What the As The World Dies Trilogy Taught Me...Part One

This is an odd kind of post. It reminds me of those annoying writing assignments the teacher always made you do when you returned from summer vacation. Only this time I want to write about my experience writing the As The World Dies Zombie Trilogy and what I have learned along the way.

Embracing Inspiration
I was at work on day, about to take a break, when a vivid image appeared in my head. It was of a woman in an ugly pink bathrobe standing on her porch, looking down at the bottom of her front door where tiny little fingers were reaching for her. It was an intense image. Stark. Powerful. It demanded my attention. I had never thought about writing a zombie story before, but I could not resist the inspiration. I immediately wrote the first mini-chapter of book one called "Tiny Fingers" and posted it as a short story on a forum. When the readers asked, "Is there more?" after a bit of hesitation, I realized there was. A whole lot more.

And As The World Dies was born.

What I learned: Follow my inspiration and see where it leads.

The Process
Because As The World Dies was on a forum with regular readers, I was pushed/forced/urged to keep writing and not disappoint the fans of the story. Up until this point in my life, I had fooled around with story ideas, but it took forever for me to get to the finish line. Having the story online being read regularly, and having constant feedback, kept me writing on an almost daily basis. It still took two years to finish the story, but it would have been done sooner if not for some personal tragedies in my life.

What I learned: I can start a huge project and finish it. I have the discipline and ability to write a series of novels. It takes a daily commitment to the work and I can't slack off.

Note: I finished the rough draft for Pretty When She Dies in a month after I finished As The World Dies. Revising and editing took a few more months, but I proved to myself once again I could turn out a book and not falter before the end.

Reviews
When the story was online, I had nearly daily reviews. Some people were avid fans and loved everything about the story. Others were clearly not fans and did everything they could to tear down the story and me. At first my mood was greatly influenced by this constant feedback. I would be ecstatic when the reviews were good. Depressed when they were bad. Finally, I realized I could not let them have that much power over me. I just had to do the best job I could.

What I learned: Read the reviews, glean from them important information (writing strengths and weaknesses), and determine if it is constructive criticism or someone trolling. Reviews can be powerful tools for helping fans find authors who produce work they enjoy, but as a writer, I cannot allow them to control my writing or my moods.

Fans
When I began writing As The World Dies online, I did not really think about the fact that I would end up with a fan base. In fact, my first piece of fan email completely floored me. But after awhile, I came to realize the story did have fans. Something in the story was resonating with them, and they were very open about sharing their thoughts. Of course, there were the naysayers, but the majority of responses were extremely positive.

It was those original fans that helped me recognize my own worth as a writer and inspired me to keep going. They were the ones who pointed out my strengths and weaknesses and urged me on to find a way to publication when all I could do was cry and consider giving up.

I do try to respond to all my fan email (though I'm way behind right now) and thank each person for their support. I know that the fans are the main reason the trilogy has been so successful. Word of mouth is a powerful tool.

What I learned: Fans can be an amazing asset to keeping me on the writing path and encouraging me to higher aspirations.

They can also end up being great friends. (Here's to you, Uno and Morris!)

LGBT Characters...Here to Stay

All the recent controversy over gay marriage, Miss California, and the recent creation of the Rainbow Romance for LGBT writers made me reflect upon my own views on writing gay characters.


One consistent criticism of my work is that I have LGBT characters, one of them even being a lead in As The World Dies. In fact, Katie's bisexuality is often described as her being a lesbian, despite her explanation in the book of her view on her sexuality.

Other LGBT characters appear in ATWD. Ken and a new character named Betty in Siege, are both openly gay in the story. Though they both have good friends and loyal supporters, their sexuality is not always comfortable for some fort citizens (even some friends). In fact, in Siege, it becomes a point of contention with some. These three characters are vital to the telling of the story and I never thought twice about removing them or altering them to be straight. Even when people criticized them when the story was originally posted online, it did not occur to me to change them.


As the novels grow more popular and sales continue to be brisk, I see an occasional review that makes a huge deal out of Katie's sexuality. One person even spoke of sexual tension between the "lesbian" and the "sexually confused" Jenni. Talk about seeing subtext where there wasn't any! I feel defensive of Katie when these reviews post and defensive for bisexual people as a whole. They are a greatly misunderstood by both the straight and gay community at times.

But...I won't change Katie.


Recently, I received an awesome review at Rainbow Reviews. It positively made my day. I worried about getting Katie's sexuality right and as straight woman, I sometimes struggled with her point of view. But this review made me feel I had done a good job.


When I set about writing this post, I thought of a million arguments about why I should include LGBT characters in my stories and was working myself up into a pretty good defensive mode. Then I realized all my internal arguments weren't actually about why I write about LGBT characters. The truth is I write about LGBT characters because they are people, no different from anyone else except for the person they love. It feels natural and right to have LGBT characters. Its not for a political or religious agenda. It's just...right. LGBT people are in our lives every day.



























This poster pretty much sums it up (except I would add Bisexual and Transgender to the top).

My good friend, Dr. Pus, and I recently were discussing LGBT characters in the stories I write and he publishes. He has told me that I must fight to keep Katie bisexual should ATWD ever become a movie/tv show or get picked up by a major publisher. I told him I would. And he has recently written an amazing introduction to a new book by Kody Boye called "Sunrise" that has a gay man as a major character. We both agreed that its time for us as straight people (and people of faith), to stand up and support our fellow human beings.

And that is the truth of the matter for me. I'm writing about human beings. And they will be all different colors, religions, ethnic groups and sexualities.