The Glorious Life of a Debut Author (It's Mostly Naps and Fan Noise)

Forever Gone is scheduled for official publication on July 1. People are reading it, I’m getting great, solid reviews, and I’m happy. And proud. You’re tired of this cover, but I would be remiss in my duties if I did not blast you with it once again.

But, if I’m honest, I’m already tired of this first book. “What a thing to say!” you exclaim. “It’s being released on July 1.”

Why? Because I’ve worked on it FOR YEARS, and I swear it will be the death of me. The book was written because it had to be written.1 I experienced things that could no longer be ignored. They festered inside me, threatening to burst unless I put that energy to good use.

I’ll let you read the book to see what those issues are. Also, I had to figure out how to do everything related to writing a book, editing it, and then publishing it, such as what editor(s) to trust, and (thank goodness) how to find a great cover designer. And I’m blessed because I have help with the detested social media and marketing chores that every writer—well, most of them—do not want to do.

I was told this would happen. That you’d go through so many drafts, so many edits, just so many of everything. Corrected uploads into the platforms, changes to the cover, last-minute catches of weird things, and on and on. I know I’ll be thrilled again on August 1 when the audio version comes out. It sends little shivers down my spine to hear a real professional narrator read my book, and think that others will also listen to it this way.

And I cry with every review. Honestly, every time. They see in this book what I see. It was a tough one to write, and to have people SEE is a fantastic thing.

Yet some of my doldrums come from the weather. The world is experiencing a heat wave this week, and even in the mountains, temperatures are higher than usual. We are at the farm, and there’s no air conditioning. It’s not a big thing, honestly. We all go inside during the heat of the day and take a nap. The dogs, sheep, puppies, and horses all go together in the barn, and everyone takes a nap in the same room. Well, we have to keep the horses out. They will squish the squirming puppies by mistake if we don’t.

As you can see below, Norma is pregnant and sleeps most of the time away from everyone else in the soft grass. I am hoping this is where she will have her kittens. It is high and safe away from everyone else, and inside the fence, away from the forest animals that took her last kittens because she had them outside.

With a fan going behind me, I’m editing Book 3 and outlining Book 4 at the same time, while Book 2 is at the editor. Books 3 and 4 are the international thrillers, the ones where my heart lies, the ones where I eat, sleep, and dream about the main characters, their (possible) relationship, and all the nasty things she keeps getting herself into that frustrate him to no end.

Why am I editing one and outlining the other simultaneously? Because they are a series, and I need to ensure that the details I include in Book 4 align with what I’ve stated in Book 3. Tedious. But necessary. I’m creating character lists and other significant information in my “World Book” so that Marketing Genie can build the proper illustrations, handle the marketing, and ensure the locations are correct, etc.

But the real reason? They are set in Türkiye, with much of each book taking place in Istanbul. My characters are on the Bosphorus, navigating the dark, narrow, and twisty streets of the area around the Grand Bazaar, bursting through the markets, and then traveling further afield across the country, both in the southwestern region with its beautiful Mediterranean and Aegean seas and the northern areas with their mountains.

There’s a lot to do, and not nearly enough hours to do it, but as the adage says, it’s the journey, not the destination.