DIVINE FALL was there! This is a YA book, so regardless of the romantic and paranormal elements, it fits into the "Young Adult" category in this contest - another large category with all sorts of sub-genres.
I've really struggled with this book in a few ways, so I was over the moon. My first two books are steamy romances mixed with suspenseful ghost mysteries, but after writing SILVER LAKE and GULL HARBOR, I felt like doing something a bit different. I had an idea for a YA novel involving the last Nephilim, the half-angels, half-humans from the Book of Genesis. And the main character, 16-year-old Jamie, was going to tell the story through deep first person point-of-view. She was also going to love riding horses and spend all her time at the barn--a nod to my own childhood passions.
By the time I finished this manuscript, though, the Paranormal Romance market was absolutely saturated. Young Adult books involving angels in particular. Publishers just weren't looking to acquire anything in this glutted genre, and my current publisher did not have a Young Adult line.
But my fans were waiting for my latest release, and it was ready to go...so I decided to use all the knowledge I've gathered in the years I've been in the writing business and publish this one on my own. Yes, it was scary to not have the backing of a publisher. Not to mention, all the marketing and promotion would be solely on me. But there are some perks of publishing independently, and designing your own cover art is one of them. I had so much fun designing Divine Fall's cover with the artists I chose!
My regular readers were certainly ready to take the plunge into YA with me, but in terms of marketing, I'm not as adept at connecting with a younger readership. So it's been stressful trying to figure that part out.
Given these struggles, the fact that Divine Fall made the first cut in the Kindle Awards for YA really boosts my spirits! I'm keeping my fingers crossed we'll move onto the Finals. I'm also encouraged by the fact that Divine Fall was one of only five books to make the Finals in the YA RomCon Reader's Crown Award, and that this book is also currently up for the Red Carpet Awards at BTS Book Reviews--a fantastic review in their magazine secured Divine Fall an entry!
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