Hard Work Pays Off
Writing a book was something that I never knew that I could do and it turns out that it is something that I seem to be good at. I put two years into writing my debut novel Dark Obsessions and kept my writing of it a secret from my family and friends. Having never shown a passion for writing before I knew that they all would tell me that I was crazy. That I could not write a book. When I finally let the cat out of the bag I was proven wrong as both my family and friends were happy for me and encouraged. They all were right there with me when my publishing journey hit some snags and I wanted to throw in the towel. It was their encouraging words that kept me going and my sheer determination to prove to myself that I could do this.
It was the determination that forced me to work on Dark Obsessions endlessly. I was so worried about what the world would think about my work. I compared my writing style to other authors that I have read in the past trying to figure out if my work would stack up against theirs. Every chapter was edited and edited until the entire book was completely rewritten from start to finish all in the name of producing something good. When Dark Obsessions finally got out to the public I was nervous. What were people going to say about my book? I was even nervous about how I was going to take the negative things that I was sure they were going to say. I kept telling myself that one bad review or negative opinion did not mean that what I had written was bad. I just needed more people to like my book over the ones that hated it.
When it comes to Paranormal Romance, Dark Obsessions is far different than many of the books out there. My female lead is more complex than the teenage girl that is present in many of these books. There are adult themes in my novel as well as dark themes. It is not a novel geared for young teenage girls but an adult novel that I hope will be liked by both females and males and to some extent I am happy to say that has been true.
Just on a whim I decided to enter Dark Obsessions in two awards just to help get my book some additional exposure. I never thought that it would win and to my surprise it did. Dark Obsessions is now an Award winning book and I am an Award winning author. I guess the saying is true. Hard Work Does Pay Off.
Dark Obsessions won first place in the American Fiction Awards for Romance: Paranormal/Supernatural and took third place in two categories in the BookFest Awards. It placed in the category Fiction: Fantasy-Dark as well as Fiction: Fantasy- Paranormal & Urban. I am looking forward to seeing what other awards Dark Obsessions can win and hope that it will become a huge success.
