Today we’d like to introduce you to Veronica Smith.
Veronica, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I’d always wanted to be a writer, even as a young girl. I grew up in the times of Nancy Drew mysteries and read every one of them. I even tried to write a couple of my own. I think I was twelve when I first started one. I never finished either of them and as I got older, I would still write poetry and stories. Never knowing what to do with them, I just put them away and wonder what if. I’d made friends on Facebook who enjoyed writing and we’d have fun little 100-word flash fiction fun contests. A 100-word story is much harder to write than you would think. As time went on, I met authors on Facebook and offered to beta read their books. Beta reading is when you read the book for the author before it’s published. You give your opinions about the book to the author from the reader’s point of view, and catch issues (timeline, character mistakes, etc.). Every author needs beta readers. That gradually turned to freelance editing and I did some minor editing for several authors.
But doing all this only increased my desire to write again. One of the groups I frequented had announced a submission open call for an anthology (a book with stories by multiple authors). I knew I had to try, so I submitted a story and it was accepted! My first story! When it was published I was giddy; I bragged to everyone. I could do this! If I could have one accepted, maybe I could get more accepted. I wrote more stories, whether I had an anthology in mind for it or not. If something came to mind, I had to get it out of my head and into a story. Story ideas come to me in all different ways. I’ve thought up stories driving home from work (and I bought a hand held audio recorder now to catch all that so I don’t forget it). I’ve thought up stories while I dream (dreams and nightmares are great story material), so I keep a pen and pad next to the bed. And stories even come to me while I’m showering, usually while I’m washing my hair for some strange reason. I figure the hot water is loosening up my brain. Ha ha!
I came up with the idea to write my novella, “Chalk Outline”, one day on my drive home (an hour long commute from Houston). It took me over two years to finish it and then I didn’t know what to do with it. But this is the world of indie and self-publishing. I thought I’d give the self-publishing a go on this one and it was much easier to do than I thought it would be. A friend, Gerald Rice, who is also an author, helped with the formatting and procedures to self-publish. I got extremely lucky on the book cover. A close friend of mine, Lisa Vasquez, who is also an author and owns Stitched Smile Publications, is an amazing cover artist. I did some editing for her and she, in turn, made me a book cover.
Chalk Outline seemed to be well received, even though it’s not long; only 30K words. The experience went so well I had to do more.
I began a zombie novel in early 2015, and was getting along on it pretty good when I saw a post in a horror group about someone looking for a writer. It was the owner of a collectible card game called Survive. They wanted an author to write a book based on the world of the card game. I contacted the owner, Mason Mullins of Helheim Games Studios, and sent him a chapter, based on all the game information he’d given me. He liked it enough to hire me! In September of 2015, I started my first full length novel, “Salvation”, a zombie post-apocalyptic novel. It was published in December of 2016 by Helheim Games.
Before Salvation’s start and after its publication, I’d written quite a few short stories. Over a dozen of them have been published in anthologies. I had over a dozen that still had no homes. Some having been rejected, or I just didn’t know where to send them yet. I even self-published one on Amazon called “Last One in the Chamber for You, My Love” (which has now been shortened to “Last One in the Chamber” – shorter is catchier).
In fact, one short story, “The Treehouse,” which was original published in the anthology, “Bite Sized Offerings”, is being expanded into its own book which I have titled Just Get There. I’ve hit a bit of a block on that so I’ve turned to something else. That’s what I do when I get stuck; when I go back to it, I usually start cranking the story out better.
So now I have all these stories, and don’t forget all these 100-word flash fictions, with no homes. What do I do with them all? Easy! I make my own Collection! I’ve spent the past few months putting it together. I don’t know if I’ll self-publish or go with a publisher; I’m still in the editing and formatting stage right now. I don’t even have a title yet. I’m waiting for that title to smack me in the face like all my other titles do. I have to edit four more stories then I go over the whole thing again so it will be next year before it’s published.
And that’s where I am today; working on my Collection, still writing a story now and again when it hits me, and occasionally beta reading for someone.
I’ve been selling my books at tables and finding that it’s actually a lot of fun. I started at Trader’s Village 2nd Annual Comic Con last April. I shared a space with my friend, Lisa Vasquez, and another fellow author, Will Smith. While working our table, we met a couple of guys who wanted to put together a Horror Con (Houston is in dire need of one if you ask the local horror community). So this past October, Scary dad’s Haunted Halloween Show was born! I had a table there; my first horror con. It was a very small con, just 39 tables, but it was brand new so that was no surprise. Remember, Comicpalooza started in the lobby of the Alamo Draft house, and look at it now!
But I didn’t limit my tables to cons; I thought outside the box. Since my novel is based on zombies, I got permission to have a table at the Alamo Draft house before and after a Dawn of the Dead showing in the lobby. Then a friend, Kelly McNeill, suggested that I have a table during their paintball zombie hunts for the Halloween season at their field, TXR Paintball. She further suggested I do the same during their “big” game in November. They do 26-hour long games based on a theme. This year’s theme was zombies, so again, made perfect sense. That game was my best selling weekend ever. It encouraged me to think even more outside the box. I’m also now signed up for a table at the GRB Gun Show in December (next weekend as I write this). I’m sharing it with my friend, Will Allen, who has had success with selling books at gun shows. And I have put in an application to get a table at Comicpalooza. If it’s accepted I’ll be sharing that with another local author friend, Stephanie Barr. Fingers crossed for us on this one!
Whew, it has been a busy year and it looks like next year will be even busier!
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Being indie anything is hard: artist, author, and musician. The hardest part is getting your name out there. I belong to several writers’ groups on Facebook, and I advertise my books there as well as on Twitter. But since most of my friends and followers are also authors, that limits my readers to just them. I needed to get outside that circle. That’s why I like doing tables. I meet so many new people who are interested in reading my books. In fact, I had one reader who bought a book from me at the Trader’s Village Con buy another book at the Horror Con.
Veronica Smith – Mistress of Horror – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
As an author I like to take pride that I research what I write about. I know it’s fiction but I prefer some realism when I read a book. If someone reads Chalk Outline and reads about downtown locations that I mention, then they can actually go to downtown Houston and find those places. I also had a friend who’s a homicide detective at HPD consult. He read my book and helped me with police procedures. I even put him in my book as a character. I love to read books about locations I live in or have been to, and I’m sure others do as well.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
That’s easy. I’m successful if someone loves my book. It doesn’t matter how much money I make; everyone would like to make money, sure. But the real joy is how I make other people feel. If I gift out a copy and someone tells me they loved it and enjoyed every minute, that’s the biggest thrill I get. If they read one of my more horrific stories and they tell me it scared them, then I feel I’ve done my job. If the result makes my readers happy, then I’m happy. That’s the best kind of job to have.
Pricing:
- Salvation is $2.99 on Kindle, $14.99 for paperback, and free on KindleUnlimited
- Chalk Outline is $1.99 on Kindle and $6.00 for paperback
Contact Info:
- Website: viewAuthor.at/VeronicaSmith
- Email: medusaranger@gmail.com
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/Veronica.Smith.Author
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Vee_L_Smith
- Other: https://kvzsmithwordpresscom.wordpress.com/
Image Credit:
Karen Janczak
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