Guest blog post by a co-author of The Box Under The Bed, Christine Valentor.
Our anthology, The Box Under the Bed, was released on Amazon this week, and I could not be more thrilled!
I am proud to be a contributing author to this book. Although I have had stories published before in literary journals, this was my first time to be published in a commercial work, one that is actually available on Amazon.
The experience has been exciting and unique!
When Dan Alatorre first announced that he wanted to put together an anthology of scary stories to be ready just in time for Halloween,
I knew I wanted to be a part of it.
I love all things scary
and had already written several horror stories. The one I chose to submit — a tale of Jack the Ripper and his victims — was particularly creepy and disturbing. I entered the competition and was honored when Dan informed me that he wanted my story for the anthology!
Not only did Dan choose my story, but he returned it with complete editing notes and suggestions.
- I have had beta readers critique my work before, but Dan had really done a thorough job, pinpointing details and ways to improve the writing. To me, this showed that he was serious about helping us edit our work so that we could produce the best anthology possible.
- While offering suggestions, Dan always respected my integrity as an author. I rewrote the story with a few changes, and in the end I believe I had a much better piece.
Dan kept us informed as he went through the process of preparing the book for Kindle and paperback.
I was thrilled with our ghastly and horrific cover art.
(Seriously, that guy with the eyeball? Take a look at it!)
I was certain the book could be a big hit!
As the weeks went on, we obtained several pre-orders. This was great news in itself,
but more excitement was yet to come!
One day, I got an email from Dan informing me that editor Ellen Datlow had requested a copy of our book for review.
Ellen is an award winning horror editor and one of the top names in the industry.
I was beyond thrilled.
This kind of attention was a bonus I had NOT expected.
When we put our writing out to the public, we never know who is watching, who is paying attention to our efforts. I now have proof that sometimes those efforts actually DO get noticed. And then one fine day… lo and behold we get a request from Ellen Datlow! Who would have thought it? 🙂
On our first day of sales:
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The Box Under the Bed hit #1 in Hot New Releases, and
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we even found our book right alongside titles by horror-king Stephen King,
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AND the illustrious George R.R. Martin! (Yes, I am a Game of Thrones fan!)
I was amazed!
Dan Alatorre 
Reblogged this on My Writing Blog and commented:
Another co-author’s thoughts!
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Thank you!
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