There's been a ton going on in the last...well forever, but the last few days in particular. IBD stands for independent book of the day. Basically this is where readers can view loads of awesome books and try out some new authors. Writers can use this site as well, but we have a special section. We can submit the books we've worked so hard on and enter them, completely free, to be chosen as "The Indie Book of the Day."

Ahhh! Right!? I feel like I've just been knighted

Mana rarely gets chosen for anything it enters, so it was very surprising that I woke up this morning to an award from them! Almost 2 months ago, I submitted Mana with the hopes that I did something correctly and receive some good news. I had really forgot about it...patience does work! Hear that? Patience :)

I'm keeping record. Mana has won 3 awards so far and hopefully it won't stop there! (Twilight, watch out! lol) So make sure you read it and leave a review to let me know what you think!

I'm still working diligently on Golden Darkness, the next exciting installment of The Mana Saga. I'm thinking of a way to manage the book better so I can provide updates. So far, I'm two chapters in! Goodness, that means I need another book cover for this one! Good thing my brother is still on board to help out the the series' covers. After the amazing job he did with the Mana's cover, I'm really looking forward to seeing what else he has in mind.

Be sure to check out all of IBD's other winning titles! Good luck to all the authors who enter their titles and happy reading to all who just want to discover some awesome new novels.

I've always struggled with connections, which is probably why us authors write in the first place. This struggle makes it a little hard for me to reveal my personal life, but I'm getting better! The more positive people around you makes opening up a tons better.

So, Mana fans, I'm counting on your positivity to guide me through this extremely personal situation. I suppose I should start from where this whole thing started. A lot of people tell me I don't write enough, or active enough. I guess here's why.

Sometime last year, one of my favorite dogs had puppies and I already knew a ton of people who wanted them. Getting rid of the cutest puppies alive was easy, but making sure they went to good homes was a little tougher.

Fast forward a little bit and all the puppies are gone, and I know where one is especially. My house! But I couldn't keep him for long, so I let a friend provide a home for the dog. It was still mine, of course! I made sure to visit him everyday and buy food for him and spoil him. His name was Mocha :)

Though these were my friends, I already knew their abusive history with everything from animals to electronics. I won't name anyone, but let's just say this guy's girlfriend is a psycho...and that's coming from an author. Regardless of all that though, I always did everything to be the best friend possible: bought them groceries, paid their car note a couple times, and was always there. Mocha was abused by the girlfriend constantly. She'd kick him in the ribs because he was in the way or step on him. She'd fill his water with Vodka just to shut him up and had a good laugh watching the dog eat her tampons. It was humorous to her to watch the dog pass them in pain. Sadist!

By this time, they have had the dog for a while, so they became attached, and began insisting the dog was theirs. I couldn't refute because Mocha had a home and that's all I wanted, but he was still my responsibility! Mocha became deathly ill with Parvo. In case some of you don't know what it is, it is a bacteria found in dirt and some household chemicals that affects dogs. It usually kills them within the week they contract it. Needless to say I had to act fast when I heard this. I knew where he got it from. Mocha's living conditions were really...harsh to say the least.

He (the guy I left Mocha to) told me blatantly, "If you don't pay for the dog, he'll die very soon."

I was furious. I trusted them with his care and all they did was guilt trip. The girlfriend never liked the dog anyway! She can cleverly spin anything, now everyone believes she truly cared for him. I couldn't believe I had let the abuse go on for so long, but I thought it would stop or at least get a ton better. Not the case sadly. I was in class when I got that phone call, and luckily, an awesome as hell person said, "I'll pay for the dog."

I was like "Really!? But you don't know the dog." All she told me after I explained the situation was "It doesn't matter, It's an animals life."

After that, we were well on our way to pick up Mocha. He stank something fierce; a mix between throw up and feces, but I still wasn't afraid to hold his frail body. We rushed to the Vet and got his parvo taken care of, just 900 dollars later. At that point I had a choice, leave the dog with her...or place him back in abusive care?

Mocha was mine, though he'd grown an attachment to the person I left him with. I advised him that I understood he was a good caretaker for the dog, but as long as his psycho girlfriend was there, I would not be placing Mocha back in his home.

Later that night, he came to my door. Beating it as if it were a punching bag, in the dead middle of midnight. Cops were called and they refused to take my statement. I'm in Arizona where the good lot of these officials are racist by the way. I didn't stand a chance, so I just dealt with it.

This all happened by October.

Now, I face the charges of theft (ARS 13-1802A1) because he "just wants the dog back." I went to court yesterday over this matter and to no surprise, both the judge and prosecutor were on his side and they hit me with six months prison. It happened so fast. Even though I told them these people impersonated a detective just to extort information, he just laughed and said, "that's not what the police said." They overlooked my ownership of the dog, as well as Animal Rights apparently.

Wow...right?

I may seem calm about this, but this is just something that I can't simply avoid. Author of Mana in jail for six months for doing the right thing. The officials let me know clearly when I got there that they were not on my side, and that I should've gave the dog back. They misunderstood that Mocha was mine...or they didn't care. They truly saw a black man taking from a white man and that's all they needed.

Sorry for this being so long, but the police, judge, and prosecutor didn't want to hear anything I had to say. Let me tell you that it took a lot for me just to stay calm over this. After everything I had done for these people...this is how it ended up. Take this as my first time revealing my personal life to everyone. My hearing is on May 1st, then after that I guess I'll be an inside man.

I need some help. I don't know entirely what to do.

This may be a long post, but please follow it through to the end. Most of my posts to this site are just me sharing my journey to becoming a successful author: what I've learned, books I've encountered, people I've met, and what inspires why I keep going. This post is probably the only one I would consider "for authors only." Of course, anyone is welcome to read and alter what I write to maybe tend to your situation, but I want to have a chat with my fellow authors.

We all have these amazing books and because of how fast this new world moves, we all have these amazing dreams. I dreamt for a while after I wrote Mana...but I dreamt a different dream for the author behind the book. We remember those old days, what it was supposed to be like to publish and how it was supposed to feel to have ravaging and encouraging fans and our books there for everyone to see.

Somehow...

Our stories are different and we no longer live in the age where publishing a book makes you the "hot stuff" in your town any more. Let's face it, publishing a book now is as common as...well I don't know right now, but it's pretty common.

We, the indie authors, inundated the market with our books. That's not a bad thing, it's really not. We were smart and took advantage of demand and the internet, that makes us the brightest people in the world! But what else did we do?

We started competition with one another. We did what the big houses do to each other, without knowing it. And we've all seen variations of what this contest has caused: paid reviews, constant changes in self-publishing, spam, scams...all of this only gets a select few people's books noticed. I remember when I looked up to authors as a child, they never did this, so why are we? Because the world is changing?

Maybe. But it doesn't so much seem to me that literature is about the value anymore. I said it! Our imaginations are one thing, but just publishing for a price tag is another thing. If you're still reading, thank you! Time to restore some faith to some authors!

So here we are, authors in the new age... Though the number of our books increases, our morale goes down. Some indies won't give their book a chance after it has...failed. They more than likely abandon it and make money with something new. Some of you are guilty of this. It's true that some books may never see the light of day again, but it's still important you give it that chance. Why do your books disappoint you so much? You wouldn't abandon your baby just because someone called him of her ugly! You wouldn't just have another baby so it's better looking than the last, would you? No, or at least I'd hope not. So why do it with your books?

Mana has had a terrible struggle since it's been written, nearly 3 three years ago. I got a horrible review that really made me think. It said something about my book was off, so I checked it out and it turns out a whole chapter was deleted during the release. I masked this as "The Lost Chapter," but it was simply a mistake. I added the chapter and redid the editing that everyone was complaining about. I got my best friend to help me and even though the editing could always be better, we did our best! Someone bad talked my book and I fixed it, not abandoned it! Mana is the essence of my heart and soul; that's why I've been doing nothing but tending to it. Mana was published a year ago, but Mana has been with me for 3 years. It's funny to think so, but Mana is a toddler that is ready to start standing. Time for a sibling :-)

Stand by your books and yourself. The publishing world was never easy, especially not now. When you have all these books out, unless you're James Patterson or something, you'll never find a sense of relief. Publishing more books and further crowding an already hectic market won't delete reviews or anything negative associated with your name. So with that in mind, instead of giving up on your book because it's not meeting your expectations, rework it and introduce it to some new people!

I placed Mana there myself in a Barnes & Noble

Umm...so people actually email me and asked about sales. I've gotten it a few times, but I've never talked about it, not even on the radio interview. I guess it keeps slipping my mind. Associating my book with Twilight and Divergent, books like that, was never something I planned on. I do, however, talk about my idols and how they influence me and my craft. I guess somewhere along the line, with all the comparison, people were wanting numbers.

Ouch...

Over 2 million...geez

Mana is probably one of the worst selling books on Amazon and Barnes and Noble (when it was available for Nook) and yeah, it bothers me a bit. Mana went on to win two awards: The best in show for dark fantasy and young adult. It was even voted by a popular group as "top 10 book covers of 2012" I've had tons of features and try my best to keep up with social networking. Still one of the worst selling books, how? I have no clue, but I know the people that have read it really love and understand it, and that' why it stays there. We learn every day. I do know that I have to get out there in the world more, though!

Does anyone remember the Valentine's Day promotion for Mana? When it had those white covers with new art? It went free and was downloaded over 13,000  times! For that whole event, I asked for an advance of 150.00 from my publisher to cover the press attention. Well, that 150.00 is nowhere close to being paid off with how the book is selling if that gives you a clue about the numbers. I'm making absolutely no money off Mana right now, and even before the advance, my first royalty check was 16.00.

To date, since September 7, 2012, I've only made 16.00 off Mana. But I still keep a smile on my face whenever I'm writing it's sequel and thinking of the first book. I'm still at it and I'm super grateful for anything I've learned and have yet to learn from all this.

So authors, what do you think? We can change the publishing world again...if we wanted to. This literary world took a while to be affected, but it's driven by money. Would you continue a book that's only made 16.00 after a whole year almost? And readers, what do you think about the independent author crowd or the publishing world in general? What do you think of what I have to say?

Happy St. Patrick's Day, ladies and gentlemen! I hope a little bit of the 'luck of the Irish" rubs off on everyone today, I sure know I could use some :)

Thanks again for reading the blog and following me on my journey to become a successful author; it's been nice having your company. In a few months, Mana will have it's first anniversary since it's been published and it's kind of a big deal to me. Aside from the reviews, I'd like to know what everyone thinks so far! Please find the time to comment, because I'd love to know how I'm doing. This author stuff sure is hard :P

A little while ago, I did my very first radio interview as an author, and well, I guess everyone could tell I was a bit nervous. Ok, I was really nervous :/

Why don't you take a listen to my first interview, with Joey Giggles? http://bit.ly/15eSIYV


It was my first time, but now I have a ton of future insight for my next few interviews. I know which words to cut down on and what to work on. I had crappy reception, so that did not make it any better at all!!

All in all it was pretty fun! Thanks for checking in and continue to show the spirit of being a Mana fan! Share the green logo on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, or Tumblr.

**Check back in tomorrow, I've been preparing a special segment just for authors! You won't want to miss it. I'll be dedicating a post to why bad reviews and harsh criticism may be necessary and how to turn it into a positive.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!