Today, I'd like to talk about the first book I ever wrote, Last Another Day. Or, more accurately, the entire series. When I decided to write the story, I was a complete novice, and I had no idea what I was doing. Aside from school essays and some angsty teenage poetry, I had zero writing experience. That didn't bother me in the least, however. With the confidence of the truly ignorant, I told myself I'd write the best zombie book in the history of mankind.
I sat down.
I stared at the screen.
I wrote my opening line, and... nothing.
It turns out that writing a book really isn't that easy.
After six months, I had only three chapters, and they sucked. I started over. Eventually, after another six months, I had about eight rough chapters and plenty more to go. But my confidence was waning, and every word felt like a battle that had to be won within my brain. Then I found Wattpad, an online community of novice writers sharing their work with the world.
I signed up and posted my first chapter, hoping for feedback from real readers. I got it all right. Lots of feedback, both good and bad, but it was the good that inspired me to give the whole writing gig a second shot. Using the critique I received, I edited the chapter and posted the second, the third, and the fourth. At the same time, I also began to read articles on how to improve my writing.
Fast forward a few months, and the book was finished. The End. It was an exhilarating feeling, and I wanted more. Within days, I'd written a short-story collection of some of the characters and posted it as a prequel. Book two followed, and book three. My readers loved it, and I loved the validation they gave me. The sense that my work had value. It was all I could talk about, and my family and friends soon grew sick of me. I don't blame them. Like a mom with a new baby, I was convinced my bookish kids were the bestest, smartest, shiniest beings in the entire universe.
It was sometime around then that I learned about the rise in self-publishing and indie authors. While I'd thought about submitting my books to a publisher before, I did not believe that I'd be accepted. Neither as a newbie nor as a fan of zombie fiction. With that in mind, I decided to give self-publishing a try, and I've never looked back. It changed my life and enabled me to become a full-time author.
As for Last Another Day, much has changed since I first wrote it. There are four books in the main series, plus the prequel. I changed Book 2's name from Die Another Day to Fear Another Day because it sounded too much like a James Bond Movie. I changed the series name from Dangerous Days to Children of the Apocalypse. I wrote a collection of short stories about teens surviving the zombies set in the same universe and bundled them into a collection called Death's Children. I wrote a spin-off trilogy, a short story set in the future, and published numerous boxed sets. Finally, I edited, refreshed, and recovered the entire collection and brought out one single Mega Boxed set. The titles are now available in the following order:
Survive Another Day - The Prequel
Last Another Day - Book 1
Fear Another Day - Book 2
Live Another Day - Book 3
Seize Another Day - Book 4
Death's Children - The Complete Collection
Dead of Night - The Complete Trilogy
Reach - A Short Story
Children of the Apocalypse - Mega Boxed Set.
(Books 1-4 and the prequel are available in EBook, Paperback, and Audiobook Format.)
(The rest is available in EBook and Paperback Format, except for the Mega Boxed Set, which is too large for a Paperback.)
There you have it. After three years, the books have come full circle, and writing them has been an amazing experience. I made many mistakes along the way, but that is how I learned, and in the future, my publishing schedule will run much smoother without the constant changes and fidgeting. In the end, Last Another Day was both my first book and my gateway to a fulfilling career, and I'll never stop singing its praises.
Happy Reading!
A Blog Post by Baileigh Higgins
www.baileighhiggins.com
