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Darkness at Dawn is out today!

It’s available at Samhain Publishing, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and several other places.

The official release date is tomorrow, but Darkness at Dawn is on sale now at My Bookstore and More!

http://www.mybookstoreandmore.com/darkness-dawn-p-5937.html

Congratulations to Marlene! I’ll contact you via email for your prize.

It’s contest time again! This time you can win ANY Moira Rogers ebook published by Samhain, except for Cry Sanctuary. Why not that one? Because it’s FREE on Barnes & Noble and Amazon for the next two weeks. Check it out!

I’ve known the Bree half of Moira Rogers for years, and through her I met her BFF Donna, the other half of this fantastic and prolific team. We even used to write together (for fun). I’m super thrilled that now we share a publisher, and I’m excited to share one of their books with you.

So, after you’ve downloaded a FREE copy of Cry Sanctuary, come back here for a chance to win another book. How about one of the other books in the Red Rock Pass series – Sanctuary Lost, Sanctuary’s Price or Sanctuary Unbound? Or either Crux or Crossroads from their Southern Arcana series?

Just leave a comment telling me what book you’d like and why, and on June 22 I’ll pick a winner.

This is the flip side to my post about fear last week.

Since I was 13 I’ve had faith that if I worked hard enough someday, somehow I was going to get published. Last year I had faith that two of my stories might be publishable. The shorter of the two got rejected, once with a very nice note. The other one was Darkness at Dawn. When I got the offer letter, I stared at in disbelief. Samhain might be small, but they have a good reputation (and they’re smart which I love them for.) So here was an editor basically telling me my story was good enough that they thought they could make money off it. That’s what an offer like this means, not so much this story is good although that’s certainly part of it, but we think we can sell this. When that aspect of it sunk in, I was even more stunned. Talk about an ego boost!

I choose to put my fear aside and have faith that I can repeat my success. Maybe not everything I write will find a home at a publisher, but I believe that some of it will.

Another part of faith is the faith that I can even write a story in the first place. I’m a pantser, also known as a discovery writer. I don’t outline. The idea of writing down an outline before I start writing sounds like story death to me. Writing detailed outlines and character bios and story arcs might be fun for some people, but not me. I get an idea and usually have some sort of ending in mind so I have something to aim for, and then I just write. I get more ideas as I write and the story starts to take shape. I might jot down some notes, but it doesn’t come close to an outline. Here’s the really cool thing: sometimes pieces start fitting together all on their own. In the story I’m working on now, things that were just “there” in the beginning suddenly became part of the plot. When moments like that happen, it’s just beautiful.

And it gives me faith that I can weave a story.

Today I choose faith over fear. I hope you do, too.

Ok, I don’t want to be downer but this is a legitimate feeling and I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels like this. Other than one very short story in a magazine that paid me in copy, I haven’t had anything published. Three weeks from tomorrow, my first release with Samhain comes out. While that’s super, super exciting, it’s also scary. People are actually going to read this, and they’re going to judge it. My baby is all growed up and going out into the big scary world. I don’t expect everyone to like it, that would be silly. But I’m afraid that maybe most people aren’t going to like it, that maybe one or two people will think it’s neat, and the rest will read it and think “This is crap!”.

I’m also afraid that no one’s going to buy my book, that I’ll sell ten copies to family and friends and everyone else will just ignore me.

And even if the book does do well, and people do like it, I’m worried that this is the best I’ve got. That the next thing I submit, and the next and the next will get rejected. Maybe Darkness at Dawn was a fluke and all my other stuff just isn’t good enough.

I keep telling myself not to worry about it, and most of the time I don’t, but that little voice still whispers. I’ve found ways to shut him up (like working on a new project), but unfortunately, I don’t think there’s a way to get rid of him. He just hangs out in my head, looking for weaknesses. Creepy little bastard.

This may come as a shock, but …

Now, I’ll admit that the idea of a vampire lumberjack is neat. Funny. Interesting. But up against a werewolf bootlegger? I’m sorry, but in that case you spell vampire lumberjack L-A-M-E. C’mon, a guy who hangs out in the woods and chops down trees versus a guy thumbing his nose at the law while racing around in a car full of booze? And did I mention the tommy gun? Well I just did.

In a fight, there’s no way a vampire lumberjack is winning. He’d be mowed down before he brought his axe up. I imagine it would look something like this:

Notice Werewolf Bootlegger standing triumphantly over the fallen Vampire Lumberjack.

You know what? The werewolf bootlegger doesn’t even need a tommy gun. He can whoop that vampire’s ass with his bare hands.

GO TEAM WEREWOLF BOOTLEGGER!

This post is a part of Moira Rogers’ Creature Feature Kindle Throwdown Contest. By leaving a (meaningful) comment, you will be entered to win a Kindle from Amazon.com, or an alternate grand prize of $275 to spend at an online book retailer. For a full list of rules and more ways to win, visit the contest page.