Guest Post by Heather Adkins

There is nothing quite like your first time.

The tension of the moment is overwhelming. A beautifully formatted ebook, a cover, a blurb, and the platform...all culminating in that scary "Save and Publish" button.

My first novel has been uploaded.

What a wild ride. Two years ago, I "attended" my first Nanowrimo with nothing but a recent dream and the idea that evolved from it. In thirty days, I pounded out a rough draft of The Temple while moaning and groaning about how hard it was (it wasn't.) When the last mug of coffee had been downed and the story had been clocked at Nano for over 50 thousand words, I wasn't really happy with it. After celebrating my achievement, I threw it aside.

I started some new projects after that Christmas season. A couple ideas for new books were penned, several short stories were finished; whatever I could do to keep my mind off the finished novel, I did. By some brilliance of procrastination, I didn't return to The Temple for a year.

When I did return, it was a mess. While reading over it, I alternately wanted to cast it into the flames and pet it lovingly (like everything I write.) It took a lot of rewrites and revisions to make it the story it is now. In true form of any neurotic writer, it's still not as perfect as I want it to be. My dad says, though, sometimes it just has to be "good enough."

The publication of my first novel has been delayed numerous times. The product I've uploaded isn't actually the final one--the real cover isn't finished. I'll be releasing a "second edition" before the end of the summer with a unique watercolor by my sister. Until then, I wanted The Temple out there instead of hanging out on my flash drive where it was giving me sullen looks.

That's where I stand right now. My decision to be a self-published author has officially become an actuality. It will be touch and go from this point as I learn how to promote, how to handle the bad reviews (and live through the adrenaline of the good ones), and move forward into publishing future novels. There's no right way to do things; if there were, this self-publishing thing would be a lot easier! I'm extremely thankful to have the support of the Indie Writers Unite! group on Facebook; they are an amazing group of people. I'll be chronicling my successes and failures over at my blog, so stay tuned. I don't know what the heck I'm doing, but I'm doing it anyway.

The wheels are in motion.

Blurb:

Vale Avari has a mysterious past and a laundry list of super-powers, but that's nothing compared to what she finds upon moving from small town U.S.A to jolly-good England.

A chance dart throw lands her in Quicksilver, an off-the-map place with a big problem - people are dying, and word is, it's supernatural.

At her new place of employment, a temple dedicated to the ancient Mother Goddess, Vale learns something even more shocking - women guards are disappearing at an alarmingly patterned rate; women who possess special gifts like her own.

Supernatural powers aside, Vale isn't ready to believe in the Wild Hunt as the culprit, and she's determined to prove the deaths are acts of human violence.

Plagued by a brute with a history of domestic violence and lusting after a dark-eyed man with a secret, Vale has a limited amount of time to discover the killer before he strikes again. In the process, she'll learn things aren't always what they seem and the supernatural might not be so extraordinary after all.

The Hunt could ride for her.

The Temple is published at Amazon and Barnes and Noble for 99c.

Amazon http://www.amazon.com/The-Temple-ebook/dp/B0057XOQ1E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1308971717&sr=1-1

Barnes & Noble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-temple-heather-marie-adkins/1031704624?ean=2940012874009&itm=1&usri=the%2btemple%2bheather%2badkins

My blog: http://heather.bishoffs.com

Facebook: facebook.com/heathermarieadkinsauthor