Ah, Son of the Siren. The book that started it all.

Son of the Siren‘s book birthday is today, and it marks the first time I became a full-fledged published author.

Sometimes I envisioned myself being published earlier in my life. Other times being published seemed impossible. But things fell into place when I was 40 (just before my 41st birthday) and my dream of being a novelist finally came true. Part of me thought, if I kept working hard enough, I’d get there–and the other part of me thought I’d never get there at all.

I am so grateful to Oliver Heber Books for picking up Son of the Siren. Kim Ostrom, my editor, saw something in it worthy of publishing, and so did my agent, Rick Lewis. Those two saved this book from falling into nothingness.

I worked so hard on Son of the Siren. It took me two years to write it and about a third year of rewriting based on beta reader feedback. I started writing it while I lived in Japan with the intention of self-publishing it, but ran out of money (when Son of the Siren is out of contract, I will probably self-publish it under its original commissioned cover from Juhaihai so it stays out there in the world). Anyway, once I had gone broke, I decided to go back to my dream of traditionally publishing it, which seemed incredibly out of reach–especially after all of the feedback I’d gotten on it. Yet somehow, I persisted, and so did my story.

Son of the Siren has had some incredible things happen to it. I got a fabulous audiobook out of it with an amazing narrator, J. Kindred. It was picked to be featured at the American Library Association’s yearly convention at the Ingram Spark Table. It was a finalist in the American Writing Awards Young Adult Category. And after all this time, although I don’t have very many reviews, the majority of them are positive. I have a 4.19 on Goodreads right now (which Amazon rounds up to 4.2, yay!) and a 4.5 on Amazon.

Son of the Siren is also widely released. It started out as an Amazon Exclusive in order for it to be a part of Kindle Unlimited, but later we left the KU program and expanded to multiple booksellers, like Kobo.

Son of the Siren opened the door to more publishing deals with Oliver Heber Books. I love my publisher and I was so shocked and delighted when I signed a three-book contract with them after Son of the Siren. I never would have had a relationship with them or founder Tanya Anne Crosby without the book. So, I’m incredibly grateful.

I hope Son of the Siren will continue to perform well and have a great future. Thank you for reading.