Book Birthday!

“God help and forgive me, I want to build something that’s gonna outlive me,” Alexander Hamilton says in the song “The Room Where It Happens” (Miranda, 2015, track 28) and I’m not going to lie: I completely understand where he’s coming from. Of course, Hamilton created the National Bank and my goals are slightly….less grand. But, still. I understand the sentiment. And while I didn’t create anything that is alter the course of American history I did create something that will alter the course of my history. I finally published my first novel.

To say that it was a long journey would be a bit of an understatement. I started writing the book way back in the mid 00s, before I even moved to Los Angeles. I finished it about two years after we got here and promptly began to query agents. I got some bites, too! Lots of requests for partials, or even full manuscript, but no one offered to rep me. C’est la vie. And then things happened in my life. I found myself suffering from crippling depression, I had a variety of strange and sometimes great jobs, I got married, I got my Master’s Degree, and I found my career. So, you know, life stuff. I didn’t have time, nor did I want to bother with querying agents and sending out manuscripts.

However, I knew that the book wasn’t doing anyone any good, myself included, by languishing on the cloud. And a lot had changed since I finished writing it. Before, self publishing was rather verboten. It wasn’t considered a viable way to get your stuff out there. But thanks to Amazon, Kindle, and other ereaders self publishing is now a benefit. You get your work out there, and editors and agents can see that you a) really have material b) know how to promote it. So I made the decision that it was time for Becoming Magdalene to see the light of day.

I wish I could say it was as easy as giving Amazon my Word document and skipping merrily away.

Really, it was a process that was more difficult than actually writing the damn book. I mean, I understand writing. Writing makes sense to me. Page specs, cover designs, and ebook formatting? Yeah, not so much.

Luckily, other people do understand things like that. I really do get by with a little help from my friends. Or, in this case, a lot of help from my friends. I decided to use the writing program Scrivener to properly format my book and it is a wonderful program with a lot of great features that nearly drove me to the brink of madness and caused me to finish two giant bottles of gin (To be fair, I probably would have done that anyway, but tech issues didn’t help). I’m super grateful to everyone who walked me through the Scrivener process and I’m happy to say that I finally understand the program’s merits. I still fight with it, a lot, but I understand why it is useful.

Cover design was another completely baffling concept to me. I knew what kinds of covers I liked and what caught my eye but I had no idea how to create something like that. Fortunately, I found the brilliant Rebel Book Design who worked with me tirelessly to get the perfect cover. Honestly, we hit on the design right away. It was making it fit to Amazon’s specifications that was the real bear. Major shout out to designer Justice and her never ending patience. And check out the final product. It’s gorgeous:

And the response once we actually got everything up and running? Overwhelming. Thank you all for your love and support. I love being tagged in your pictures of the book and I am so flattered that you are willing to give your hard earned time and money to my art. I hope you enjoy Becoming Magdalene! It was a journey and a labor of love and I’m delighted that I finally get to share it with you.

My next novel, Dark Blessings, shouldn’t take over a decade to see the light of day. I’m hoping for 2019 but if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that life will take us in the direction it sees fit. I can’t wait to see where I go next. I hope I get to continue along with you.