Lorel Clayton's Blog
March 22, 2025
Rose & Thorne
Highcrowne hits the fan when democracy comes to town. Riots, demonstrations, assassination …. One thing you can be sure of is that Eva Thorne will be at the center of it all.
Eva doesn’t want to be the lead candidate for the Human Crown—especially since she’s Solhan and not human at all, and certainly not after the elf interim council declares democracy a treasonous activity punishable by death.
No one expected a new player on the board—or rather a very, very old one. People are turning into puppets under the control of an ancient bodysnatching plant, but someone is pulling the puppeteer’s strings, and as usual, nothing is what it seems. Can Eva stop the plant creature from taking over the world? Or should she let it win, just to avoid a fate worse than death—being elected?
Eva has become the cliché, a hard drinking, hard nosed private detective, bitter and uncaring. Or so she thinks. A high-profile murder throws Highcrowne into chaos, and the man she’s falling in love with, despite her best efforts to avoid it, is the prime suspect. She sets out to prove his innocence and uncovers plots within plots, and dangers far greater than the world’s deadliest assassin or even the bodysnatching plant taking over the world. Old lovers and old gods come back to haunt her, and in the end, she learns sometimes winning means losing.
Surprise! We wrote a new and final (truly) Eva Thorne novel when you weren’t looking!
Book 6 is called Blood & Thorne, and the story has been simmering in my (aka Lorel’s) head for years—the ending I always had in mind. Eva fights for democracy against fascism, but the fun totally made up kind with elves, dwarves, romance and a happy ending—guaranteed! Unlike the real world. Sadly, we just have ignorant and hateful people to blame, not monsters. It’s not fun, but a fight where we all must do our part. Evil triumphs when good people do nothing, so I’m fighting the oligarchs by boycotting Amazon. Eva Book 6 is currently available everywhere except that Bezos-owned platform.
January 23, 2025
Awakening: Convergence Book 1
Our first foray into erotic romance! It’s paranormal with cool things like vampires, witches, and werewolves (we’re not THAT normal) but it is very much a romance and a spicy one at that.
I (Lorel) am the action scene writer, so it took the other, mushier half of our duo (Clayton) to roll up his sleeves and tap into the voice recognition software to write this one. Being a severe dyslexic means it was not easy for him, but I am SO proud. Proof positive you can achieve almost anything if you don’t give up on yourself!
Give it a read for FREE if you are on Kindle Unlimited. We may release wide later, and the paperback is currently under construction…
FREE on KUVisit Series Page For GalleryBook Description:
Some girls weren’t meant for small towns or speed dating, and they shouldn’t visit the Crossroads at night … never meet strange men in the forest alone, and never, ever take them home. Never fall in love with the wrong man—and never do it twice. Because bad things happen to those who mess with bad girls. Beware vampires, wraiths, and werewolves, because this witch is awakening!
Roxy (aka Roxanne) avoided relationships and avoided life because being a witch and an empath who can read thoughts and emotions and be swept away by them left her open to pain she didn’t want to face. But the Convergence is coming and no one is safe. Roxy has a power that others want, and they will do anything to get it from her. She doesn’t know who to trust. The vampire she’s fallen in love with? The werewolf with a complicated marriage? The witch turned wraith who bears a warning? Her little life is soon upended, and she realizes there is no hiding from what scares you, and you should never put off living, no matter the cost.
Watch the trailer:
January 22, 2025
Eva Thorne Books 1-4 Free on Kindle Unlimited
If you’ve been wanting to start reading Eva Thorne, get the ebook bundle. It’s at a super low price–FREE if you’re on Kindle Unlimited!
Free on KUReviews
A fantastical twist on mystery, brimming with action-packed adventure and a sense of clever fun.
— Elizabeth Spann Craig, Bestselling Mystery Author
I picked this up and just could not put it down until I finished! …If you like Mystery, Romance, and Fantasy this book has it all!
— Terry’s Book Addiction
This has been an extremely engaging, high-octane, action-filled high fantasy masterpiece that the tandem of Lorel Clayton has created.
— Claire Santos – Coffeeholic Bookworm
Book Description:
Fun, clever fantasy with an epic ending!
Eva Thorne is a born detective when she’s not playing the femme fatale, but it takes her brother’s murder to set her on a hunt for clues. What she discovers brings her up against a powerful slave-trading cartel, dark gods, and worst of all her twin sister. In a city of elvish masters and matriarchal dwarves where humans have no rights, the only people on her side are an illegally freed slave, a senile nanny, and an ex-almost-boyfriend. But even when she nearly loses her job and almost loses her head in a sword fight on the same night, she isn’t deterred. It’s when the nanny goes missing that she really starts to worry.
The first 4-books of the series now available as an ebook bundle boxset.
The Eva Thorne series begins with a murder and culminates in the war that will end the world. Twisting the norms of high fantasy, mystery, and steampunk into a witty mixture of humor and romance, this series is an action-packed adventure worth taking.
Magic and machines can’t stand against the God of Death, and humans are on the run from the god’s invasion. Highcrowne is the only refuge, but that means living in the Outskirts of an ancient city ruled by Avian mages, indifferent dwarves, and elves who’d prefer to see humans as their slaves.
Eva is a relentless, kick-ass heroine unafraid of confronting kings, monsters, or gods, but she is a Thorne—the worst of the hated Solhan race. Her family summoned the Dead God into the world to grant them ultimate power, and secret parts of her desire power as well. The battle between her dark, Solhan nature and her desire to leave behind her family’s legacy of necromancy and tyranny is what drives her. Never one to meet others’ expectations, she fights fate at every turn. But as she is forced to make one difficult decision after another, she wonders if anyone can escape their destiny.
Free Prequel Still Tops the Charts
A Thorne in Time, the early story of 13-year-old Eva Thorne, continues to top the Amazon Kindle Teen and Young Adult ebook charts. It’s been number one in YA Steampunk and hasn’t left the Top 20 for a year! Get it free on Amazon or subscribe to our newsletter for it and other reading goodies. Enjoy!
AmazonSubscribeBook Description:
Before Eva Thorne can accept her destiny, she must learn to accept herself. Eva leaves her family behind for boarding school (that’s a good thing when your family includes necromancers and crime lords), but the foreign city of Gernwold has its own dangers. An intruder, a teacher injured, a stolen necklace left in her room… Either someone is trying to frame her, or they know what Eva really is. In this prequel novella to the Eva Thorne series, enjoy mystery and magic melded with technology, as you explore the Three Kingdoms and meet all the friends who will one day help Eva become the famous (or notorious) detective we know and love her to be.
Reviews
Just when I thought I’d seen the best of Eva Thorne, the duo of Lorel Clayton continued to impress me with this explosive intro to The Thorne series. Eva the dyed hair Solhan heroine is enigmatic, her and her friend Karoline is formidable and Hazel the ghost simply astounded me.
—Claire Santos – Coffeeholic Bookworm
I love this novel its my first read in the series and I definitely want to read the others. I am not really into necromancer stories but I find myself identifying and rooting for Eva as she struggles with her family drama, deals with being in an race underappreciated species/race while trying to fit in and find a place for herself.
— Kenny
Those that haven’t read the Eva Thorne series yet; this is a nice introduction. For those that have read the series, it’s a nice way to get back into the series. This is a nice short novella that moves at a fast pace.
— Carmen
November 21, 2024
Dark Days is here…
Not to sound too happy with that somber title, and beware it is a dark fantasy book, but it’s been a long time coming and is my literary masterpiece, so I’m excited to finally release it. Maybe timely for the world too. Please check it out and tell me what you think.
Shop All StoresOr learn more about it and read reviews on the series page here: https://lorelclayton.com/dark-days-series/
But first, the book trailer…
It’s available in ebook at all stores and in paperback and hardback in lots of places, especially via Amazon.
Dark Days is here!
Not to sound too happy with that somber title, and beware it is a dark fantasy book, but it’s been a long time coming and is my masterpiece, so I’m excited to finally release it. Maybe timely for the world too. Please check it out and tell me what you think.
Learn more about it and read reviews on my website page here: https://lorelclayton.com/dark-days-series/
Watch the trailer to get you super excited too…
It’s available in ebook at all stores and in paperback and hardback in lots of places, especially via Amazon.
August 9, 2024
6 (not so easy) ways to restore democracy
by Lorel Clayton
My books are funny romps in a high fantasy world, but I lace them with heady subjects like slavery, race wars, and differing sociological and economic principals. And you just thought they were chick-lit. With democracy in my homeland (and probably many other people’s homelands) in the balance this year, I wanted to share my thoughts and solutions for the future—no veil of fiction to hide behind this time.
For decades fundamentalists in America have been trying to deconstruct democracy in favor of capitalism-fueled racism that favors them. I recall a brilliant opinion piece in the Seattle Times on this subject back in the 1990s by Norman Mailer. You can read more about his sadly accurate predictions here.
Growing up in Idaho, which was a holdout state of the Ku Klux Klan overrun by Mormons and other religious extremists, I was well versed at recognising fundamentalist racism/fascism happening around me. It wasn’t until recently, while reading War of Art by Robert Pressfield, that I finally understood its roots: Fear of freedom. Specifically fear fuelled by the conquered.
Just as Nazis arose from Germany’s defeat in WWI, American fascism arose from the Confederacy’s defeat in the Civil War. That’s a century of brewing trouble that had never been quashed, thus it’s highly virulent and evolved form in 2024.
Seeing all the Confederate flags that lingered in American society growing up, I was not as shocked by this revelation as I thought I might be. It explained the battles in the 1960s for racial freedoms that had been granted on paper during the Reconstruction—Deep racism/fascism resistance had been acting against freedom for decades. Only when artists (those who can deal with freedom in a more positive way than fundamentalists) inspire freedom fighters and activists does societal change for the better begin. The 1960s was not the first freedom revolution. Before that there had been suffragists and beats (better known by the pejorative beatniks) inspired by or creating inspiring art to revolutionize society, to name just a few examples. Today, the existential threat of global warming has rallied activism, and some of what I find the most effective forms are inspired by art, including films like Common Ground, and by scientists and other intellectuals who also embrace freedom rather than fearing it.
The main point is that when people wake up, for whatever reason, they suddenly see the monsters that have been lurking under the bed and which now hover over them with their claws and teeth ready to strike.
If you don’t believe in monsters, then picture a serial killer with a knife or a terrorist with a gun to your head. American fundamentalist fascists are like terrorists who flee the light of freedom (like monsters flee the daylight) because they don’t know what to do with it, and they seek solace in the simple rules of the past and any master who promises it to them.
Fundamentalists seek masters like Bin Laden, Hitler, Trump … Someone, for example, who promises that climate change is a hoax and will go away if we silence those raising the alarm. Your American dream of middle-class life will return if you evict the immigrants (forgetting you are one too—and I can say this as I have Cherokee heritage) and get women back into aprons in the home and under their husband’s thumb. Subjugating women, who are more than 50% of the voting population, is a key way fascists exert control. While it doesn’t start with genocide, it’s a slippery slope that leads to getting rid of anyone different, whether through incarceration or extermination, including the disabled, LGBTIQQ+, other religions of course … the list will grow and grow. Like Nazis claimed to save Germany by removing all that was not pure German (and remember the Nazi Party was voted in too), it eventually led to their ‘final solution’, the systematic murder of over 6 million Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, intellectuals, and many more who were not German enough.
The American fundamentalist/fascist plan has chillingly similar objectives underlying it, such as subjugation of women. It’s called Project 2025 (here’s the link if you want to read it all). They are on the verge. We’ve woken up with the knife to our throats. Those who vote for Trump or other fundamentalists/fascists are more than asleep—they want their throats cut because it takes away all their pain and confusion and ends this terrifying freedom they’ve never known what to do with.
Now, I really hope I don’t lose you when I say that fascists and economic elites are perfect bedfellows. We all understand dictators as obvious fascists—they get to have absolute power—but how do the rich benefit? They rule from the shadows, out of the line of fire, with no one to stop them from exploiting whatever they want for whatever they want. Having a puppet fascist under their control gives them cart blanche without any checks and balances.
Corporations and more specifically the billionaires running them have benefited from numbing our fear of freedom for decades, replacing it with dissatisfaction and greed for material purpose rather than real purpose that seizes freedom. It’s the ‘look at the monkey’ Chewbacca defense approach, the modern Roman circus (not clowns but gladiatorial games), the tv opiate of the masses … the distraction so no one stops them or recognizes their own subjugation to them. They do not want to lose their power, and they are willing to sacrifice democracy for their personal freedom. They are the perfect bedfellows of fundamentalists who will fight for their economic status quo (unless of course you are an immigrant or outsider in which case maybe that’s an excuse for your assets to be seized by the state just as Nazis seized and grew strong from stolen Jewish wealth). American fundamentalist voters are the most deluded because they’ve convinced themselves they can all be billionaires if they toe the line—and so they serve the very masters who have destroyed the middle class and their American dream.
Fascists and their wealthy supporters are powerful and calculating foes, difficult for the uneducated especially to deal with, and so they attack the educated and all institutions of knowledge. Just as in Nazi book burning times and Taliban history destroying fervor, you see the American fundamentalists and fascist billionaires destroying education systems, cutting funding, banning books. The media (bought decades ago by rich conservatives like Rupert Murdoch) are now toothless—the watchdog purpose of independent and investigative journalists replaced by wide-eyed parrots lulling the masses with alarmist messages or brain destroying drivel in a coordinated attack to make everyone dumb (in its original definition of silent). Don’t get me started on Tik Tok and social media with its isolating and zombifying influences. The moment I saw Dan Rather go down in 2004, I saw it happening and what was to come. How could no one else see?
I’m Gen X and part of the problem—aloof, angry at the world, expecting nuclear war at any moment—we expected the end to come, and so we were preparing, almost looking forward to, surviving Fallout-style in the aftermath of Armageddon. But I have a child now. A love of nature greater than my love for myself. And I’ve just opened my eyes. That means it’s my duty to raise the alarm (even if I’m much later to wake up than many others around me, the more voices raised the better).
We all have knives at our throats.
Maybe if we all wake up, one of us, or better yet, all of us can fight back and survive. This is why I prefer the monster analogy—if we wake up, they vanish. If someone else opens wide the curtains to let in the daylight, they vanish. Because … and this is the secret they don’t want you to know … despite their takeovers of religion, media, Supreme Court, and politics—there are fewer of them than there are of us. A whole lot less. Fascists win by making the people feel powerless, but they can only hold power if we let them. If we fail to vote, fail to speak up, fail to wake up.
So, I’m trying. I know a brilliant scientist and professor who won’t speak out on social media or even on the phone to relatives because he’s convinced Trump’s people are already creating an extermination list. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that as a Professor he’s already on it. He has nothing more to lose by speaking up. Neither do you. I’m a female intellectual. I’m on that list. What about you?
I was enlivened by Kamala entering the race, and I’m doing my part to spread the word about fighting back. Not that any politician is perfect but because if the choice is democracy or fascism, I prefer democracy. Yet, even if Trump is beaten in this election, a democratic win does not stop the problem. It will continue to fester for years, decades … who knows? Some people think terrorism or civil war come next. How sad. How can freedom scare so many so much?
I realized that not everyone sees what I see (or what far more brilliant people like Norman Mailer see), so I thought I’d share my thoughts for turning our democracy around. While I’m a proponent for pure Greek style democracy, I mean our republic, but one with Cato and not Nero in control.
6 Not So Easy Ways to Restore Democracy (finally after that long winded intro!):
Stop fascism right now before it’s too late (writing this on my phone with spellcheck where fascism is not even in its dictionary which is very scary). This means raising awareness, mobilizing friends and family, and above all voting! At the best of times, 30% of Americans don’t vote. Change that and the fascists don’t come to power (and if they still do then we’re in real trouble).Restore independent media watch dogs (and teach them old school journalism). This is hard. Wresting media from private control means a Ma Bell style break up of media into smaller, more independent ownership. No corporates. Not even government ownership as that way leads to State propaganda. How do we police the media and not have others puppet them? Not sure. I didn’t say these would be easy steps!Invest in public education and critical thinking. Public schools have been undermined for decades and it shows. The US continues to rank at the lower end of PISA scores for advanced nations. Just as important as more funding is teaching critical thinking. We don’t want rote learning but the ability to question, to think independently. This is the core of freedom: free thinking. Scientific method and logic, philosophy and ethics … this is what created democracy in the first place. No oligarchs. This is supposed to be a democracy/republic. Sharpening my pen again and recommending more Ma Bell style breakups of mega corporations and billionaire conglomerates. We shirk at this anti-capitalism approach, but capitalism is not democracy. One is an economic theory and the other is a form of government by the people for the people. When individuals are more powerful than nations, when petroleum giants dictate elections, when one man controls not just Fox but all news … you are in trouble. And we are in trouble. I have nothing against millionaires, but billionaires are obscene, and if they want to do good like Bill Gates, great, but even so, think of the incredible influence and power he wields to ensure what he cares about is addressed? That’s still not democracy. This is another hard one, because I’m all for letting them keep their money (unless they caused pain and suffering to get it that can be proven in a court leading to paying restitution to their victims)—they just need to be prevented from using it to buy politicians or unduly influence policy and elections. This kind of thing is why laws are made and meant to be enforced. People do not always—actually seldom do people with power—listen to their better natures. Safeguards need to be put in place to prevent oligarchy. Save the planet. I had to stick this one in here, because the squabbling of us ants means nothing if we don’t have an ant hill to fight over. Global warming, nuclear war, disease, overpopulation … there’s quite a few ways we toy with annihilation. Let’s not lose the only planet known to support life and all the amazing (and probably smarter than us) lifeforms on it while we’re arguing about who stands on the top of the hill.Learn to live for others again. Find purpose. Stop being selfish. Society exists when we are social creatures. Selfish is the way a cancer grows in the body. Put yourself in someone else’s shoes from time to time and have a little sympathy.The selfish cancer of fascism and unchecked capitalism has grown too large. We need to stop its spread and start to heal. Cancers arise from us. They are us, just the darkest version. It will be painful to treat and recover our nation, our world, but what choice is there but death? Fundamentalists may seek death, blow themselves up, kill those who frighten them in wars or camps …but is this what YOU, and I’m looking at you, want?
If you want to live free in a democracy and a world safe for your children and their children, then let’s start at Step 1 and go from there. Unless you have some better ideas? I’d love to hear them. Open discussion, debate, and listening to others’ viewpoints are all key to a healthy democracy also. Let’s just debate from a place of mutual respect, openness, and without hate.
July 29, 2024
Top 10 Favorite Vampires in Fiction, Movies, and TV
(reposting my article from the Paranormalists blog)
#1 Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder, The Vampire Diaries)
I watched all 8 seasons of TVD for the first time at the start of 2024, and Damon was the funniest, sexist, most amazing character in the whole series—but also the greatest vampire of all time for several reasons.
First, he was really good at being bad. Such an unrepentant predator, who loved being a vampire, was a refreshing change from other moody, angsty boys (like Stefan and Edward). Second, he had a good backstory, including being a complete romantic. Third, he was so romantic he waited centuries to wake his beloved only to discover she had never been entombed and never loved him. He was consistent in his devotion and fell for her human doppelganger so hard he even gave up being a vampire for her (sigh). Fourth, his relationship with his brother turned out to be core to his story arc and to the show, and it was so good to see him evolve to embrace his brother at the end. Made me cry.
Finally, I have totally fallen for Ian Somerhalder the amazing environmental activist and animal lover, such a good, generous person and only resembling his character, Damon, in that he’s smart, funny, and sexy. I really hope my husband isn’t reading this, but he’s probably guessed I’m infatuated, because he caught me one morning talking to Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley live on Fireside! My husband said, “Good thing I’m secure, as another guy might wonder why his wife is talking to her vampire lovers at 5am.” Watch the recording on my YouTube here: https://youtu.be/Ql_yqYAFvdA
Here he is again just ’cause…
#2 Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgard, Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire series/ Trueblood HBO series)
Next on my list (which you may have guessed is based on sexy, romantic, and funny so far) is Eric Northman. I read all the Sookie books, and Eric on the page won me over. Alexander Skarsgard’s version was even better! Trueblood is one of the best vampire shows of all time (great drama, great acting, plus oh so funny at times), and since you’re reading this on a paranormal blog, you probably already know that. If you haven’t watched it yet for some insane reason, go and watch it now.
#3 Dracula (Frank Langella, 1979)
I saw this version at the theater when I was six years old (you can calculate my age based on that if you’re good at math). I was so bummed I slept through Star Wars because I was only four then, but I stayed awake and terrified throughout this Dracula. My mom took me along to way too many horror flicks growing up, and I saw several Christopher Lee Dracula movies, but I fell in love with this Dracula because of Frank Langella’s sex appeal and the love story with Lucy (rather than Mina like in the Bram Stoker version). Remember I was only six, but the Shadow archetype that Dracula represents is so powerful I understood it loud and clear. I re-watch this version almost every Halloween and keep imagining Dracula and Lucy ending up together centuries later. Her smile at the end as his cape flew away in the sun could be interpreted in different ways, and I choose the romantic, immortal ending.
#4 Dracula 2000 (Gerard Butler, 2000)
Dracula is the ultimate vampire, so of course he ends up on my list twice! Gerard Butler plays a fantastic version—dark, haunted, compelling, dangerous—and this 21st century version of the story was a great change of pace. A plane crash instead of a sailing ship for one thing!
#5 Spike (James Marsters, Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
James Marster’s fantastic acting, the romantic turn he takes, and above all the funny (such clever wit) wins me over! Angel doesn’t even make my list because he’s a bit like soggy bran cereal. Spike turns from villain to romantic sop and finally to the ultimate hero of the whole series. What great character development. This was way before Damon followed a similar character arc, so it was also groundbreaking.
#6 Ilsa (My lead character’s evil twin who turned vampire in Book 3)
This is the only female on my list, but I had to mention my book series somehow! Ilsa was evil before she became a vampire (animating dead mice through necromancy as a child), and I suspect she was responsible for Emily’s death (a wasting sickness to prevent further heirs to the Thorne criminal empire), although no one has connected the dots on that one yet. As a vampire, she shows everyone how it’s done, and quickly eliminates her dead sire’s harem of vampire brides before taking over leadership of the most frightening cabal of immortals manipulating the fates of royals and nations. No one does evil like a Thorne.
#7 Jean-Claude (Anita Blake series Laurell K. Hamilton)
Back to sexy vampire lovers. Before the Anita Blake series got too ‘erotica’ and boring for my tastes, I loved Jean-Claude, because of his brilliant business savviness, unfailing support for Anita, and ability to really work the sex appeal whenever he wanted anything. I’m pretty sure no one in these books was monogamous, but I would have ranked him higher if it had been more of a ‘true love’ connection between Anita and Jean-Claude. I’m a romantic at heart.
#8 Lestat (The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice)
While I liked Brad Pitt’s Louis in ‘Interview with the Vampire’, my favorite vampire in Anne Rice’s universe is Lestat. It might be because I read this book first, and it was the 1980s, and I totally loved the rock star vampire lifestyle. I also liked the flashbacks to his 1700s storyline which was linked to the first vampires, ancient Egyptian—Isis and Osiris—favorite deities/prehistoric figures of mine.
#9 Michael (Jason Patric, The Lost Boys)
Another fave 80s movie of mine is ‘Lost Boys’, which also stars Kiefer Sutherland. This one had a good mixture of sexy, 80s rock style, a great soundtrack, and some funny moments (loved the grandpa). Michael is the vampire who makes my list because while he was only a vamp for a short time, he played it well. He had a similar cool, sexiness I normally associate with a great Dracula, plus he fought his growing evil side to save the girl and the kid. I do prefer the Hero archetype over the Shadow, no matter how seductive the dark can be.
#10 Jerry Dandrige (Fright Night 1985 with Chris Sarandon, and 2011 with Colin Farrell)
Jerry is on the list just because the name alone makes me smile. I never wanted to be bitten by either of them, and never wanted either to win, but I loved watching!
Who makes your list? Any fantastic vampires I’m missing out on?
July 20, 2024
How to Avoid the Rejection Blues by Lorel Clayton
I get rejected almost every week, and that’s a good thing. It means I’m trying.
Confession: I am self-published and still looking for an agent and traditional publishing deal. I’ve been writing since I was a child, and I sent my first query when I was in my twenties, so I’ve been trying for a very long time. Admittedly, there were decades where I gave up writing and didn’t query at all, and looking back, I kick myself for that weakness. If I’d kept at it, I might have that agent by now.
Being a published author has been my dream since first grade when my book ‘Wise the Owl’ (a funny twist on a wizard at school) won 1st prize in the Young Author’s Contest for my school district. My next book, in 5th grade, was so good the school judges thought my parents had helped and disqualified me. My teacher knew better and got a visiting local author to sign it, which kept my spirits up. My third book, first full length novel really, was a science-fiction, which I wrote on a typewriter during summer breaks when I was going to college. That’s the one I finally finished and queried in 1996, after transferring it to my first Mac computer by laborious scanning and OCR recognition. That one was rejected by Oscar Collier (the agent who’d written the book on how to write a query letter, which I’d studied inside and out). He wrote lots of handwritten notes about how bad the book was. I was demoralized. I stopped writing for ten years. I didn’t query anyone else.
I was so stupid. I should have felt privileged to get a handwritten critique. I should have learned from it instead of hiding my head in the sand.
Writing is something you can’t help doing if you love it. I did lots of journalling, but finally the bug to write another novel struck. I wrote one, a paranormal suspense thriller, that my beta readers liked, and I queried probably two agents at most before I chickened out and decided I needed to get better. No replies. So, I wrote another book. A dark fantasy this time. That one I may have sent to five agents before it was rejected, and I chickened out again.
I’d been blogging and making lots of author friends, which helped keep me encouraged and kept me going. This was 2011, and after seven years of trying to have a baby, I finally had IVF and my son. Thus, I was in hospital and totally missed the blog comment from Hollywood screenwriter Julie Bush (Sons of Anarchy) who said I write well enough I should forget an agent and just self-publish. I really wish I’d seen that comment, because I’d have been perfectly placed to take advantage of the rise of ebooks. Grr!
As it was, months later I was up all night with a sleepless baby and decided for my sanity I needed to write something fun. So, I took the rough idea I’d had for Eva Thorne and turned it into ‘Tangle of Thornes’. I didn’t even try querying. Humorous fantasy/mystery/steampunk/paranormal romance was hard enough for me to explain to readers let alone try to convince an agent! It didn’t matter. This book was all for me and all for fun.
So, I self-published, and five books later I am so happy. ‘Tangle of Thornes’ made it into the top 500 on all of Amazon US (number 1 in Steampunk)! My prequel novella, ‘A Thorne in Time’ made number 1 in its category and also stayed in the Top 10 in Steampunk on Amazon US for six months! Now, ‘Nest of Thornes’ got chosen for a Bookbub New release for Less. I have my fingers crossed it does well, so I appreciate anyone who goes out and buys. THANK YOU!
And guess what, I wrote a whole other series of three middle-grade fantasy books over the last few years, which I’m now querying. I did some great pitches at the Australian KidLitVic conference and had a couple of agents take a look, but it wasn’t right for them. I’ve learned how random it is: you need the right agent looking for the right book for them at the right time. Totally unpredictable.
I’ve decided if it took J.K. Rowling and Stephen King hundreds of rejections (and some people still don’t like their work), then I am aiming for at least 100 rejections! I’m trying three a week, so I’ll get there in a few months and let you know how I go. I may need to write another book and aim for 100 more!
Thanks for reading.
July 1, 2024
Winners of the Eva Thorne Giveaway!
A huge thanks to everyone who entered and helped me celebrate the release of ‘Nest of Thornes: Eva Thorne Book 5‘!
PRIZES & WINNERS:
One $50 Amazon Gift Card! …Congrats to Patty M.!Three sets of Eva Thorne Books 1-4: …Congrats to Patty M, Audrey S. and Katherine!a Rafflecopter giveawayhttps://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.jsI’ll be emailing the winners shortly. And if you missed out on winning the entire Eva Thorne Series, you can get it on Kindle Unlimited here.
Or checkout the Smashwords Winter/Summer Sale where every book is on sale!
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