Talk About My Favorite Authors: The Birth of "A Rose to the Fallen" by April Bostic

Today I have a very special guest blogger who I found through MySpace. April Bostic is a newly self-published author of a romance novel called A Rose to the Fallen and I found out about April and her new book through a couple of MySpace Groups that we are both members of. I went to her official author website and found out about her and book, which really got my attention from the first couple of sentences she posted about it. On top of that I love the cover of the novel which is very lovely to look at. I will also have the honor of being the first to review her book and the first to interview her here on my blog. So today April is here to talk about how she was inspired to write her novel A Rose to the Fallen and how she got it all together to be self-published. Keep coming back because I will be posting my interview with April and I will also be posting my review of her novel A Rose to the Fallen sometime this month.

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The Birth of A Rose to the Fallen I was inspired to write A Rose to the Fallen after I saw the supernatural film 'The Covenant' in September 2006. I noticed the character Reid Garwin and he appealed to me; his personality, good looks and bad-boy attitude. I wanted to find out more about the actor who portrayed him and after a quick Google search, I found out his name was Toby Hemingway. I'm a fan fiction reader in addition to being a book reader. I saw that people had already started writing fan fiction centering on the world of 'The Covenant'. I was tempted to join the ranks and write a fanfic myself, but I decided against it because I wanted to stand out. I wanted to write something different and create my own story with my own characters. I decided to take a bold chance and write an original fiction story with Toby Hemingway the person as opposed to Reid Garwin the character. After I posted the first chapter, I was surprised by how many people were interested. My story was actually the first Toby Hemingway fan fiction ever shared with his fans. I started writing in July 2007 and it wasn't long until my story became a saga. I also inspired other Toby fans to write their own original stories starring him. I had a generous fanbase and over 20,000 visitors on my Toby Hemingway Fanfiction website in less than a year. I finished the story in May 2008 and closed the website in November 2008. The story I came up with was a modern-day romance with a supernatural twist because those are the types of books I enjoy reading. The concept for the story was my own idea. I wanted to tell the stor

y of an ordinary twenty-something woman in California who finds love when she least expects to, and with someone she never thought she’d meet. Even though Bridget could be any young woman in America, I didn’t want the love she finds to be ordinary. I wanted to tell a love story about how I believe the relationship between real soul mates can be. What happens if you’re born with only half a soul and you finally meet the person who possesses the other half? What kind of love will you experience? And what happens when the other half of your soul belongs to someone who is not only different than you, but unlike most humans on earth? It was actually one of my readers Marie who suggested the idea of editing my story to become a book. My friend Cora also mentioned the same idea after she read my story. I also received comments from other readers who kept saying they felt like they were reading a book. Even one of Toby's real-life friends read my story and asked me why he wasn't included in "this book". I had never thought of the idea of transforming my story into a real book until my readers suggested it. Eventually I agreed with them because one of my life's goals was to publish at least one book. So that meant removing all references to Toby and other real-life people I used in the story. I consolidated all my writing into one manuscript and I did extensive editing. I also invented a separate title for the book. My character Tristan may have a likeness to Toby, but A Rose to the Fallen no longer has any relation to him. Tristan is his own man in the story. I never thought of trying to sell my manuscript or hire an agent. I took the immediate route to self-publishing because I wanted guaranteed publishing. I figured it would be easier to publish the story myself. I had the means to do it, so I figured 'why not?' I published a book for two reasons only: to fulfill one of my life's goals, and to share Tristan & Bridget's love story with the world. Author House helped me accomplish my goal and the rest is history. Blurb from the novel: My fingers ceased their movement in his hair and I gently pushed his head up so that I could look at his face. When I saw it, my heart broke and my own tears started to blur my vision. His voice was broken as he continued to apologize. “Bridget, I’ll try to change for you. I will. I’d do anything for you. I don’t want you to be angry with me ‘cause I hate arguing with you.” He paused to try to compose himself before he continued. “I’m trying, love. I’m trying to be the boyfriend that you want but it’s not easy for me ‘cause…” He sniffled and hastily wiped the tears from his bloodshot eyes. “I really don’t know how. I’m just going on what I feel.” His gaze began to pierce through me. “Please don’t give up on me, Bridget,” he pleaded desperately; his lips still quivering.

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You can get in touch with April Bostic through her Official Author Website and her MySpace profile.