To begin these blogs, let me tell you a little about who I am. First and foremost, I am a full time writer. I have been writing since I was 11 years old. Let's just say it was my last career choice growing up. I have always enjoyed telling stories and I was able to talk to people better on paper than in person. I was very shy growing up. That was in part because I was being teased by my classmates and two sisters. That changed when my family moved from Monroe to Fort Wayne, both in Indiana. I began making friends and my love for writing grew even more. I learned how to write poetry. Now, at the age of 31, I love writing more than when I was a kid. Having my own kids made the difference I think. My husband adores the fact that I write and encourages me everyday which also makes the difference. Cursed Blood was my first book published. It actually came to me through a nightmare. The main character is Donna Summers, who I was in the dream. The actual beginning of the book is the part that woke me up. I was terrified. I felt my heart racing. I looked over at my husband who didn't even stir so I lied back down and looked up at the celing as I calmed down. Then I started thinking. I had always wanted to write horror stories like Stephen King so I thought this would be a good story to begin with. I made plans for a year. I developed the characters and dates in which people died from her curse. I sat on it for a little while during the writing of another story. Then, I began writing Cursed Blood. One month later, which is my record by the way, Cursed Blood was fininished. I sent it to many publishers and waited for acceptance as I sent other stories in too. Two months later, it was available for readers.Stolen Identity is my second book published. It isn't available yet. This is the book that I was writing when I planned Cursed Blood. This one took me two years to write because the scenes were difficult to get through. I actually stopped writing it for a while when I moved to Muncie, Indiana. It was there when I talked to a friend about the book. She read what I had written and loved it. She suggested a few things to get me out of writers block and it worked. The remaining year, I spent polishing the book and began sending it in when I sent Cursed Blood. It was actually accepted by the same house that had rejected it a couple months before. A different editor saw it and liked it. She made a few more suggestions and I changed one of the scenes. Now it is begin edited, a few months after it was accepted. It was accepted in May, just shortly after my very first book signing.As I continue to write more books, new ideas keep pounding my brain. I've developed a new system which will hopefully allow me to get to each story quicker so I don't lose them. I used to write stories at the same time but that hasn't worked for me. So now, I write one book at a time, writing 5-10 pages a day, 7 days a week. It takes about an hour to write 5 pages so I begin at 1am and go to bed about 2:30 sometimes later if I get caught in a scene. Sometimes when I have time, I write in the middle of the day. It always depends on what's going on around me.Ok, for the first blog, I've said enough. More to come soon!
Amber Rigby Grosjean
