Creating stories is something that I’ve done for a long time. Much longer than I’ve been a journalist or author. It is a part of who I am.
As a young child, I had all sorts of imaginary worlds I dreamed up and explored. My imagination served as an escape route from a childhood littered with severe health problems that limited what I could do in the real world. As I grew older, an active imagination helped spark an ability to create characters, settings and plots for stories I wanted to tell the rest of the world.
Unfortunately, I was painfully shy until I went on a two-year LDS mission at age 19 and attended college after returning home. I had a difficult time trusting people and worried how they would react toward me sharing a part of my personality and identity that was so important and intimate. I kept the stories I created in my head for many years, tinkering with them in my spare time and telling myself that one day I would publish them for the world to see.
Overcoming fears
I always made excuses as to why I wasn’t ready to pursue the goal of becoming an author. I always let other facets of my life get in the way until finally committing to writing a novel last year.
Writing and publishing Pandora Reborn changed so much for me in the realm of story creation. It represented my first real effort to put a part of me out there that I had hidden away for so long. I did it, even while I still had fears as I plowed ahead during the writing and editing process.
What if no one likes this story?
What if they ridicule my characters or my plot?
What if my writing style is roundly criticized?
The fear of failure felt tangible and real. That’s why it came as a relief when reviews started coming back and people loved Pandora Reborn. It blew me away. Nearly everyone in my extended family read it when I first published it earlier this summer. They all enjoyed the book and came away complimenting my writing and storytelling abilities – even family members who I didn’t expect to like it at all. A few friends have bought the book and offered up serious praise as well. To date, I’ve had a single negative review among the dozens of people who have publicly or privately shared what they thought of Pandora Reborn. An overwhelming majority have enjoyed it and been entertained by it, which is what I hope for as an author.
Going Global
I’ve achieved so much within the first two months since I released Pandora Reborn. It’s almost surreal to think about it, given the odds against first-time authors. One of my best achievements is getting global distribution for my book.
I cracked the bestseller list on Amazon Italy toward the end of August. For a brief period, my book ranked in the Top 10 in three different ebook categories and in the top 50 among horror paperbacks. I can say with pride that I have truly written a bestselling novel.
Both the paperback and ebook versions of Pandora Reborn are available in more than 300 independent bookstores across the United States and Canada. My book is distributed by major US booksellers like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-a-Million and Walmart. Pandora Reborn is available to more than 30,000 libraries worldwide through the Overdrive catalog. It is available on ebook subscription services like Scrbid and Playster. Major booksellers in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Netherlands, Turkey, India, Japan, and Thailand all carry ebook or paperback copies of Pandora Reborn on their websites.
I am continually working on getting what I’ve written in front of readers across the world. My goal is to bring all the characters and stories I’ve created into their homes and hope they enjoy reading about them as much as I have enjoyed bringing them to life.
If you have purchased and read a copy of Pandora Reborn, I’m grateful for your support and hope you enjoyed the novel. If you haven’t done so yet, I invite you to hurry and get a copy today.
Join me on this journey. This story is just the first of many I intend to share with the world. And I want you all to be a part of it.