Hey, folks… I’m starting something different here on Travelling in Time and Space, and that’s featuring another author on Wednesdays. F.E. Feeley, Jr. has been kind enough to be the very first on my little plot of internet, and his post is something that we all know intimately. Without further adieu, I hand the floor over to Mr. Feeley.
Writing My First Book
The Haunting of Timber Manor came at a time in my life when things were really really rough for my then fiance and I. I was feeling very low. Pretty beaten down by the world and everything that I had tried to do to ‘make it’ just crumbled at my feet.
So, one day I started writing. I started with my feelings and started with how I wanted to be free of the past and the things that went on in my life prior to that period of time. I wrote and I wrote and wrote some more and before I knew it thoughts were collecting, memories were stored on a drive and John kept insisting that I keep writing.
To avoid a self help book, or a tell all, I figured I would take all the things that life had shown me, the good, the bad, and the ugly and put them in a story. I remember staring at a fresh page on my word processor and wondering, how do I start?
“On a dark and stormy night….”, flashed through my mind and then it was off to the races.
Looking back I realized I needed that book. Not just to make money off of or to get popular (neither has really been forth coming) but I needed to accomplish something. I needed to make something of myself.
See, I didn’t know this genre existed. I had no clue. Being a big reader, I stuck to people like Stephen King, Anne Rice, Tami Hoag, and in college I was introduced to The Iliad (which I hate) and The Odyssey and many many more novels. But I am gay. And while these books and stories were good, I longed to read one about gay people who lived happily ever after. I was tired of the ‘BrokeBack Mountain’ and ‘Hate Crime’ scenarios where gay people ended up devastated and alone. I’d read some erotica but was sick of the sex. Because, honestly, gay people do more than have sex. I wanted a theme, a moral, characters that reflected me and my perceptions about life.
So, I wrote one. And then another, and another.
But there is nothing like holding your first book for the first time and seeing your name on the various websites like Amazon and Goodreads. You think you’re about to be the richest person in the world, your work will be taught in universities, paparazzi is about to show up at your door any minute… any minute now….
And then you get real.
However, rich and famous I may not be, I accomplished a big deal. Being published is a BIG DEAL. And now, I have a voice, pride, and have dusted myself off, and thumbed my nose at my past troubles.
But that first time, there is nothing like it.
So here’s to you, first time published. Congrats. And I hope and wish for you all the success in the world.
F.E.Feeley Jr.
M. LeAnne Phoenix 