I don't know if I've written a blog about this before, but I feel it needs to be explained. In 2016 I was going through a rough time. I had just gotten out of a bad relationship. It was the type of relationship that had expired long before we said our final goodbyes to each other. During that relationship I hadn't been able to put much time into writing. I felt like I always had to be with him. I felt smothered and unloved all at once. It's a feeling that's really hard to explain unless you've been in that situation. When the relationship finally ended I felt two things: relief and a sense of worthlessness. When you spend a lot of time with someone you can grow used of having them there. I went through a period of trying to adjust to normal life without him. I started to revisit things I liked to do, and that's when I went through my old word documents. I wasn't sure when I'd started writing Zombie Bite, but there was something about it that cause me to go back to it. Maybe I was putting myself in Zoey's shoes. She'd lost a lot throughout the short story, and I felt that I had too. I also felt like I was getting too old to not have a book out there, so I rushed it. I sent it into the world with a crappy cover and little to no real editing. I actually don't think I ever edited the ending. I didn't feel the best about my work so I never promoted it.
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| The original cover for Zombie Bite. |
I didn't think of Zombie Bite much. A friend of mine asked me if I was planning to write a sequel from Hailey's point of view, but I wasn't sure. Around September 2017 something happened that brought my attention right back to Zombie Bite and my writing in general. An author posted something using a hurricane as a way to promote her friend's book and I reacted. Honestly, I shouldn't have reacted, but I'm a Louisiana native who had to evacuate during Katrina and it hit a nerve with me. I had put my characters through hell but found myself getting annoyed with a few words. The author decided to bring attention to my posts to the attention of her fans. They started messaging me on facebook, leaving me rude tweets on twitter, and rating my book on amazon. They even rated my nonfiction book that I'd made just so that I could have a physical copy of my repeat customer's information. I wish I could say that it didn't bother me, but it did. I've wanted to be a writer since I was in second grade. I knew other people would look at the book and not want to buy it, or my future work, because of the ratings. I had already been thinking about unpublishing Zombie Bite, so I just went through with it. I wasn't sure what I would do with it. I considered throwing it away, but decided to edit it instead. It needed something else too, a cover. I know my book will start out with negative reviews that had been left in anger, but I really hope that people can see past that and give Zombie Bite a chance. Thank you for reading the story behind the story.
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| Zombie Bite's new cover. Isn't it pretty? |
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