Never. Give. Up. Listen to me. NEVER.

Calla Lily said:

Gather 'round, my tribe, and let Zizi Lily tell you a story.

Way back in 2005 I wrote this horror novel which I considered All That. Before I found AW I entered it in contests and sent out one of the most abysmal queries known to man.

I quickly discovered the book was not All That. It was a hard lesson. Then I put on my Big Girl panties, joined AW, and set out to learn.

I rewrote this book from start to finish at least three times. Maybe four. I've also written seven other books since then, got an agent, and sold a mystery series to Midnight Ink, got dropped, and sold a reboot of the series to Henery Press.

I don't know the exact number of passes my horror novel has accumulated in the past 9 years. Enough to wallpaper a medium-sized room.

I never trunked the horror for long. It got a lot of love from betas who are also writers. It also gave several people nightmares.

Today I took this picture:

Dark Recesses Press bought my horror novel. The first novel. The novel that looks almost nothing like its original incarnation. The one through which I learned the business of writing. It's going to be published (e and paperback) this May.

Never. Ever. Give. Up.

I'm off to pop that champagne now.

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