07/02/2021
Dear Reader,
It’s interesting how the most influential moments in life are so excitable and yet make us feel so normal.
You jump for joy for a minute, then you go back to your usual routine as if it’s just another Saturday.
But it’s not just another Saturday.
It’s the day your whole life seems to come together. It’s the turning point, the kick-start for your career.
That’s how I felt last night at Something A.M.
After years of writer’s workshops, writing blocks, and revisions… After months of edits upon edits… After hours of reworking the format (which by the way I found out I had to do for an Amazon KDP eBook to look proper)… I finally hit the publish button.
When You Saved Me by Samhi C. (me) is finally up on Amazon Kindle Books. In the U.S. it’s $9.99. However, it is globally available. The different selling prices are in the image below:
I hit the button. The site told me it was pending review and it would be done soon… And I slept.
That’s it.
And it was quite easy falling alseep last night.
My dad used to talk about how when there isn’t a lot on our mind it’s easier to fall asleep.
Perhaps the reason I have self-diagnosed insomnia… Some nights I just can’t fall asleep. I have a million thoughts in my mind, all zipping and zapping this way and that way. Unfinished business.
I’ve talked about unfinished business before… Or, at least, relating to my social life.
But there are those day to day items on the ToDo list that sometimes don’t get done and they stay there, a pressure on your skull, because there are too many.
A millions things to write, a million things to read, a couple dozen shows you want to catch up on and some more a friend recommended, a job or two to prepare for for the Fall, Summer classes, and yes, relationships, and family obligations, and remembering birthdays and anniverseries, and did I eat lunch today?
And there’s a second layer. What I like to call my Daydream World. It’s a flood of scenes of different stories… Stories I’ve watched and read, stories I wish to write, stories simply there for me to quench my impulses without doing stupid things in the real world. Characters upon characters and plots lines upon plot lines.
And I have to keep up with the ones I want to write, make sure the idea, but more importantly the emotion doesn’t slip away until I jot down a few dialogues or at least the premise onto a piece of paper or in my notepad app.
And when I do sit down to compose the final draft, I have to hope that I can allow myself to slip back into character I wish to write in the exact moment of the story I’m in.
Every word must be laid down on the page correctly; every sentence has to have value; every character must have a personality; every plot must be engaging.
This is how the majority of my stories start. Including this one.
I first started writing the male lead back in 2016. Only a few months after I had made the decision I wanted to write professionally.
At first, he was just a generic arrogant playboy. The likes of what we see across story forms, throughout history. Because who doesn’t like a bad boy?
But as he continued to develop, as I began to discover the individual traits that made him him (the fact that he likes rocky road ice cream and that his favorite drink is bourbon but he loves wine too, or that the leather jacket he is obssessed with wearing was a gift from his late father, and that he learned how to and learned to love cooking from his late mother), I began to fall myself.
It became tricky because as much as I loved Damon Boudreaux, the main female lead Rosaline Castaway did not see him as such yet. And I had to remember this is their story more than it is mine. And I struggled with the fact that I wanted them to end up together by the end of Book 1, but they didn’t agree.
And that was the worst of writer’s blocks. And then it became a matterof time. Finding time to write the last chapter. Finding time to edit everything. Finding time to just sit back and appreciate the work done so far.
It’s been a long four-and-a-half years.
And every second has been worth it.
Because when I finally hit the publish button last night, and when I saw the email confirming that my novel had been launched this morning, I felt relaxed.
Excited, yes! But relaxed, even more so.
Today is a turning point in my career. In my life. But it is also the day I checked off one of the items that has been on my ToDo list for the longest time. And for that, for the effort, and for the patience – for that, I am proud.
And a huge thanks to all my readers, future and present, because knowing you exist is an immense motivation for me to write and share my stories with the world.
XOXO – Samhi C.
P.S. You will be able to find the free preview and full purchase link for When You Saved Me on the Home page and in the Important Links page.
