Stepping into the Veil

There's got to be a skill to introducing yourself in front of a group, but if there is I've never been blessed with it. So I'll just jump in with a big happy :

"Hi!" I'm Ember Case, a longtime lover of paranormals, fantasy, and science fiction, and a soon-to-be-published author of them. I write about people - some human, some not - of all sizes, shapes, and several races. Witches, shape shifters, druids, vampires, psychics, demons, superheroes - I love them all, and have written (or thought about writing) about most.

I've been trying to remember while I worked on this post, when did I first fall in love with otherworlds? Was it the ever friendly Casper? Studying the beautifully other-worldly and slightly spooky pictures of "Where The Wild Things Are?" Maybe watching Scoobie Doo and Shaggy being chased by the Zombies and headhunters? I know when I discovered Anne McCaffrey's Dragons of Pern I was immediately head over heels for the winged creatures.

Books of almost every genre flew through my hands as I hit my teens- traditional romance, vampire romance, horror, fantasy and science fiction. Always, when I finished one, I'd judge it by whether the ending was what I would have chosen. And if it wasn't, I'd daydream about how I thought it *should* have ended.

Finally in 2005 I realized that all these stories in my head? They weren't going to write themselves. And maybe it was time to put my pen to paper - or fingers to keyboard - and see how things came out when I wrote the story myself.

One NaNo later, I had 50,000 words of complete garbage. But they were my words, my garbage. I'd proven to myself that hey - I can at least get some words on the page! After NaNo ended I started something new, and squeezed that first actual novella out in about 4 weeks. Rough and unpolished, barely edited, I sent it off to a publisher for an open call contest, sure that they'd soon be announcing me as a winner.

They didn't.

I started taking workshops, following author discussions, and soaking up every word of advice I stumbled upon on the web. I joined RWA, and found Passionate Ink, FF&P, and RWAOL. And I wrote.

And I sold.

"Hunting the Huntress", the story of Native American shape shifters, became my first sale to Samhain. I was able to embrace my love of shifters - cougars in this book - and take my story to a place that combines so many different things I love to read. Paranormal; Native American history, wild and wicked sex; and a love that you know by the end will last forever.

So that's enough about me for an intro. If you want to read more about my life and writing, I blog a few times a week (usually about life, occasionally about writing) on my website - http://www.embercase.com/wpembercase .

The Irish say "I believe in the sun when it's not shining, I believe in love even when I feel it not." And I believe that there are mysteries that we can't explain, but that thrill and haunt, soothe and excite us, and keep us turning the pages to find out what happens in the end.

Many thanks to the fabulous authors here at Beyond the Veil for welcoming me into their blog. I'll be back in a few weeks to write more about the paranormal, and the stories that I love.