Disclaimer to Boyfriend

Read my boyfriend the next chapter in my new book.  He gave me this strange look after reading it.  Not to give too much detail, but this chapter contained two different types of  marriage proposals. Each very romantic.  At the end of the chapter he asked, “so which do you want?” I had to tell him not to read that much into my stories, that  this was pure fiction and just a part of my creativity.  But we ended up going into depth over some similarities between characters and events. I told him bfore writing any more chapters I would have to read a disclaimer, “the events described herein are not related to any persons, living or dead, and any similarities are purely coincidental.”  Not sure that will stop the questions 

New author’s adventure in publishing

     I know I am going retro here, but I decided to move blogs on a different site to this one.  My name is Tania L Ramos and I am a registered nurse, but please see my website www.tanialramos.com so see more about me.  What I hope to accomplish through this blog is to help novice writers, and up-and-comers to see what I am going through to get where I want to be.  I walked through Barnes and Noble today and noticed an entire shelf of books dedicated to James Patterson.  He is one of my favorite authors to date, and  it’s not for his adult thrillers either, I love him for the teen genre, including Daniel X and the Angel series.  When I saw the shelf dedicated to him, I told my boyfriend over the phone, “someday I will have a shelf here, too.” A girl can dream, right

     Earlier this year I wrote a book celled, “When I thought I Was Tough.” You can find that through this link http://www.bookemon.com/book-profile/when-thought-was-tough/129249 . I wrote that book, because, like many people following this blog, I always dreamed of completing a novel.  I had that opportunity this year when my doctor took my off work for stress and anxiety.  It sounds bad, but if I went into the reasons behind it-it would take an entire year.  The jist would be, on January 1,2011 I was served divorce papers.  I spent most of 2011 going through a divorce and child custody battle.  During that same time, my son was accused of a terrible offense, so I was also in court with fightining a flawed legal system.  And, if that wasn’t enough, we were also going through a trial for my brother who was fightining a huge case.  Before, you think we are some horrible family of criminals let me say this: in my 38 yrs alive, I never once had an attorney, went to court, or had a criminal offense.  We often joke that we come in peace, which is literally the truth.  2011 ambushed my family and I had to ask to be removed from work to deal with these issues going on around me.  Okay, that was the gist.  My doctor told me to pursue something, and not to sit at home crying all day (which I wasn’t doing anyway).  I decided to write that novel I always dreamed of writing.

     So, I opened my thumb drive and perused some things I had written down.  I don’t know how other people do it, but when I get a thought or plot in my head, I have to write it down or it will haunt me.  I found one story that was near and dear to my heart and ran with it.  For the first time in thirty years, I actually completed a thought.  My next step was to publish it, but I was petrified of going through a traditional publishing house, because I fear the word, “no.” So, I searched the web and found www.bookemon.com . This is the epidomy of self publishing, but a great site to use.  And after all was said and done, I self published my very first book, “When I thought I was Tough.” I bought a few copies for myself and family, but most people used the free online reader.  It is still there to be read … free! The book was very raw and had no editing, but it was a great accomplishment on my part, and I couldn’t wait to do another one.

     I started a new book but thirteen chapters in decided it was going in the wrong direction, so off to thumbdrive pergatory it went.  I instantly had a new idea and the book practically wrote itself.  “Be Still,” is the officila title now.  I went through so many bumps in the road with that book.  From the loss of my harddrive and eleven chapters, to editing hell.  I never worked so hard in my life as I did on this book, and I will say this: my heart and soul is in it.  I decided to try a step up from self publishing and went to independent publsihing.  I researched many companies, but the one that impressed me most was Iuniverse.  www.iuniverse.com Please visit their site.  Much of what they said seemed too good to be true, so i reserached what people called scams and bad business, but most of that too me sounded like a few angry people who didn’t make Sparks status out the gate.

     After a long conversation with my boyfriend and mom, I decided to give Iuniverse a try.  This blog is about my adventure into self publishing from an everyday, average, ordinary girl.  I am not rich (state disability remeber … oh and i paid for four attorney’s this year).  I do not have, “people.” I do not have contacts.  My only claim to fame is playing a paramedic on the old t.v. show, “E.R.” And that was only because they needed real EMT’s to pull gurneys from the ambulance.  I am nobody to the world of publishing.  This is my story …