Learning

I stared out the window of the plane I was on headed to Miami. I thought about the journey I went through to get to that point, and I thought about my daughter. She always reminds me of why I continue to write. She gives me my strength. This time around winning the Readers Favorite “Book of the year” award for urban fiction, I needed that strength.

I’m not going to lie, when I first wrote “Wounded” I was scared. I didn’t want anyone in the LGBT community to feel like I was exploiting them or trying to offend them since I’m a straight man writing about their lifestyle. I strongly questioned if I should even publish the book, but I knew my heart was in the right place so I went through with the novel. The editing process was rough, and I didn’t have the same excitement that I had with “Monster”. I started to doubt myself. A fellow author and friend of mine Stacy Campbell, agreed to give me an honest critique of my book. After reading it, she told me she thoroughly enjoyed it and I had another hit on my hands. I let several members of the LGBT community read it. They were all in agreement that the book represented them in a positive way.


I felt I learned a lot from my first novel. I felt I was wiser, and had improved. I knew what worked and what didn't with promoting my last book, and I believed this time around, I’d have an even greater impact on the literary world. The experience with this book was the most humbling. I wrote “Wounded” because it was challenging and I believed a lot of people could benefit from the story. I knew that some people wouldn't like it. I knew it was controversial, but I had faith that my book was deep enough for readers to see through the dark parts and understand the messages I was trying to relay.


As far as sales and reviews, “Wounded” did extremely well. “Wounded” was #2 on the Amazon best sellers list, and it received great reviews from credible book reviewers. While those aspects were doing well, I lost some fans because of the topics this book addressed. Some people felt that “Wounded” was too dark or didn't like that the main character was a Lesbian. Personally, I didn't feel the book was too dark. Was the subject matter deep because it addressed rape? Yes, but I purposely DID NOT go into depth with the rape scenes. I didn't want rapists and or pedophiles to get off on the book, so I stopped the scenes and woke my character up when she was having her nightmares about the incidents. As far as my character being a Lesbian, it’s 2014. I believed and still believe that for the most part, my fans are open minded, mature, and strong enough to handle the real life topics I write about. The book was doing great, but knowing that some people stopped being a fan because of the topic, hurt a little. I lost some, gained more, but no author wants to lose anyone.


Another humbling experience this time around was losing friends. Some people I valued and respected, chose not to support me. Anyone that knows me, knows that if you support me I’ll go above and beyond to support you. Seeing that I was receiving more support from people I didn’t know compared to those I considered friends, hurt. I continued to work hard and promote my work, but the experience definitely brought me down a peg.


This time around at the book awards I felt even more humbled than last year. I was grateful for the award and happy that through all the adversity I faced, I was able to win. I met other authors from different genres while at the ceremony. Hearing their philosophies and experiences made me realize that I still have a long ways to go before I have my roots thoroughly planted in the literary world.



I feel the biggest lesson I learned with this book is loss. I can’t please everyone. There will be those who will not be fans of my work. I might lose some fans and gain more, but that comes with the job. I can’t expect everyone to support me the way I would support them. It’ll only lead to disappointment when it’s not reciprocated. I might lose friends, but I will also make new friends. As long as I stay humble and learn from my mistakes, I should continue to evolve into the man and author I’m supposed to be.