Today, Blurry is being featured as the Tuesday Special at The Write Way Cafe, and it will soon be at the Los Angeles and London Book Festivals. Blurry was the first full length novel that I wrote, so of course, it has a special place in my heart. It was inspired by recurrent dreams that I had of being in high school and college while Rick and I built our home in 2007. I read that it’s not uncommon to have dreams of being in school when life gets complicated and you long for simplicity, and building a home is definitely complicated! I have no idea how my parents built their home in the days before cell phones, because mine rang constantly through the entire process (then again, their construction process was twice as long as ours). I had a Razr phone at the time(remember those?) and had to wear it on a belt clip because I had to be constantly accessible in case something happened on the job site that they needed to consult me about. I remember waking up one night to my leg spasming – I swore I felt that phone vibrating on my hip in my sleep!
I was at a crossroads with my writing in 2007, and was taking a break from active writing while we built the house to ponder whether to continue or change course. I had been writing inspirational non-fiction, but my success was diminishing. My first book,Battleground Earth – Living by Faith in a Pagan World, did alright for a first novel by an unknown, but it was published in 2004 and had slipped into oblivion over the years. My attempts to write a follow up book were met with frustration. I had a manuscript, but I didn’t like it and was frustrated because I couldn’t seem to get it going no matter how hard I tried. The devotionals that has been doing well online and selling were also starting to taper off. I knew I either had to change my focus, boost my credentials, or switch genres. The Christian inspirational route had run it’s course, and my muse was dry. I was writing the same things over and over, and it was time to quit circling this mountain and find a new path.
The dreams of being in school reminded me how much I loved the murder mystery novels by Christopher Pike, and I wondered about making the change to fiction. My mind and heart were full of building and settling in our home in 2007, so it was January 2008 before my ideas inspired by those dreams came together into a story of a band nerd whose life is turned upside down when her best friend dates her ex-boyfriend, and winds out dead in an accident that doesn’t seem like an accident. My main challenge was coming up with what the ex-boyfriend could be mixed up in that could lead to murder. Drugs seemed cliché, so I opened my eyes and ears to the world around me and came up with street racing. It was perfect because there are no specific laws making it illegal – usually, people involved in it are charged with reckless driving. But it does require an extensive network to pull off, it involves big money, and rivalries naturally spring from it. It’s not as popular here as it is on the West Coast, but it fit my plot and I decided to go for it. It’s unique, and unique is what I’m looking for.
It worked out great. In fact, I was surprised at how quickly and easily it flowed once I started writing. Writing Blurry was fun! I loved the story. I love the characters (even the villains!). I would wake up at night with great plot ideas and not even care about going to work tired the next day because I was so excited about the story coming together. I looked forward to working on it and loved every minute of it. Blurry was well received on Writing.com and (the now defunct) Authonomy. The feedback I received from readers on those sites helped me tremendously in shaping it into the book that it is today. It was published by Wings ePress on August 3, 2011. To date, this is the only fiction novel I’ve written that doesn’t include a paranormal or scifi element, so if you like straight forward mystery, then this is a book for you. It’s available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords (Wings is transitioning to a new website for book sales and is still in the process of uploading books).
Writing Blurry was pure fun, and it convinced me that fiction was the way to go for me. Although I occasionally return to non-fiction, I am primarily a fiction writer now, largely thanks to the great experience I had with writing Blurry. I saw that writing, while work, can be a lot of fun. In fact, only Splinter was a struggle to write, but that’s a story for another entry.
I thank the readers who have enjoyed Blurry for their support, and pray this book reaches and blesses more readers that can enjoy being transported to the world of Woodland, South Carolina.
That’s all today. Take care, and have a great week.
Bye!
I was at a crossroads with my writing in 2007, and was taking a break from active writing while we built the house to ponder whether to continue or change course. I had been writing inspirational non-fiction, but my success was diminishing. My first book,Battleground Earth – Living by Faith in a Pagan World, did alright for a first novel by an unknown, but it was published in 2004 and had slipped into oblivion over the years. My attempts to write a follow up book were met with frustration. I had a manuscript, but I didn’t like it and was frustrated because I couldn’t seem to get it going no matter how hard I tried. The devotionals that has been doing well online and selling were also starting to taper off. I knew I either had to change my focus, boost my credentials, or switch genres. The Christian inspirational route had run it’s course, and my muse was dry. I was writing the same things over and over, and it was time to quit circling this mountain and find a new path.
The dreams of being in school reminded me how much I loved the murder mystery novels by Christopher Pike, and I wondered about making the change to fiction. My mind and heart were full of building and settling in our home in 2007, so it was January 2008 before my ideas inspired by those dreams came together into a story of a band nerd whose life is turned upside down when her best friend dates her ex-boyfriend, and winds out dead in an accident that doesn’t seem like an accident. My main challenge was coming up with what the ex-boyfriend could be mixed up in that could lead to murder. Drugs seemed cliché, so I opened my eyes and ears to the world around me and came up with street racing. It was perfect because there are no specific laws making it illegal – usually, people involved in it are charged with reckless driving. But it does require an extensive network to pull off, it involves big money, and rivalries naturally spring from it. It’s not as popular here as it is on the West Coast, but it fit my plot and I decided to go for it. It’s unique, and unique is what I’m looking for.
It worked out great. In fact, I was surprised at how quickly and easily it flowed once I started writing. Writing Blurry was fun! I loved the story. I love the characters (even the villains!). I would wake up at night with great plot ideas and not even care about going to work tired the next day because I was so excited about the story coming together. I looked forward to working on it and loved every minute of it. Blurry was well received on Writing.com and (the now defunct) Authonomy. The feedback I received from readers on those sites helped me tremendously in shaping it into the book that it is today. It was published by Wings ePress on August 3, 2011. To date, this is the only fiction novel I’ve written that doesn’t include a paranormal or scifi element, so if you like straight forward mystery, then this is a book for you. It’s available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords (Wings is transitioning to a new website for book sales and is still in the process of uploading books).
Writing Blurry was pure fun, and it convinced me that fiction was the way to go for me. Although I occasionally return to non-fiction, I am primarily a fiction writer now, largely thanks to the great experience I had with writing Blurry. I saw that writing, while work, can be a lot of fun. In fact, only Splinter was a struggle to write, but that’s a story for another entry.
I thank the readers who have enjoyed Blurry for their support, and pray this book reaches and blesses more readers that can enjoy being transported to the world of Woodland, South Carolina.
That’s all today. Take care, and have a great week.
Bye!
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