Good morning!
Welcome to day twenty five here on Taboo Tens.
I'm excited to have on two guests. One, an author and the other a reader.
First, new and fresh out the water, Monika Krasnorada. She;s one of the sweetest gals I know in the genre. We have a lot in common, one being we're big fans of a certain band from England and the other we have a passion for writing.
Her first book, Fragile is published with Dreamspinner and she'd here with a guest post.
Please give her your attention!
Thank you so much for letting me invade your little piece of paradise. I was touched and deeply honored to be given this opportunity.
So, when sweet Michael offered to let me loose here, I probably wore her out, asking ‘what and how’ (being the total noob that I am), but she was an absolute dear with the patience of a saint, suggesting maybe I write about what it was like, for me, to finally get published and how good it felt.
Well…let me tell you…it felt FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC!!!!
You know, my little novella has been out for a couple of weeks now, but I still pinch myself. It’s just unbelievable to me. *shakes head* Yeah, I am still skunnered by it all. Who knew that being a fangirl would ever get you anywhere?
And, that’s just how it all started, me, the little teenybop fangirl. As a teenager, my walls, my ceiling were covered with posters of Duran Duran. I was insane for that fab five group of New Romantics. With their perfectly quaffed hair and expertly applied make-up. Oh, gods, those puffy shirts. Le sigh. Yes, I was completely and totally head-over-heels in love with those boys.
So, long before I even knew there was a thing as fanfiction, I was writing my little black, teenaged heart out, filling spiral notebook, after spiral notebook with stories of my boys. These were love stories, steamy (as steamy as a 14 year old virgin could conjure) love stories, but they lacked one key ingredient in the ‘accepted’ romance world…there were no girls.
*Gasp*
I know, right? Blasphemy, I tell you, but…I’m sorry, I looked at those beautiful boy-men, in all their ruffled gloriousness and I couldn’t help but imagine them kissing and…well, yeah, you know. ;) I mean, come on, everyone knows Nick and Simon had to at least have one makeout session. : ) And, John? Don’t get me started on him…he’s a bass player. He’s not going to let all that rhythm go to waste. *snicker*
So, yeah. I wrote loads of stories about them all, hooking up in various arrangements, and I didn’t add women because it was bad enough to see pictures of them with models and lucky fan bitches that
actually got to meet them, why would I ever want competition in my fantasies???
Yes, I have been a fangirl from the get-go, and being a fangirl is what led me to become a published author. When I get in my fangirl zone, it’s all or nothing, so a few years ago, I stumbled across my latest obsession. I had thought it would be a passing fancy, but as the years keep going by I find myself even more under his spell. Now, here, I’m talking about Gerard Butler. And, lord have mercy, I fell for him hard and fast and it looks to be that nothing will get between my Gerard and me. I became a little infamous in his fandom, for an incident in a Washington DC hotel room during one of his fan conventions, with a very close, personal friend of his.
That’s another story, believe me, but suffice it to say, yeah, I get into my role as fangirl a little too gung ho at times. :P
But, I started writing fan fiction with him as my *super star* and fell in love with writing all over again. I had given it up for years, being a nurse and then having a family, it just kind of fell by the wayside, though it was always a little spark in my heart. I remembered my love for writing and even though I was writing for just a small group of friends online, it was awesome.
Last year, though, I read a book that changed my life and I went all fangirl crazy again. I found the author on Facebook and was in a state of shock and awe when he accepted my friendship request. I won’t embarrass him by saying who he is, but anyone that knows me, knows who I am talking about, but through some act beyond my comprehension, we actually became friends and he became the greatest mentor anyone could ever hope for. Through his encouragement, I began to really believe I could do this…that I could write.
And, that’s what I did. I was lucky enough to get to join this little writing group for a while, writing side by side with some of the published authors I admired and it was thrilling and such a great learning experience.
Then, one day, I got a message on Facebook from one of them in the group, telling me about a sub call at Dreamspinner Press and how he thought one of my stories would be a great thing to send in.
Let me tell you, that was an amazing feeling. An author I loved, thinking my work was good enough to submit? So with his help and the wonderful tutelage of another great writer, we polished that little puppy up and sent it off.
What an ordeal! Gah!!!
I sent it in on deadline day *stupid rookie mistake, there’s no wiggle room, doofus*, there was some drama with them not receiving the manuscript, the email bounced it back to me. I know, right?? Panic city, but they accepted it late and two days later, they offered for it.
Oh. My. God.
That was the squee-worthiest moment of my entire life!
Now and forever, I can say I am a published author. How great is that???
*****
*laughs* OMG! What a great blog.
Told ya, me and this gal had a lot in common.
Notice I went a little crazy with the pics of that Squee Worthy band from England! Hope that didn't distract.
*winks*
Anyway, I couldn't agree more with anything she said. I started writing years ago back in my teens way b4 I know I was writing fanfiction. I wrote stories with John Taylor as well but they were hetero and a few with a couple other of my faves.
Then, only a couple of years ago, I picked up the pen to write fanfiction, slash as Monika described and haven't looked back.
Great blog Monika and I know there will be more published works from you in the future.
Please make sure you read Sheila Gallagher's blogpost and comment as well and join us tomorrow for the final special SSS of the month.
Till tomorrow!
Oohh okay one more...
Squee!
