Guest Post: Reinvention (Tawny Stokes)

Ch-ch-changes…as David Bowie’s iconic song streams through my head, I think about all the changes I’ve made in the past year.  There has been quite a few.  Some small, and some major.  Some personal like my continual battle with Pepsi addiction, but most are related to my writing career.

As probably a lot of you know, there has been tons of turmoil in the publishing industry, and unfortunately since I haven’t found huge success in the paranormal field, that turmoil has affected me, as well as tons of other authors I know and love.  As with all strife, its how you handle it that makes the difference. And I’ve never been one to let anything get me down.  I’ve been dropped by publishers even before this industry shakeup.  Kensington dropped me after my disastrous showing in sales of my adult post-apocolyptic book Inferno, the sequel to Hell Kat.  And I kept going.  

After my third book came out from Harlequin Nocturne, I did some soul searching, and realized I really didn’t belong in the current paranormal romance field, IMHO.  I realized I had a strong voice for YA, so I wrote one, and sent it to my agent and she shopped it, and shopped it and shopped it. And unfortunately, it didn’t hit.  So I wrote another YA, and sent it to my agent and she shopped it and shopped it and shopped it.  We came closer with this one, so close it makes me cry just thinking about it.  But through this all I realized that I LOVE writing YA.

Also through this shake up, I went back to my first love, writing screenplays.  I actually started writing them before I ever wrote a book.  So I’ve written a couple of scripts, and in the past year, I’ve secured a Hollywood manager, and a producer who loves my work and my voice and we have developed a TV show pilot together, (which is actually based one of my YA books) and it is currently at the networks being considered.  Wheeeeeeee!!  I have a few other scripts being read as well by various producers.  I’m very excited about the future for me in movies and TV.

Oh right, back to books…. J

So through this all, and the rise of ebooks, and the kindle, I decided to selfpublish as well.  I’ve already released an adult urban fantasy called GLIMMER, under my Vivi Anna name, and I’ve just released my first YA, called STATIC, under my real name Tawny Stokes.  And through this all I realized that all I really want to write is YA.  I’m very excited about the choices that authors have now.  I’m excited about the future of publishing for authors.  We have many paths to take to get to publication.  It’s a brave new publishing world and I’m very excited to be part of it.

Oh, and for all those cupcake lovers out there, Mocha are you listening? I just recently had the most amazing cupcake in all the world…at Pink Sugar Cupcakery in Victoria, British Columbia.  I had their trademark cake the Pink Sugar.  It was the most delicious thing I have ever tasted in my whole life. And they do orders online…I’m just saying.  J