Learn about how author Traci Douglass’ turned her dream of being a writer into reality and her gritty new novel, “Blood Bound!”

Hi Tule Readers!

Let me start off by saying how excited I am to be on the blog today and how thrilled I am to be part of the fabulous author team at Tule Publishing! 

My writing journey began back in November of 2011 when I completed my first novel. At the time, I didn’t really consider myself an author. I’d just had this super vivid dream that refused to get out of my head, so I thought maybe if I wrote the story down it would finally leave me at peace. So I wrote. And wrote. And wrote. At the end of that month, I had a first draft done of about 110,000 words and no idea what to do from there.

So, I started going back through and re-reading what I’d written, changing things here and there. I also started doing a bit of research online for writer groups, thinking perhaps someone else might like to read my little story. Six months and countless critiques later, I’d polished up that book and sent it out into the big bad world for possible publication. That story turned out to be book one in my Seven Seals Series, which released in 2013.

Three years later, much has happened—some good and some not so great. There was a period from 2014-2015 when I seriously wondered if I’d ever write again. Yep, things were that rough. The death of someone very close to me, financial issues, real life hardships. All of it conspired to make me lose faith in myself and my dreams of becoming an author.

Then, in August of 2015 I saw an advertisement in the RWA magazine (the official trade publication for the Romance Writers of America organization) looking to hire erotic romance ghostwriters. Now, I’d written spicy paranormal romance in the past and contemplated branching out into sweet contemporary too, but never had I considered writing erotic romance. Still, I was moving from one soul-sucking job to another, feeling unfulfilled. Worse, I had all these stories swirling inside my head, but no time to get any of them down on paper.

It was time.

So, I took a leap of faith. I accepted a position with that erotic romance company and quit that job I hated. All or nothing. No gray for me. LOL. And let me tell you, nothing gets the creative juices flowing more than knowing that next mortgage payment is dependent on the number of words you can produce and how fast you can get them out there. Six months later, I moved on from that company and began my own freelance writing business to support myself and pay the bills. Today, I’m a full-time writer and thank God every day for this magnificent blessing.

Oh, and in November of 2015, at night when I wasn’t working on a ghostwriting project, I started conjuring a new story. I began to think, what if the world was different from the horrors I was seeing on the nightly news and what if I could create a new little universe where the same problems of intolerance and bigotry and misogyny and racism occurred, but with a different outcome, a different solution. Thus, the Blood Ravagers Series was born. When asked, I describe it as Supernatural meets Sons of Anarchy with a touch of the Star Wars Space Bar and Wild, Wild West thrown in for fun. I wasn’t sure I’d ever find a home for it. Then I received an e-mail from Tule this past February. I’d entered the story in their Pillow Talk contest for erotic romance fiction. The editors said they loved my story so much they wanted to acquire it for Tule’s new Muse imprint.

Miracles do happen. Every single day.

One of the things I love about writing in the paranormal romance genre is that I have a chance to examine issues in a non-threatening, non-judgmental context. I can get gritty and dark and sexy, but I can also be funny and lighthearted too. These books allow me to dwell in a fantasy place where good always conquers evil, where the best in human (or demon or shifter or vamp or whatever other species happens to show up) nature shines through. Blood Bound, in particular, allowed me to delve into the worlds of BDSM, self-harm, and human trafficking. But don’t let that scare you away, please!

Blood Bound is a dark, gritty tale, yes. It deals with harsh issues of racism and bigotry and creatures just being really generally nasty to themselves and one another (Basher, my villain, my looking at you). But it’s also a true love story where the feelings between the hero and heroine play a key role in the outcome. The characters face challenges, big and small, but they also find love and passion and respect and friendship and their own special happily ever after. The themes of the book are redemption and acceptance and trust, things we all strive for in our own lives.

I hope you enjoy reading Blood Bound and the rest of my Blood Ravagers series as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them. And thanks again to everyone at Tule for being so great to work with and a huge thanks to all the awesome readers out there for welcoming me back with open arms!

Happy Reading!

Pre-Order your copy of Blood Bound from iBooks today!

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Traci is a USA Today Bestselling Author of Contemporary and Paranormal Romance. Her stories feature sizzling heroes full of dark humor, quick wits and major attitudes and heroines who are smart, tenacious, and always give as good as they get. She holds an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University and she loves animals, chocolate, coffee, hot British actors, and sarcasm—not necessarily in that order.