Thursday, December 3, 2015

No, I didn't disappear from the face of the earth.

It's been a while since I've posted on my blog, or even written anything. I regret that. I miss it, the writing, the interacting with readers and other authors. I miss it all. 2014 was a horrible year personally, so I needed 2015 to regroup and recover.

In July of 2014 my wonderful husband suffered a heart attack. At the young age of 47, it hit out of no where. The heart attack was scary enough, but when the doctors sat me down and told me they didn't know why it happened, terror struck. How could doctor's not know what caused a heart attack. Well, they knew how it happened, his artery contracted with a spasm and cut the blood flow off to his heart. I've never heard of this so the fear really kicked in. After several rounds of tests he was finally diagnosed with myopericarditis. A virus that struck his heart. Though a virus in the heart is rare, a heart attack from it is even more rare. We were faced with months of uncertainty. How badly damaged was his heart. Would he be able to continue working. How would our lives change?

In the end, and after months of recovery, he's doing well. Very well. His heart is stronger and with some adjustments to our lives, he's going be okay. A scare like that changes a person, causes them to reevaluate what's important in life. Work is necessary, but so is spending more time with our growing children. That's what we're doing.

So, when 2015 rolled around, I figured we got through the worst of what life could throw at us. Not so. Life had other plans. At the end of January 2015 my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. After the initial shock, we stiffened our spines and gathered around her and got her through the last 11 months of surgery, chemo, radiation, and she is still under going drug infusions, but her prognosis is great. So, yeah, we finally did get through what life threw at us.

Now, about my writing. I didn't want this. I truly didn't. I've been patient and hoping that some small breath of a miracle would happen, but it hasn't. When a contract has been breached and you're told "Yeah, so, sue us." you lose faith. You lose faith in the publishing world. I worked hard on my stories and deserve to be paid what my contracts states. That hasn't happened. 10 months without a royalty payment is enough.

It hurts me deep down to ask this, but it's the only active thing I can do to get me closer to getting my rights back.

Please, don't buy any of my Ellora's Cave books. I'm not sure what's happening with the money, but I do know I'm not receiving my royalties and my rights are being held hostage. Regardless of what you've heard, the authors aren't lying about this. We aren't bad apples trying to create trouble. We're authors wanting the money we earned from writing and promoting our stories.

I'm hoping to do some self publishing if I can get the guidance I need to follow the process. All I want to do is write and tell my stories, and it's time I do that. I've come to the understanding that I won't be paid, and my rights to my books are more than likely lost forever, so it's time to move forward.

I hope to post more as the stories start to roll free. My goal is to publish at least one story in 2016. I'd be grateful for any good vibes sent my way to accomplish this.

I hope everyone has a great Christmas and an awesome New Year!

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