This month our Drollerie Press blog tour theme is “origins.” Please welcome Angela Cameron!
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Hello everyone in Burkhart land! *waves*
Angela Cameron here. As a part of the Drollerie Press author blog tour, I’m stopping by Joely’s to share the story of my beginning as a writer. I always think it’s so interesting to hear how others started out. We each have our own twisted tale of how we either embraced what we were from the beginning—or fought it back with a stick like I did.
Mouth of the South
In all honesty, I knew that I was a storyteller from a young age. I rattled on so much that my parents and aunt literally nicknamed me “Mouth of the South”. In grade school, I wrote stories for my friends and journaled every day. They were often a little dark for my age. I blame it on my dad who is a huge fan of horror and vampires.
I didn’t publish anything until high school, and that was only because my English teacher threatened me into entering a poetry contest. I won, and that victory was almost tempting enough for me to abandon my chosen career as an artist to try writing.
Me…a tech geek? Nah.
But life jumped in my path. I married early on and had a daughter, giving up any hope of ever being the next Stephen King or Anne Rice, who were my favorites. Then, in 1998, I found a guilty pleasure that started that dream right back up—Vampire: The Masquerade. I was such a role playing geek, but I really kicked some ass online. *smiles*
That level of character creation and writing really started an obsession. Still, I fought it and worked as a website designer until 2005, when I went back to college to finish my degree in psychology. I’d done little more than outline a vampire story until 2006, when I finally gave in and sent off a few pieces of flash fiction. They were accepted and published, which started the whole crazy obsession with becoming a novelist.
Regrets?
The next year, I wrote a novella that sold to Drollerie Press and published under the title Nocturne. Of course, it was a vampire story. By the end of this year, I should have four novels and two anthology stories with my name on them. I’m so ecstatic. I’ve never been happier, now that I’ve allowed myself to follow this path. I haven’t “arrived” by any means. No, there are still a whole lot of rungs on that ladder above me. My only regret though is that I’d have done this a long time ago. Seeing your name (or pen name, as in my case) on a published piece is the greatest feeling in the world.
For more information on Angela Cameron and her stories, check out Angela Cameron.