I'm sitting in the sunlight on a beautiful January morning in Snohomish. As I think back about the last five years as an author, I'm so blessed by how my writing and my journey has progressed. In March 2012, I posted on to Kindle a novel I'd written in law school, that had sat dusty and unattended for fourteen years. I'd edited the title a few times, but it was still pretty rough around the edges.
Over the next year I refined the book and wrote another, my first historical book, Constantinopolis. I engaged a professional editor for my second book, and paid for a designer to create the title. I self-published the book in July, 2013 and with some of the marketing I learned over the next year I was able to sell some copies.
In the summer of 2014 I was waiting in the line to take a bus from our hotel to Disneyland with my daughter Katie. I had finished my next book, Going Home, and was prepared to self-publish it in the fall. I received an email that morning from an editor with Lake Union Publishing, the historical fiction imprint of Amazon Publishing. The email said they were interested in acquiring Constantinopolis. I was pretty sure the email was just another fake one, designed to lure you in and then reveal that they were a pay-to-play service. I called my wife and she checked it out. The person was real. I talked to her the next day and told her about Going Home as well. They acquired both, and Constantinopolis was re-published in March, 2014, and Going Home in July 2015.
Since then, I've published a new title, It Is Well, that was selected as a Kindle First title, and received special promotions from Amazon. I've sat as high as #2 on the overall bestseller list and just overall had the time of my life. My next title, A Bitter Rain, will be released in November, 2017 and I'm working now on a book about Lexington and Concord.
The last few years have exceeded all my hopes and dreams as a writer. I owe most of that to Lake Union Publishing, and everyone who has supported my writing and read my books. I thank you humbly and with my deepest gratitude.