Vic/Tim officially released December 1st, 2015 and was the first novel I have written. While writing it I realized the story of the character Vickie was too big to be contained in one book. So it came to me that that I had four other stories to tell, making five books in all. Three prequels to Vic/Tim and one sequel. Vic/Tim at that point became book four in the series. The new book which is now in editing final phase with the publisher is called Vickie. It begins her tale from age eight to her first jobs out of college. In this book we see how she got her start and what made Vickie who she is in Vic/Tim.
Confidential readers of Vickie have told me that they loved Vic/Tim but Vickie was even more compelling. This I hope is true for everyone else. As I have learned that Vickie as a character gets mixed feelings between the genders. I have had feedback from both sides and men tend to like the book but hate the character. The expressions from them is she is complicated and too rough. However women have told me they love the character. So it is an interesting test of psychology with this character. When I created Vickie I purposely wanted a female character that was strong both mentally and physically and could not be easily defeated. A person of such strength that it overcomes about anyone she encounters. A person tempered by hardship to the point of unbreakable resolve. Also a story that you would either hate or love but you would be emotional. So far I managed to achieve these tasks with Vic/Tim. Vickie I hope carries this nature but at least gives some help in understanding what made Vickie.
Friday, December 11, 2015
All About Vickie
Vic/Tim was wrote originally as a short story back in 2005. I have wrote many short stories and some I felt needed to be made into full novels. Vic/Tim was certainly one of them. However at the time I had never made a full novel and was not sure how to tell the story about Vickie. Vickie is a tough, smart and powerful woman that is not intimidated by anyone. She keeps getting thrown into situations that require action that most people would not try. She does and can deal with it at any level. She has learned this behavior through years of hard times.
When I started to write Vic/Tim it became apparent after a couple of years of working on it that it was still too big to be one book. So I wrote a prequel explaining Vickie's early life called simply Vickie. Then it came to me that the entire series should be five books. I already have the story for all of them and Vickie is at the publisher being edited. The next one to follow Vickie is being written right now.
I felt that I had something special with this character when people reading it either hated the book or loved it. There seemed to be no in betweens. When I realized the emotion that Vickie invoked in the readers, I knew this book would go places. Even my publisher and three editors that read it in early drafts told me this book should do well.
I have cross pollinated this book series with a character from another book I am writing. Often like to do this and put "Easter eggs" in the story for the reader to discover. Even in the book Vic/Tim has hidden the five names of all the other Vickie series books.
My hope you enjoy the book as much as I enjoyed writing it.
When I started to write Vic/Tim it became apparent after a couple of years of working on it that it was still too big to be one book. So I wrote a prequel explaining Vickie's early life called simply Vickie. Then it came to me that the entire series should be five books. I already have the story for all of them and Vickie is at the publisher being edited. The next one to follow Vickie is being written right now.
I felt that I had something special with this character when people reading it either hated the book or loved it. There seemed to be no in betweens. When I realized the emotion that Vickie invoked in the readers, I knew this book would go places. Even my publisher and three editors that read it in early drafts told me this book should do well.
I have cross pollinated this book series with a character from another book I am writing. Often like to do this and put "Easter eggs" in the story for the reader to discover. Even in the book Vic/Tim has hidden the five names of all the other Vickie series books.
My hope you enjoy the book as much as I enjoyed writing it.
What was it like publishing my first novel?
For me stories come quick ideas that pop in my head or even dreams. They usually start out as short stories. However some prove to be too big to be a short story. I have a number of them that I will expand into full novels later.
When I was a teenager I started writing short stories and sharing them with friends and family members. My brother Bobby told me on one of them that it should be published. Well I figured he was just being nice. Later down the road as I got older friends would tell me the same thing. Again I had no idea how to publish something and felt my stuff was not valuable enough to sell, just entertain lightly.
It wasn't till I entered a story into a writer's website contest did I start to believe I might could do this for a living. It was a fairly popular site and there was nothing to win but notoriety. My writing skills were not good but to my surprise I won forth place out of thousands of entries. Still I went on not doing anything about it. It simply was an escape for me.
Then a character popped in my head called Vickie. I got the idea that this character likes to revenge herself on people in a comical way. So I wrote her in a short story called Vic/Tim. The title played on the two characters Vickie and Tim. Tim being the one she was torturing at the time. However the story turned serious and had a plot. Astonished I realized it needed to be bigger. Eight years later I started to work on it as a full novel. Two years later and working with my close friend Nicole I had a story. A real story this time. Over 80 thousand words. Now what do I do?
Nicole encouraged me to get a literary agent and get it published by one of the big "six" publishers. Well getting an agent is harder than finding bigfoot. I was rejected by over 500 of them. One even berated me over my submission email and its style. I looked at self publishing which is a good option if you just want to get something out there and have no money. You are not likely to sell hardly any books but at least you are published. After test trying it I realized I am not going anywhere with this. So I submitted to lesser publishing houses that did not require an agent. Again no luck.
Then one day I got an email from Tate Publishing that my manuscript had been accepted. Before I knew it was I was signing contracts and the way we go. They had people contacting me almost everyday wanting to know about this and that in the book. They were working teasers, book cover art, on and on. It was surreal having all these people work and spend time and money on something I just made up. Months later I had a book. A real published book. Fully edited by professionals and novelized. I was in shock just staring at it.
As a skeptic by nature I felt it might sell a few copies and that is it. I know it takes years to develop a following of readers and get known. That is if you are lucky. But I started to finally believe I can do this for a living. What I know and feel wrote down has value to someone. An actual career of doing this is possible.
So now I wait and see what the results are. Will my books fail? Will they just be a drop in an ocean of other books? Or will I have an empire King, Rowling and others? The future is hopeful. We will see.
When I was a teenager I started writing short stories and sharing them with friends and family members. My brother Bobby told me on one of them that it should be published. Well I figured he was just being nice. Later down the road as I got older friends would tell me the same thing. Again I had no idea how to publish something and felt my stuff was not valuable enough to sell, just entertain lightly.
It wasn't till I entered a story into a writer's website contest did I start to believe I might could do this for a living. It was a fairly popular site and there was nothing to win but notoriety. My writing skills were not good but to my surprise I won forth place out of thousands of entries. Still I went on not doing anything about it. It simply was an escape for me.
Then a character popped in my head called Vickie. I got the idea that this character likes to revenge herself on people in a comical way. So I wrote her in a short story called Vic/Tim. The title played on the two characters Vickie and Tim. Tim being the one she was torturing at the time. However the story turned serious and had a plot. Astonished I realized it needed to be bigger. Eight years later I started to work on it as a full novel. Two years later and working with my close friend Nicole I had a story. A real story this time. Over 80 thousand words. Now what do I do?
Nicole encouraged me to get a literary agent and get it published by one of the big "six" publishers. Well getting an agent is harder than finding bigfoot. I was rejected by over 500 of them. One even berated me over my submission email and its style. I looked at self publishing which is a good option if you just want to get something out there and have no money. You are not likely to sell hardly any books but at least you are published. After test trying it I realized I am not going anywhere with this. So I submitted to lesser publishing houses that did not require an agent. Again no luck.
Then one day I got an email from Tate Publishing that my manuscript had been accepted. Before I knew it was I was signing contracts and the way we go. They had people contacting me almost everyday wanting to know about this and that in the book. They were working teasers, book cover art, on and on. It was surreal having all these people work and spend time and money on something I just made up. Months later I had a book. A real published book. Fully edited by professionals and novelized. I was in shock just staring at it.
As a skeptic by nature I felt it might sell a few copies and that is it. I know it takes years to develop a following of readers and get known. That is if you are lucky. But I started to finally believe I can do this for a living. What I know and feel wrote down has value to someone. An actual career of doing this is possible.
So now I wait and see what the results are. Will my books fail? Will they just be a drop in an ocean of other books? Or will I have an empire King, Rowling and others? The future is hopeful. We will see.
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