The Whispers of Synchronicity

WINNER FOR THE $25 gift card is Sarah S.  Sarah, email me at christie (at) christie(-)  craig.com

Winner!!! Winner of last week’s contest is Ashlee Elliott.  Contact me at christie(at)christie-craig(dot)com for your prize.

C.C. Hunter AKA: Christie Craig, author of a New York Times Bestselling Series: 

How Did I Get Here?

Do you believe in synchronicity?  Do you believe that if you work hard enough, that if you stay on the right path, that you will get your just rewards?  Do you believe that perseverance pays off? 

I do. 

In 2005, my agent and I had just about lost hope of selling my humorous romantic suspense novels.  We kept getting letters saying… “Love the voice, but humorous romantic suspense isn’t selling well in today’s market.”  And then one tagged on the question:  “Can Christie Craig not write a paranormal?”  All those close, but no cigar letters were beginning to really sting.  I did what all writers do, I whined and whimpered to my agent.  Well, not all writers do that, some agents don’t tolerate it, I just got lucky.  (Though, I’m not so sure she feels the same way.) And after listening to me, my agent said, “Then write a paranormal.”

She made it sound so dang easy.  Begrudgingly, but feeling desperate, I searched my heart to see if this really felt right for me.  Was this the path I should follow?  Would it help me reach my goals as a writer—to climb that publishing ladder?  It was amazing the feeling I got when I seriously contemplated it.  It was as if a little voice in my head said, “Go for it.” 

Believing with all my heart that this was divine intervention, I sat down and started researching, plotting, and working on a story about four witches. I told my agent about it and she loved it.   Then, about five weeks later, when I was a couple of pages away from finishing the proposal, my agent called.  “I spoke to the editor who loved your voice and wanted you to write a paranormal,” she said. 

“Yes?” I asked, thinking this was really good news.

“Well, she needs you to change the witches to fairies.  Witches aren’t selling very well in today’s market.”

I friggin’ couldn’t believe it.  I was getting almost the same rejection on something that hadn’t even been sent out yet.  I said some words that weren’t very lady like and would have gotten my mouth washed out with soap if I was still living at home.  And it might have still gotten washed out if my agent was in close proximity to me with some soap on hand.  But come on, I knew zilch about fairies.  Zilch!  I was a little miffed.  Okay, I was a lot miffed. 

Yet, damn it, I still got that message from my gut that this was my path.  So I put myself back in the chair, laced my butt with super glue, and started researching, plotting and working on a story about four fairies.  But I’ll admit that all that bottled up resentment went right into that manuscript.  Well, hell, they wanted friggin’ fairies, I’d give ‘em friggin’ fairies.  

I wrote that proposal with all my barrels locked and loaded.  One of my critique partners read it and said, “Oh my God, I can tell you were pissed when you wrote this, but damn it’s good.”

I sent my friggin’ fairy proposal to my agent and she sent my friggin’ fairy proposal out to editors.  And . . . and I got a lot of friggin’ letters saying, “Love the voice, but humorous paranormals aren’t selling all that well in today’s market.”  It even went to the ‘buy’ committee at two major New York publishing houses.

I was about friggin’ ready to pull out my friggin’ hair and had mentally buried my figgin’ agent in the compost pile.  I didn’t kill her or anything and I didn’t plan on leaving her there very long.  What really disappointed me was that I’d honestly thought my gut said it was the right thing to do.  I’d done all the work . . .  for nothing.  Zilch!

Or had I?

Well, it appeared that way, especially when shortly after that I finally sold my humorous romantic suspense stories and not the paranormal stories.  I actually sold four of my romantic suspenses in one day.  And I did pretty good.

But let’s flash forward to 2010.  I’d sold some more romantic suspense novels, but I wasn’t climbing that ladder as fast as I would have liked.  Then an editor picked up the phone and called my agent.  (Thank God, she was out of the compost pile by then) “Would Christie be willing to write a young adult paranormal series for us?”  You see, even after four years, that editor still couldn’t get that friggin’ fairy story out of her head.

Yup, today is release day for the fourth novel in my New York Times Bestselling Shadow Falls series.  I’ve climbed the ladder, I’ve accomplish my dreams and so much more.  I got here because of synchronicity.  I got here because even when the rejections tried to rip out my passion for writing, I didn’t give up—instead, I doubled up on the super glue and wrote another book.  I got here because I followed my gut on what I felt was right for me.  I got here because of a friggin’ fairy story.

I hope any of you working toward your dreams—and it doesn’t matter what kind of dreams—will take heart.  Sometimes following the right path doesn’t offer you the benefits right away.  Sometimes you have to hang in there and use super glue.  You have to keep going even when the going gets tough.  Good luck to everyone on meeting their own dreams.

To read an excerpt of Whispers at Moonrise go to: http://www.cchunterbooks.com/books.html

And the first book in the series, Born at Midnight, is now on sale for $2.99 everywhere e-books are sold.  

Amazon:  http://tiny.cc/e5wglw

B&N:           http://tiny.cc/98wglw

Now here’s the back cover blurb for Whispers at Moonrise:

“It’s not often that I love a series as much as Shadow Falls. I find myself thinking of nothing else!  This has been one of my favorite series of all time.” –Open Book Society

   

Shadow Falls Camp is back in session with the most explosive installment yet.  A shocking new threat will rock Shadow Falls—changing it forever and altering Kylie’s journey in ways she never imagined.

 Even at a camp for supernatural teens, Kylie Galen has never been normal. Not only can she see ghosts, but she doesn’t seem to belong to any one species—she exhibits traits from them all. As Kylie struggles to unlock the secrets of her identity, she begins to worry that Lucas will never be able to accept her for what she is, and what she isn’t…a werewolf.  With his pack standing in their way, Kylie finds herself turning more and more to Derek, the only person in her life who’s willing to accept the impossible.

As if life isn’t hard enough, she starts getting visits from the ghost of Holiday, her closest confidante.  Trouble is, Holiday isn’t dead…not yet anyway.  Now Kylie must race to save one of her own from an unseen danger before it’s too late—all while trying to stop her relationship with Lucas from slipping away forever.   In a world of constant confusion, there’s only one thing Kylie knows for sure.  Change is inevitable and all things must come to an end…maybe even her time at Shadow Falls.

Ten Things You’ll Learn from Whispers at Moonrise

1.      Kicking your boyfriend’s father’s butt might not be good for the relationship.

2.      Sometimes following your heart means breaking some rules.

3.      Getting trapped in a grave with three dead girls is not a walk in the park. 

4.      Your parents breaking up sucks. Your mom having a boyfriend, and kissing him in front of you, sucks BIG TIME.

5.      When your boyfriend says one thing, but does another, what do you believe? His actions or his words?

6.      You can’t always protect the ones you love. Sometimes the only way to protect them is to tell them the truth—even if it hurts.

7.      When you are in love, you usually want to talk a lot more about your boyfriend than your girlfriends care to hear.

8.      You shouldn’t mess with magic if you don’t know what you’re doing. Especially when someone could end up sterile.

9.      Sometimes it is the little choices we make, and not the big ones, that define who we are.

10.   Be careful what you wish for or you might end up turning a bright shade of red in the boys’ bathroom.

And today I’m giving away a $25 Amazon or B&N gift card to one lucky person who leaves a comment.  This blog is also being published at Laugh, Love, Read, so if you would like to be entered twice leave comments at both places.  For Killer Fiction come back tomorrow to see if you are the winner. Winners will be posted on top of the blog.  For Laugh, Love, Read, come back next week to see if you are the lucky winner.  Here's the link and I hope to see you there....   http://christie-craig.com/blog/