with this second draft of a manuscript I’ve been working on since November 2012, I will be creating an author web page for all of my books. As much as I’ve enjoyed ruminating over the pitfalls of dating and married life and writing the Sex, Life, & Hannah book series because it so perfectly goes hand in hand with all that, my author aspirations do stretch beyond contemporary romance crises, and I want you to be able to go on that journey with me. That being said, I will be writing one more book in the Sex, Life, & Hannah series because we all NEED TO KNOW who the hell Hannah ends up with in the end, but look for that in 2014, because right now my head is wrapped around this erotic thriller called: The Need.
A little back story. My husband wrote a screenplay in the summer of 2010 about a woman that gets trapped in a bizarre situation and tries to get out while fighting inner desires she never knew she had. It was sexy, it was controversial, and it didn’t require a huge budget. He started pitching it, and as most Hollywood stories go, got a few interesting bites, but nothing to get overly excited about. Of course at this point I was immersed in Sex, Life, & Hannah as well as trying to figure out the self-publishing business and working to pay the bills so there wasn’t a whole lot I could do to help. And then in 2011 we decided to produce a movie, which is a whole other story, so The Need got pushed to the back burner again.
Last year I hit a pretty pivotal mark as an author and self-publisher. First of all, I realized I love writing books and want to continue writing books as a career. It’s not about pet projects anymore or doing something just so I can prove I can, I want to build a library, and hit the best-seller lists and really make a name for myself in the romance genre. I also finally had an epiphany about how to get my books out there without breaking the bank. CreateSpace was a great print-on-demand platform and ebooks had really hit their stride; they weren’t looked down upon as the red-headed step-child of the book world anymore, they were a legitimate way to build your audience, and get serious agents and publishers interested in working with you. With this new inspiration and knowledge came the release of the Sex, Life, & Hannah Summer Season and the re-release of the first two Sex, Life, & Hannah books, and…a new approach to life as an author. Deservedly, after all that I took a few months off writing. I also joined the Los Angeles Romance Authors group (a chapter of Romance Writers of America) and thought about what to do next.
National Novel Writing Month (NanoWrimo) is this crazy writing challenge that happens every November and pushes your boundaries and your perseverance by asking you to finish writing a novel in one month. I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to try my hand at two things I’d never done before: write an erotic thriller and adapt that screenplay that had been kicking around our house for two years. Needless to say, I did not finish writing a book in a month, even with the stellar outline provided by my husband’s script. It took me until April of this year to finish a first draft, but it got me working on another book, which is the most important thing you can do as an author.
So…stay tuned for the changes coming ahead to the website, and my new book. Meanwhile, enjoy the summer, and if you need a good beach read, click here.