19 Years As An Author

19 YEARS AS AN AUTHOR

This time of year always seems to sneak up on me. I mean I remember the day my debut, BLACKOUT, was released like it was yesterday, but it's also been so long that I just forget it when it comes close. It's weird to me to be 19 years from that point. I can remember being desperate to be published, thinking that it would never happen, and while the circumstances surrounding it were far from ideal, that's what made me a published author. It's what allowed me to open doors and go on to release my second and third and so on. So I can't really regret it, if that makes sense.

This time 19 years ago, I was 23, I was sure of what I wanted in life, and I didn't think I would actually get there. I certainly didn't think I'd still be alive to have almost 22 books out in the world. That just didn't compute to me because I was exceptionally sick and there didn't seem to be any chance of things changing any time soon. While I'm still sick, I am also a lot more stable than I was. Life has carried on around me, and here I am at 42, with so many more books than even 23-year-old me could even think of writing!

Normally I talk about the changes in publishing, specifically indie publishing since back then. 2005 was a long time ago and things have come along in leaps and bounds. I have five audiobooks now with more on the way. I have another book being released in October (pre-order here) and I have written double what I have published. It just blows my mind to think about just how far I've come and just how much I did not see this coming.

See, back then I was in and out of the hospital like clockwork. I was struggling. I was trying to keep putting one foot, or wheel, in front of the other, and I really didn't think I would see 30, let alone 12 years more than that! I don't say this for sympathy or pity, I say it because it was my reality. Though anyone wanting to make me an inspiration for surviving all of that, please don't. It's not something I want to talk about in detail and I know it was down to help from doctors, from medical science catching up with things, and from a myriad of different things that I had no control over.

All I could do was keep writing, and that's what I did. From one admission to the next, from one scary thing to the next, I kept writing because that was my escape. It still is in a lot of ways. While I'm more established as an author now, it's taken a lot of time and work and energy to get there. I couldn't have done it without the advent of indie publishing as it is now. I don't think I would have ever really managed to do trad pub. No shade to those who do, because it's a completely valid path, I just don't think I would have the career I have, and the stories I have behind me if I'd gone trad.

That's the thing, I went into writing planning to write ten books. Five would be standalones, and five would be the whole of the DYING THOUGHTS series. I did that. I also wrote more standlones, and the series ended up being eight books. I kept writing. I kept finding new ideas, and I kept trying to move forward because I did not want to be a small time author. I wanted my books to make an impact. Some have, some haven't, some may not until the days when I am really gone, but every book I've released has been a story that had to be told.

Life is something that happens when you don't realise it. I didn't think I would even see five years as an author, let alone 19! I'm hoping that by the time the date rolls around next year, for my big 20, I have even more books, and even more stories ready to be told. I always told myself that I would write until something stopped me or I ran out of ideas. People have tried to stop me, but the ideas keep coming. I have so many more stories to tell, and I plan to tell them to the best of my ability.

Thanks for the past 19 years, your support means more than you can ever know!

Follow Joey to be kept up to date with the latest news regarding Joey and her books.