Jim Butcher making dreams come true.

Jim Butcher, plus ten to awesome!

Okay, so I guess I should disclaimer this whole blog post with this: Fanboy flail alert!

Some of you know that recently I was fortunate enough (due to the kindness and generosity of my friends and fan club) to attend writing seminar with a panel of NYT Best-selling authors, agents, and editors. It was an amazing experience, and not the first time for me there.

But hold on and let me crank up the time machine so I can dial it back and explain why this year was more special than before.

*Time machine sounds and 80’s visual effects*

There I was, 2008 and 18 years old having decided I was going to be a writer! I was going to follow the footsteps of my greatest literary hero, Jim Butcher. Naturally…I started writing fantasy instead of following my love of mythology and working on urban fantasy. Makes total sense.

I was 18…not a whole lot added up to what would be called sense.

Any who, for those that know me, I also tried to take my life around this point because I struggle with suicidal depression.

Okay, fast forward time to the better stuff because this is a positive post.

I started my first fantasy and it was wonderfully horrible. Awesomely so. How so? Awesomely. And as a new writer who obviously knew everything, I made sure to tell you on every page how awesome my fantasy was with the nauseating overly prosey prose of prose… If that novel was a scent, it’d be teenage overuse of Axe body spray. The writing could’ve choked you out.

*Presses fast forward harder*

It’s a few months after Jim Butcher releases Ghost Story in The Dresden Files. I’m feeling low. My writing isn’t going anywhere. I haven’t been submitting because, well, I feel like I’m crap. I’m looking for a personal sign from something in and out of life.

Tysons Corner mall, Barnes and Noble, big ole face and sign plastered along the wall. Jim Butcher will be there in December of that year (I believe…hard to remember the month) signing copies of Ghost Story.

Ay dios mio! Pardon my French. Erhm…

Well, if that ain’t a sign, I don’t know what is.

*Pushes FF button harder* *Weird speed up windy noises* < That’s a thing from before DVDs. There used to be something called VHS…for you kids out there.

Boom. In line and grumbling along because how dare an army of people stand in line before me to see my hero.

Then I start talking to people and realize, “Holy crap!” He’s not just my hero. His works have positively affected a metric buttload of people. From bringing cheer through hard times, to lifting them up and and strengthening them, to everything in between. His writing has literally inspired, changed, and saved lives. Something that, yes, can be said about and for a lot of writers and their work’s effect on their fans. But, every fan has their hero, and this was ours.

*Fast forwards harder*

My turn is almost up, I’m cracking jokes about the magical qualities of his hair while I’m in line. Saying things like, “It’s like a Loreal Buddha, if you stroke his hair, you get good luck.” Simple, silly things that make a few people, including Jim, chuckle/chortle. Was worth it. Now it’s my turn. He signs Ghost Story to me and I tell him about struggling as an author and my suicide attempt.

You’d probably imagine some weight fell and silence filled the immediate space. It’s a pretty weighty thing to tell someone.

Nope.

He didn’t miss a beat in telling me to keep writing and the only person that could kill my dream was me. If I stopped, I’d never know and that’d be a waste.

Just like that.

He knew what to say.

He could have given me a platitude.

He could have shrugged it off with an, “I’m sorry, next.”

He didn’t.

It was simple. It was honest and sincere. And it helped.

*Fast forwards so hard!*

It’s 2013 and I’ve written Grave Beginnings, book one of my paranormal investigator series, The Grave Report. See what’s happening here? I’m back to my roots and love for what I grew up with, urban fantasy. From the early Hellblazer comics. Television shows and movies focusing on or with mythology, to, yes, my first urban fantasy novel series I read, The Dresden Files. I’m doing what I love.

Christmas of 2013, boom, Grave Beginnings is published. Many of you who follow this little blog know how that novel’s gone on to do. Best book read of 2015 by A Drop of Ink Reviews. Selling so well in fact that I don’t need a day job atm.