My debut novel, A Different Time, will publish July 2, 2019.
I’m simultaneously thrilled and petrified.
So, how did it happen?
The process began October 23, 2014 (my Dad’s birthday).
My daughter had produced a year-long photography project taking a different photo every day. When it was finished she showed it to me. It was so cool looking through the images, making connections between the locations and the people. That was when the idea popped.
But because I wanted the main characters to be able to interact with each other, I changed the medium from photography to videotape.
I jotted down some quick notes and scanned them into my files. I’m a digital pack-rat when it comes to my writing. I save everything.
It was an interesting idea, but I was busy running The Gamers Box and I wasn’t writing regularly. So it remained in my IDEA FOLDER on Evernote, for almost two years.
In the summer of 2016, after working on several non-fiction projects, I participated in the inaugural creativity sprint Write Like You’re Alive, hosted by Zoetic Press. It was a month-long challenge to try and create something new every day for 31 days. Halfway through the event, I was running out of ideas. So I blew the digital dust off my original note from 2014, and turned it into a short story called, “What Time Is It?”
By the end of the month, I’d created 21 new pieces, including stories, poems, and photographs. The editors from Zoetic Press selected “What Time Is It?” to include in their anthology.
The 2016 anthology published by Zoetic Press
It can be downloaded for free. HERE
The process of creative writing for a solid month was invigorating. I decided to collect the best material written during that period and published it in May of 2017 as Anansi and Beyond: Short Stories, Magic, & Nightmares.
In November of 2017, I signed up for National Novel Writing Month. After spending some time considering what story I wanted to tell, I decided to expand “What Time Is It?” into novel-length. I wrote the first draft of the manuscript from November 1 to December 6, 2017.
The revisions began January 2, 2018 and finished March 11, 2018.
Then I handed it off to my brilliant editor, Dave Taylor, from ThEditors, to work his magic. He turned in his notes on May 14th.
On June 13, 2018, I had my final draft.
Then began the long process of pitching the book to agents and publishers. Nine months later and now the light at the end of this long process is finally visible.
Over the next eight weeks or so, I’ll post the work happening behind the scenes and keep you in the loop as we countdown the launch. Thank you for your continued support and enthusiasm. It means everything.