I did it! With the help of my publisher, Munn Avenue Press, my book went live on Amazon while we were preparing to evacuate to Miami, hoping to escape Hurricane Milton. I was wet, unkempt, and engrossed in moving the patio furniture to a safer space when the zoom call came.
"You're live on Amazon! Congratulations!" Charlie, my publisher, proudly announced.
"Thank you, that's great!" I said while thinking, when you least expect it, expect it. Six years I've waited for this moment and now that it's here, I hope I have a home to come back to, less alone a book to market.
I began this journey after Hurricane Irma wreaked our landscape big time and messed up our roof. After months of landscape clean up, planting new gardens, installing a new sprinkler system, designing a front paver sidewalk and a back paver patio, I was forced to pay attention to the voices in my head that kept telling me their stories while I slept. Was I crazy? I only knew if I didn't write these stories down, they would keep hounding me until I did.
I wrote through Covid. That was easy. What wasn't easy was what Hurricane Ian did to our home and business, but I kept writing. It was a stress reliever to bury myself in a made up world no one but me knew about.
I sent hundreds of query letters to agents that were rejected and attended Thrillerfest in New York City, where I pitched live agents, but all to no avail. Then I met Charlie Levine, who loved my book and wanted to publish it.
So here we are, folks. The end of the journey to publication, but not the end of where it's going next. My book on your lap and many copies wrapped in bright Christmas paper for your friends and family. Your excited recommendation to anyone who likes to read raw, messy, mystery crime thrillers.
Maybe an audio book next? And then getting it into the hands of someone who knows someone, who, well, you get the gist. You never know, right? Stay tuned.
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