The Adventures of the Out of the Shadows Manuscript (Part 2)

As mentioned in the previous story, we writers are needy. We stop looking at Amazon and Barnes & Noble .com after a while because we get tired of reading the negative reviews. (All of us get them.) And we never really know how well our stories go over unless we hear from readers, and we pray for only positive feedback. I remember sitting next to Sherrilyn Kenyon (The Dark Hunters) on a panel at OmegaCon in Birmingham, AL last year. (It was a panel on Romance and Science Fiction. I have no idea how I got on that panel...) One of Sherrilyn's fans was in attendance. (Actually, a bunch of her fans were in attendance.) This particular fan said, "Let me put it this way. If I found out there was a galley copy of your newest book in this hotel, I would do anything I could to get my hands on it." I remember being in awe of Ms. Kenyon, thinking that it would sure be great to have someone feel that way about my galley copies. (Like I said...writers are needy!) Bearing that in mind, we'll continue with our last story.

I later found out that Sarajane brought the manuscript to school. Another classmate found it in her binder and became quite perterbed that she had a copy. (Always a good thing to hear, as an author.)

Then, a week before I went to Disney, Tom Powidski (the person who was supposed to get the Out of the Shadows manuscript originally), asked me about it. I told him how Sarajane got to it first. He narrowed his eyes. I found out later, that he called Sarajane's mother and told her that Sarajane needed to bring the manuscript to church that night.

I have liftoff, folks. (I'm not at Ms. Kenyon's level by any stretch of the imagination, but I have liftoff.)

But it gets better. Sarajane kept forgetting to go to church to keep from having to give him the copy until she could finish it. And then, she kept forgetting to bring the copy to church when she went--even after she finished.

He he he. A large grin on my part.

But it gets better. Tom actually drove to Sarajane's house on Christmas Day to get the copy before he flew to Philadelphia to see his family for Christmas.

Now, the greatest part about this whole story is that Tom is a man's man: huge and athletic. My ultimate goal is to get men like Tom to like the book, and since I'm a woman I have to write carefully to make sure I reach that market. Tom also isn't into the fantasy genre the way my main target audience is. This means I have officially written a crossover book (YA, Fantasy, and a little bit of Mainstream)! Or at least, I have a crossover audience. Yippee! (Oh, and don't try to get the manuscript from Tom. That would almost be a stupid as trying to wrestle the manuscript away from the TSME (top secret military expert).)

Okay, I must admit that I'm kind of tooting my own horn over here, but we authors need to hear stuff like this regarding our work. That, and...I'm just like the rest of you. I want Out of the Shadows to come out sooooooo bad, and I'm tired of waiting for it, too. So I figure I'll just start blogging about it to generate some excitement. I figure throughout the next few weeks, I blog about the some very important Annapolis landmarks (yes, the Earth section takes place at the United States Naval Academy) and maybe a few things in my newly renovated office that have influenced Out of the Shadows.