I’ve been trying to write this down since last night when the list news came
out. Wednesdays are always a hard day when you have a new release and you’re
waiting to hear what your list placements are. You try to work, but everytime
the phone rings or a new email comes in, you’re holding your breath, hoping for
even a small inkling of where you’ve landed. I wonder if Patterson and Grisham
still worry? I wonder if I’ll ever stop being nervous on those days? I actually
hope not because I think that would be like not being happy on Christmas and I
enjoy the shriek of happiness and then running around, telling everyone the good
news. That rush of adrenaline, that gushing gratitude that I feel for my fans– I
don’t ever want to lose that. It’s the same endorphin rush I still get whenever
I see a new cover with my name on it or the finished book when it’s finally on
the shelves.

Anyway as Murphy would have it, anytime I have a book out, the lists are posted
late.

Really late.

I knew on Monday that we were the #1 mm at Borders, Barnes and Noble and the
extremely important Walmart. But the Times and USAT lists are tough. Real tough.
This time, as it always seems to be whenever I have a new release, was a really
tough week. By that I mean there was a lot of heavy competition. Grisham,
Patterson, Koontz, the new Splinter Cell and all the others who have much better
placement and displays in the stores than I have. If the competition isn’t as
fierce, then you can tell where you’re going to fall, but with so many big books
out…

There were no guarantees.

I got the USAT news first. We were 13 on the list that compiles all books
whether they’re nonfiction, hardcovers, YA, etc. 13 is darn good (especially
given all the new books out this week) and better yet, Born of Fire was the
first mass market on the list, but only two places ahead of Debbie Macomber, who
sells a whole LOT of books. No clear cut clue there about the Times. So I
nibbled my nails and fretted and paced.

Why was I so nervous, aside from my normal nervousness? Because Born of Fire is
the first printing of one of the first ebooks pubbed in the mid 1990’s. I was
the first New York pubbed author to publish an ebook. And that was
back in the day where ebooks were thought to be vanity press and once you pubbed
one, no “legit” publisher would touch you. It was like you’d become some kind of
back alley sell out and no one wanted to have you around for fear you’d taint
them. Seriously. (Silke did you ever think we’d come so far? THANK YOU for
pubbing that book I wrote in college when no one else wanted it. You and Bonnee were the best). It
thrills me to this day to see how far ebooks have come and how well embraced and
thriving they are today.

It was a book I never thought anyone would read and it’s part of a series that I
took one of the bloodiest noses imaginable on (one day, I will tell that whole
story). This series put me through four of the worst years of my professional
career (I hope I can always say that, cause God knows I don’t ever want to go
through anything worse *knock wood*) and left a brutal scar on me. And working
on it does open old wounds.

But it’s a series I always believed in and one I had to abandon because there
was no market for futuristics. In the early 1990’s when I sold Born of Night
(Jan 1992 – you know there’s a story here because it wasn’t published until
1996), there were plenty of publishers wanting them and there were a couple of
authors who were trying to build the genre, Anne Avery, Kathleen Morgan, Marilyn
Campbell, Patricia Roenbeck and of course Johanna Lindsey.

Born of Ice which was originally titled Paradise City (the third book I sold)
was pubbed alongside many other wonderful futuristic authors such as Sharice
Kendyl (not me), Nancy Cane, Christine Michaels, Jayne Castle, Flora Speer, etc.

And then after us came a few more: Kristen Kyle, Stobie Piel, Dara Joy who
carried the genre for a few years after the rest of us had lost our contracts,
Patti O’Shea, Robin Owens, et al. But by 1999 the genre had withered and died
and there was no real place for it. Like the early 1990 paranormal market I’d
also pubbed in, it was gone and no one was able to carry it to the bestseller
lists. Those lists are important because that is what enables a genre to grow.
It wasn’t until we early paranormal authors: Feehan, Hamilton and I started
putting vampire novels on the top of the lists again that publishers began
looking for others to grow and the market exploded, kicking open the doors for
Harris, Meyer and the rest who followed us in.

For years, I’ve wanted to return to these early books and to see what could have
been.

Yesterday, you guys gave me that dream and I can never, ever thank you enough.
Born of Fire is #1 on the New York Times.

THANK YOU. From the deepest, most battered part of my heart, thank you. I really
feel like I’ve walked through the fires of hell with these books and I can’t
even think about it without tearing up.

For those asking, this is NOT the end of the Dark-Hunter books by a long shot. I
have many, many more ideas planned and have no intention of leaving that world
behind.

The League books are the third #1 series I have now, and Born of Fire is the
eighth book I’ve had to reach #1 in the last two years – a feat only two other
authors can claim.

THANK YOU. And yes, I hope to keep writing in this universe. After Born of Ice,
because I’m only one person LOL, I won’t be able to do more than one a year, but
I do intend to do one League book a year. The next one up will be Caillen and
then Hauk or Nero (you guys know how that goes).

The next Dark-Hunter book will be Infinity (Nick’s first Chronicles of Nick
story out in June) and Dev will follow in August with No Mercy and his heroine
will be Samia one of the DH Dogs of War. Then the next BAD Agency book: Silent
Truth will be out in April.

Today, I am happily working on the next Lords of Avalon book Darkness Within
which will be out in March.

Giant hugs to all of you!! THANK YOU SO MUCH again for your support of Born of
Fire and for embracing The League books the way you have (In Morte Veritas). You
guys totally rock! And here’s hoping that you’ll be looking for other
futuristics- there are other writers out there such as Patti, Dara, etc and you
can still find their books. Please support your local futuristic authors :)

Now back to work for me. I have a lot of books to write and I thank you for that
too :)

HUGS!!!