Diamond Wolf

Diamond Wolf, my baby. We have such a rollercoaster history....

It all started, when a friend of mine pointed out, Dark Eden Press was holding a contest to find new author.
I had been doing some cover art for them for a while already and only needed this little push to finally get my courage and actually submit something.

And so I did.
Diamond Wolf, or at least it´s raw draft, was written in some tiny cocktail bar in Hoyerswerda.
10k words in little more than 5 hours.
I love that meditative state, when the words are just flowing and you just KNOW they´re good....
Or at least you think, they are.

12500 words was the max, I stopped at 12347.

And then the wait started. First I believed in it... then I didn´t.. then I read it and was convinced again.

Funny sidenote: I started writing Romance, after buying a book from a pretty big publisher and it was so bad in story and language, I just thought "I can do better at 3am after two bottles of vodka" (Kids, don´t try this, I can keep up with polish construction workers, when it comes to drinking vodka)

And finally the results where in... I made second, which meant a nice little price and a contract.
Yay, me!

I put in the row for publishing, and that´s when the problems started.
Debra, whom I still admire very much, owner of Dark Eden Press had a recurrence of cancer and we all were destroyed, absolutely destroyed.

And there went the contract, understandibly, she folded Dark Eden Press to concentrate on her health.

But then Renee Rocco stepped in, with her project, A publisher that was opening in the summer of 2008.
And I had a new contract.I admit, I wasn´t convinced, brandnew publisher and all.
This might have been my first book to be published, but I had been around the business for a while already.
Yet, Debra trusted her, with her contracted authors, so... I gave it a try.

And never had any second thoughts. Renee and Frank pulled off the business with such professionalism and simple friendliness and great work ethic that I have felt welcome and at home ever since.

And as soon as the contract was signed, I got a friendly email from a very nice lady, telling me "I am your editor, lets get to work"
And man, did she make me work!

You see, I am German. I have never lived in any English speaking country, except for a combined 5 weeks of visiting the US, what I know about English I learned in school and while studying English Literature as minor subject (which basically boils down to "I hate ditransitive verbs") and from reading, reading, reading and writing.

How good my English truly is, depends on a) how many books have I read in that particular week/month and b) my daily form

The problem wasn´t gramatical errors... those I had beta-read out of it already, but a certain tune of the German language, that is quite unique and (at least, I´ve been told) makes my writing unique.
In German you can drag a sentence over several pages... with sub-sentences, side-sentences, semicolons and what not.

If you managed to get that far in this post, you´ll understand.
Even my German teacher in 12th grade chided me for giving her headaches.

So, I spent my time, picking apart sentences.

Oh, and did you know, that Open Office doesn´t show MS Word comments?
I found out, after my editor asked me, why I never reacted on the comments, only on the underlines.
That´s how I got to own MS Office, btw.

But I loved it.

And on the day, Diamond Wolf was finally published... I can´t describe those feelings.
I had just started job training one month prior and was still on probation with the company and I mustn´t mustn´t MUStN´T check onto my publishers website from work.
The disadvantages of IT...  the company is swarming with people, knowing how to check your online history.
Meh!

And then, the first royalties.. and wonders and more wonders... someone was buying it.
Even some of those people I recommended it to ;)
And some even told me, they liked it.
Especially some reviewers. Google Alert is your friend.
Oh my gosh, I´m so vain ;)

There are still people buying the book, even though I had to stop writing for a while, due to RL and a broken elbow, and the "publicity" as little as it was, vanished into the nothingness of the internet.

Lately a good friend asked me, if I couldn´t write a fling with the boys, clear up some of the things, that remained unsolved in Diamond Wolf and yes.,.. the words are flowing again.

Actually they should be flowing into my final project for my job exam, but heck... if the question is: to write about to hot guys or VoIP telephone systems... what would Angela do?
Alright, Angela Merkel would sit and wait it out.
But I think I might just be a little more driven... and not towards VoIP.