Today is the day. Launch Day.
The day a new Watcher: Book I of The Chosen is revealed.
So far, the reviews for the Advance Reading Copies (ARCs) are pouring in, more than half of them with five stars.
Unless you’re an author, you have no idea how stressful it is to release your work to the world and hope like heck that everyone doesn’t hate it.
I write weird stuff. It’s dark, violent, bloody, and heartbreaking in places.
But it makes you feel. At least, it makes me feel when I write it (yes, there are parts that make me cry), and, according to direct testimony from fans and reviewers, it makes readers feel as well.
And isn’t that the point of a story? To make you feel something? Whether you’ve never experienced those feelings yourself, or you have all too frequently, a good story should elicit emotion.
My own emotions are all over the map right now. Today is the culmination of an adventure I started nearly nine (nine!) years ago. It began with writing down a one-page lament from a strange vampire woman who was in my head when I woke up one morning in December 2008.
The various stages I’ve been through since that fateful morning have been like riding a rollercoaster as I navigated through the initial drafts, critiques, edits, rewrites, and publishing – all to do it again with the second edition. One moment I’m elated; the next I’m doubtful, and fearful that what I’ve written is absolute crap. And some folks might think just that.
But it seems the majority of readers like the story – and many of them love it. Sunny touches something within them. Maybe it’s sympathy. Or maybe she connects with that little part so many have within themselves that feels isolated and alone, that wants nothing more than understanding and caring from another.
Whatever it is, her followers want more of her story. And so I keep writing it as she gives it to me. The second installment, Runner: Book II of The Chosen, is due for release in a few weeks on October 25.
As with the first book, the second will likely leave you wanting even more.
And yes, “more” is in the works. Seeker: Book III of The Chosen, is slowly getting underway, and I’m going to do everything I can to bring it to the readers as soon as is humanly possible.
Or, with the help of a lonely, but brave, vampire woman, inhumanly possible.
