[Updates from The Writer's Desk]

This year has been the best and worst of my life so far. After five long years (maybe more) of working on my novel, spreading rumors about it, asking for feedback on ideas for scenes, telling anyone who would listen that I had something to say about zombies, I finally completed the story.

In early May my father had a heart attack at work. We spent a week driving to and from the hospital while he lay in a bed, sedated. The doctors were able to fix his heart but he never woke up from sedation. He hadn’t been found fast enough after collapsing to prevent brain damage. We had to make the decision to remove his life support after his tests came back with poor results for brain activity. On May 8th he passed away. In my life I’ve had some tough moments but I’ve always felt lucky to be relatively untraumatized. Losing my dad changed this emotional stability. My world was no longer whole and my work was no longer important. Returning to the work on my book also felt doubly wrong because the story deals with death. How could I write about dying so casually after I’d lost a parent? By the end of the month I was telling myself I’d come too far to stop and if my dad was around I thought he’d want me to finish what I’d started. How cool would it be if his daughter published a book?!?!

In late May I registered the copyright for the novel and started working with three editors to polish the crap out of it. I submitted it to a publisher that specializes in the horror genre. They politely declined. I expected to feel hurt and down but I always wanted to publish the book myself and not getting picked up by a company was what I needed to push me into production.

Three months after that, in August, my editors had given me their work and I dove into formatting for different e-readers. Originally I was only going to offer When the Dead through my website here but after talking with several other authors I decided to give Amazon a try. In late August I released the book in .epub, .mobi, and .pdf formats through my website and on September 3rd for Kindle through the Amazon Kindle Store.

In late September I worked with Shayla Jones of Phantom Light Media to create the first of two book trailers for When the Dead. This experience was amazing and enabled me to learn a lot about pre and post production video work. I’m looking forward to working on the second one.

Early November, six months have passed since my father died. I’ve spent the last few weeks sick and forcing myself to finish formatting When the Dead for print. I cry almost every day because I wish more than anything that my dad could hold this book in his hands and see what I’ve been working on all these years. The proof copy of my printed novel is due in the mail any day now. I’m hoping to have it before Thanksgiving. That way I can add it to the list of things I’m thankful for.