The Two Fires That Changed My Life

It was almost a year ago from today when my friend showed me his Kindle Fire and suggested I read The Hunger Games. A day later, my friend let me play around with his Kindle Fire and I wanted one badly. For years, I'd been collecting hardback books, both for reading as a hobby and felt conflicted about not having a physical copy of a book.  I was heading out on a road trip to California when I downloaded the preview for The Hunger Games while waiting to leave.  Not ever being able to read in the car, I was going to read a couple of more sentences and put down my phone.  By the time I finished the preview we were going through Seattle, when I saw the full book was $5 and decided to buy it.

The next day, my mom insisted on buy me my Kindle Fire as an early birthday present.  In the 9 days of my road trip I would end up not only reading and loving all three books, with Catching Fire being my favorite, but also getting my good friend to get and read the series over the break along with me.  I loved being able to read in the car and not getting sick, as well as having the perfect lighting anytime that I wanted to read.  Little did I know this was only the beginning of changes yet to come for me.

Upon returning from my trip, I started exploring, previewing and buying other books.  I soon discovered something wonderful about the Kindle I never had with books, that being I could read whatever I wanted without fear of anyone seeing or judging what I was reading.  I could bring my book and read it anywhere.  If I wanted to share what book I was reading I could, if I didn’t I could easily say I was reading something else I’d already read.  It was not like I’d never read gay themed books and such, but I’d been limited to what I found out the library or ordered online.  Now I was able to check out all sorts of books and authors. 

Soon I discovered the books I liked were all written by what I would learn were referred to as Indy or Indie authors.  These books seemed to have more heart and drew me into the stories deeper than anything I’d ever read before in my life.  I would find an author I liked, read their books and search until I found another author I thought I’d enjoy and repeat.  Never in my life had I read as if I was reading.

In the meantime, I had written a story prior to my trip, nothing much which I shared with a friend of mine who thought it was clever and thought I should write more on it.  The idea was something I had and felt I should write before it became a faded memory.  A month later after returning from my trip, I kept imagining what could have happen to this guy prior to what I had written and I wrote it out.  Something to me seemed to be missing and I thought about writing part of the story from another guy involved.  Thus Derrick and then Justin were born.  For two months I would think of ideas and write a novel that I would later title Finding Our Way.

Thankfully, a few of my friends help in any way they could to help get my book together and ready for sale.  From encouragement to editing, I have been so thankful to all that they have done for me.  Jen, has been right there for me since day one, putting in countless hours reading, editing, revising, offering advice and being the one to tell me when something is shit and not sugar coating it.  Paulie reads through and offers valuable feedback of what he thinks works and what he thinks needs to be tweaked, as well as being the first person to buy upon each release.  Susanne has been another set of eyes from reading through writing, sharing her opinion and being my sounding board because I want to talk through something we both know I am going to do anyways.     Then there are those people I have met along the way, from fellow authors to fans who I have been so glad to get to know and have helped each other out in various ways. 

I’ve been truly amazed at how many people have…

·         Bought my books

·         Read my books

·         Liked my page

·         Subscribed to my blog

·         Sent me messages

·         Reviewed my book

·     And the list goes on

The way this year has turned out has been a pleasant surprise to me.  I am delighted to see what they next year has in store.  Who would have thought these two fires would have changed my life.

Thank you for taking part in this life-changing journey.