I’m happy to welcome The Wild Rose Press author R.E. Mullins. Today, R. E. will share her writing journey and the Amber Hearts Series.

Here’s R. E. Mullins!

For fools’ rush in where angels fear to tread.
(English poet Alexander Pope’s An essay on criticism, 1709)

I’m not known for doing things the easy way. It’s not that I intentionally plan on making things difficult for myself – it’s just the way things usually turn out. Like the proverbial fool I heedlessly jump into projects without a clue as to what I’m getting into.

That’s exactly what happened when the first germs of a story started niggling at my brain. Without any appreciable concept as to what writing a novel entailed, I sat down at my computer and opened a little used program called Word. Easy? Not so much. The only thing I really had going for me was the fact I’ve always been an avid reader. So, at least, I knew what I looked for in a book. And, for me, reading is a chance to escape into new worlds and to be entertained.

I considered the romance novels I inhaled as sitcoms in paper form—or, nowadays, Kindle formatted. Nothing too heavy. Remember the old Calgon bath salt commercial, “Take me away?” That’s what I looked for when perusing book blurbs.

I began writing, It’s A Wonderful Undead Life (I think it was 2004 or 2005). While at work during the day, I turned over plots and characters in my mind. Newly divorced, after tucking my seven-year-old into bed each night, I wrote. And wrote. Deleted and wrote some more. Almost a year later I had a 96,000 or so word document on my hands with no idea what to do with it.

After some encouragement from my children and a few friends, I submitted it to the Wild Rose Press. I chose them as they were highly rated in Editors and Predators. They were also willing to look at unsolicited manuscripts. Still, nothing could have surprised me more than when one of their editors contacted me. She said the story had good bones, she liked the characters, and wanted to contract it.

All I had to do, she said, was re-write the entire thing using the third person POV. She also wanted me to alternate between the female and male perspective. I found this utterly overwhelming. Not only would it be a massive undertaking—all I could think was, I’ve just gotten divorced so what did I know about the male mindset. Lack of self confidence had me putting the manuscript in a box and tucking it under the bed.

It wasn’t until late 2010 that I came across it again and contacted the editor. She remembered me, the plot to my book and was still interested. With her encouragement, and constant hand-holding, I slowly re-wrote the story using third person POV.

It’s A Wonderful Undead Life was finally published in 2012.

Hmm, I thought. My vampire, Gabe Blautsauger has three siblings…and their stories need to be told. Heedlessly, I again rushed into writing a series. Not once did I stop to consider how difficult it would be to juggle characters and keep timelines straight.

Still the Blautsaugers of Amber Heights Series was born.

Vampire In The Scrying Glass featuring Rafe Blautsauger was released in 2014.

A Vampire To Be Reckoned With is Metta Blautsauger’s story. It came out in 2016.

And, finally, Michaela Blautsauger’s novel, Cold Hearted Vampire was published in 2017.

By this time, I was on a roll. In 2017, I also released two novellas: Diaper Duty Vampire and Back To Hell.

Diaper Duty Vampire features a few of the Blautsaugers as secondary characters as it bridges the gap between The Blautsaugers of Amber Heights Series and Vampires of Amber Heights Series.

Back To Hell, however, is a departure from my vampires in Amber Heights. Written for Kindle Worlds, it is loosely based on the world found in Vampire Girl by Karpov Kincade. This novella tells the story of Eli Grayheart, vampire demon, lesser Lord of Inferna who was banished to the mortal realm. For a decade, he has been reduced to working the night shift for human employers and little pay. As he desperately seeks a way back to his homeland, he has been busy plotting his revenge. The pink Fae, known as Keeda Weranseer is going to regret the part she played in his exile.

Buy Links

Amazon | The Wild Rose Press

Keep up with what R.E.Mullins is working on and read a free Christmas story on her website. https://www.remullins.com

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