When I started this endeavor (after the muse woke me up with a single word that sparked the Carrie Lisbon series), I had a nebulous Big Picture idea about how this would go. Write books, get them published and people will read them. I tend to think in big pictures. The devils, and there are about a million of them, are in the details.
'Write books' means spend hours and hours every waking moment with your fingers on the keyboard, envisioning what the people in your story will do next. When you're not writing, spend hours and hours thinking about what to write. Or acting out scenes and talking to yourself and/or your characters so much that you expect to see them at the dinner table.
'Get them published' means sending them off into the vast unknown of someone's else's control. It's like watching the school bus take your kid away for the first time. You kind of have an idea about what's going to happen, but it's scary once that bus disappears over the hill. And your little darling comes back with so much paperwork to tend to...
Those devils caper around through the entire process, jabbing at me with their little pitchforks of doubt, deadlines and demonically, ever-changing details. The social media devil laughs at me the most, and he's partnered with Titivillus, the demon who inserts typos despite reviewing the manuscript fifteen times. I hate those guys.
But the 'people will read them' part is the one big picture idea that hasn't caused me any grief. Readers love Carrie. They've bought hundreds of copies of No Comfort for the Undertaker; they borrowed it more than any other book from my local library in January this year (over James Patterson's latest!!). They pass it around to their friends and family. They discuss the story at book clubs; they give me insights about the characters that I hadn't thought of. They write to me and encourage me to keep writing more. I'm so humbled when they ask "When's the next book coming out?"
Well, Carrie Fans, Tragedy's Twin is now on the shelves.
That's why I invite folks to come celebrate with me. Once that finish line has been crossed, the devils quiet down. The Muse and I get to party about defeating a bunch of hectic, little, red-bodied imps (for the time being) and readers get in on the fun of more Carrie!
