MembreJacobDrake

It's difficult to know where to start with something like a bio of me. I could say, "I was the son of a poor, black sharecropper," but that's already been done and wouldn't at all be true. If this were a story I was sitting down to begin writing I'd know exactly what to say - but to tell readers about me?? That's a lot more difficult.

I've always loved reading, so somewhere along the line it only seemed natural that I would sit down and start writing the type of stories I like to read. And that's only because I can't always find a book I want to read that encompasses the type of story I want. Sure, there are lots of great authors out there, but they don't always have their next new novel in my hands at the time I want to read it. Certainly there won't ever be another new book by Robert Heinlein or Isaac Asimov, though I wish with all that's in me there were.

I wrote my first story in high school for an English class. Had no idea what I was going to write until Sunday night (This was due the next day) when I sat down at my typewriter (Yes, this was before PCs came available) and started pounding on the keys. I turned in the finished story the next day and received an "A".

But I didn't write anything else (except songs, of which I have more than 100 finished) for many years, mostly due to the fact of raising a family and trying to be responsible (I hate that word). That came about because I had a story in me banging at the inside of my head, demanding to be let out. This time I sat down at the keyboard at my PC and began writing. I don't recall how long it took to complete that story, but it's now published as "Parallels: Book One - Heroes Enjoined Series".

I was quite satisfied with how that turned out, so a bit later I wrote the sequel to that book and called it XKALIBUR. I then wrote a smattering of horror stories as well as a few more books and then a bunch of stories based on female superheroes who get into - ahem - trouble each and every time they go out on patrol.

But none of these stories ever saw publication and that was okay with me (to a point), because I realized that deep down inside of me I was a writer and I had stories that kept screaming at me to write them. So I did, even though I had no where to publish them. My wife well knows how many times I said, "I just want my stories out somewhere so other people can read them! What good does it do if they sit on my computer and no one else can enjoy them?"

I tried getting book publishers interested in my works, but they wouldn't even deign to read my intro letter. I attempted to get an agent, with pretty much the same results.

I then read something on the internet one day while searching for online publishers. Someone had published his story at a place called Smashwords.com and it hadn't cost him a cent. I don't recall who that was, but I wish I could thank him for having the sense to write that blurb where I could read it.

I entered the name into my browser bar and hit "enter". Sure, I had to register, but that was free, so I did. Figuring out how to get my stories formatted properly in order to get them uploaded onto Smashwords was a bit of a chore, but Mark Coker's Style Guide was pretty much clear on the subject and eventually I had it all done for my first book.

Once Parallels was published online I was like a little kid on Christmas morning with a tree filled with presents underneath.

Within the next month I had all of my completed stories formatted and uploaded, which meant I had to take all my horror stories and put them together with a book title. Then I had to do the same for my B.A.B.E.S. stories, but that worked easy enough, once I had someone to make covers for me (Thanks, Gina - what a doll).

Now I work on getting my latest novels written so they can join the rest of my "family" of eBooks that are now available on all the eBook retailers' sites.

Not all of my books are for everyone, especially my erotica classifications, like the two B.A.B.E.S. books and my "Rebirth of the Gods" book. Some day I'll get around to writing the promised second book to that series, honest. For the time being, I've been channeling my energy into writing my two vampire series, the first of which began with "Forever Undead" and the second one that began with "Darkness in the Light". I'm currently writing "Forever the Dark Grave", and then I'll write "Darkness in the Draca Legacy". After that I'll link these two series together with "Forever Darkness". Just tonight at work I got the idea of writing a bunch of short stories based on the vampire bar (Vampir Sange) that appears in "Darkness in the Light" and publishing it under the title "Vampir Sange - Dark Tales From the Blood Bar". That one will be written.

I'm enjoying my vampire realms too much to do anything else right now.

But I am open to hearing from my readers.

Care to write and make suggestions? You can reach me at: eternal.naturist2@gmail.com If you write to me I will respond. Maybe not that day or the next, because I don't always remember to check my e-mail, but I will get back to you as soon as I can.