I keep forgetting that I'm a published writer now, in my introductions. Maybe because I did it by self publishing and it didn't get much fanfare like JK Rowling has. o_O

Though, it's the biggest accomplishment of my entire life, so I should start wearing the name tag just a little. I tend to share my wordpress blogs more, because it has a bigger audience and is more popular that anything I've chosen to write on. I'm more proud about my blogs, even though it took a fraction of effort to write them and choose a layout for them. My novel, however took a lot of heart, time, and back breaking effort to pull off.

What happened was, a friend of mine decided to run off into the US Army for six months, and he was my close (but also my only) friend that I could chat with all day long. Instead of falling apart, I decided to take the time alone to write a 93,000 word fiction novel based on a dream I once had. It was the perfect time for me to write it, because with him around he wouldn't have let me do it without constant interruptions, like the brat that he was. He craved my attention all the time and constant, and it got worse and more insistent whenever he knew I was busy with something I needed to do.

Anyways, I sat down and was highly engaged in writing this novel. It was "just for fun" and when I was done with it, I shared it with him when he returned back home, my mother and sister, and one friend who would later become a best and close friend to me as well. The book was about one woman with special abilities and her smart-aleck friend. No, the friend was not based from this old Army friend, but I did write him in as a the character named Ted. The whole story goes into a paranormal conspiracy mystery, with violence inspired by Quentin Tarantino and humor inspired by Joss Whedon... NOT that I can write like either of those masters of fiction, but I am inspired by both. ^_^
I had no title for it, but finally settled on "True Shadows".

The funny thing is that my friends and family read it and shouted, "Get it published!!!" I responded, "Nah! Really? Nah!" And they yelled, "Yes, really!" So after giggling about that for a while, I did think to myself, "Hey, maybe the public would want to read it!" So, I wrote up hundreds of query letter and proposed my book to several publishing houses. I quit after I got sixteen rejections. They were nice letters though, but they all said the same thing, "Your book is very well written, but we don't think the subject is marketable at this time." And few even added, "If you have other novels or ideas, please let us know, we're interested." But I've only written the one novel. The others I've written are dirt to me. LOL. And if I'm not confident or even like what I've written, then it never sees the light of day. ;^_^

Anyways, long story short... I gave up and my family kept pestering, so I looked into self-publishing. My best friend Julie and my sister help to edit it with me all summer, because I can't afford professional editors. I paid for the copyrights and it's in the Library of Congress, and then I uploaded it to Amazon Kindle Books and priced it for a low price. Six people bought it and no reviews, which is better than bad ones.
Oh and I did the cover for it myself, since I couldn't afford a graphic artist. The book is here: True Shadows

And yes, that's my real name. ^_^