Shark Bait; An Anniversary & Birthday History

One year ago today yesterday, I published my first novel, Shark Bait. It was insanely emotional and the result of more than two and a half years of writing. Writing that began roughly in late December of 2009. Although what I began writing was nowhere even in the same vicinity as what I published, none of it would've ever made its way out of my brain without my BBF (Bibliophile Best Friend, abbreviated to save space), Kelly. Or as the members of my household call her, K-E-L-L-Y.

Now, one of the reasons I make special mention of Kelly in my publishing anniversary is because not only did she play an integral role in the advent of the whole Grab Your Pole series, but Shark Bait also happens to share its special date with Kelly, as June 15th is her birthday. And yes, I planned it that way. Here's why:

From my research, it looks like I began writing Shark Bait, what would eventually become the first book in the Grab Your Pole series, somewhere in the realm of January 29, 2010, and what was that research? Well, it involved pouring through and scouring the thousands of emails I have hoarded archived between two laptops and Cox Communications's webmail server. The treasure trove of correspondence between Kelly and me however, was on my old PC laptop, the one that is behaving as if it's just about ready to join the dinosaurs. I'll be uber-sad when it does though, because the emails on this thing...? Fucking epic AND priceless!! So much so that I'm extraordinarily tempted to start printing them out so I have them forever and ever amen. Which is probably where my tendency to screen cap all kinds of shit has come from, because seriously, stumbling across something like this —>
makes for some extreme giggling.


Kelly and I used to email CONSTANTLY. <—That ain't bullshit or even a small exaggeration, folks. Before she took a new job that had her working in the field, Kelly and I emailed each other back and forth about ALL kinds of nonsense (mostly books, Buffy, and...well, mostly that stuff) many upon many times throughout the day and not only that, our email titles very rarely had ANYthing to do with the content of said email. It was fun for us to come up with amusing and giggle-worthy subject lines and if you didn't have a guess before now, Kelly and I can on occasion, be very creative. It was our habit that every single word I ever wrote in the beginning was copied and pasted into an email and she would then read it and give me feedback immediately (instant gratification FTW!) via email. Now what I find sort of funny about all of that is that the email documenting the honest to God beginning of the GYP Series was titled, new story. That's it. It wasn't even capitalized.

Also, if you happen to be able to read the actual email, you'll see that not much was changed from this very first draft to what made it into publication. Not only that, but according to the email history, I had the entire first chapter completely written by the following day at 2:30 in the afternoon. Although it underwent several rounds of editing afterwards and prior to publication, the first draft of Shark Bait was completed on April 1st, 2010 when Kelly very sweetly yelled at me in email, essentially telling me to leave it the fuck alone.

I finally listened to my BBF and VoR (<—see the acknowledgements of both SB & TOFitS as well as the dedication of TOFitS) and began writing The Other Fish in the Sea immediately. The first chapter which then included the prologue was completed on April 5th, 2010 when the whole process of needy author syndrome and copying and pasting snippets into emails began anew.

Since its inception, Shark Bait has undergone some major changes, up to and including a cover overhaul, all of which Kelly has been either consulted on, present for, or instrumental in bringing about, and truly, the book that you've all read and come to love wouldn't be what it is without her. So, in honor of both Shark Bait's one year publishing anniversary and

my dear BBF & VoR's birthday, I would like to give away one print copy of Shark Bait with the winner's choice of either the original cover or the new one, autographed by both Kelly and myself. To enter, please see the Rafflcopter below, and for more Shark Bait Anniversary/Kelly Birthday fun, visit these two GYP Street Team blogposts, GYP in the Blogosphere - Birthday Special and BB&ST S1E3!

        Oh and

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, K-E-L-L-Y!   

I heart you dearly and deeply.

a Rafflecopter giveaway