Don’t forget to come to Comic Con. I’ll be along with some other very talented authors. I’ll have all my books including Dark Night Of the Soul a finalist in the American Legacy Awards and Sister World Return to Terah, awarded second best science fiction for 2024 by BookFest. With the remake of my Darkness and Light Book covers you’ll get a deal purchasing the books with their original covers. Come to meet the cast of Fletch, The Flash, Supernatural and so many more. Leave with memories, celebrity autographs and a good book or two.
Author: debrazauthor
TO BECOME
This is what I hoped I’d become. First there was the singer. I was sure Barbra Streisand would love me. Believe it or not, I really could sing, but now my voice has aged. I’ve written songs that will never be played. I have a rather limited knowledge of notes and timing needed for writing music down- self taught-so I developed my own method of writing my songs down, this means they’ll die with me. Jeffrey, if you read this, I have often wondered what would have happened had I joined your band and headed to California. You wanted me to be the lead singer, I was afraid of failing. Then there was the dream of being an author. I had so many things I wanted to talk about and no one to talk to so I made up stories that sat in the back of my closet, most still do. For a while I wanted to be a free spirit with no ties tethering me to the dirt I would one day be buried under. My best friend and I planned on taking the money we earned working after school, to buy motorcycles and head out. She decided to stay home, go to college and take care of her family. I choose to go to college, become a nurse and marry my new boyfriend over the open road, but since there’s no way a person my size could ride anything bigger than a scooter, and we’ve been married now for many,- I’m not telling- years that was the right choice. Nursing wasn’t for me, so I got my degree in business management, once again putting my writing aside. At least I got to sing in the chorus, then the choir and finally at weddings. I loved it, but I stilI wanted to be a famous author. I finally left the free spirit thing completely go, deciding that now that I was a wife I might as well be a mother. It took a long time, but in that I finally succeeded, so maybe that was what I was meant to become. I’ve never stopped wanting to see everything, know where every road goes, see the miracle of life in all its guises. I still do. Later I became obsessed with staying alive. The Headaches making me wish I’d die didn’t change this. Survival only increased my desire to write. I still wanted to be a famous author. I still poured out my soul in my poems and characters, so I settled for being an author. But the dream never dies.
AUDIO BOOKS
Submitted.
OMG, I’ve done it. All the files, covers and details for my audio book are complete. I watched my pocketbook shrink, but this feeling is priceless. Having Dark Night Of The Soul recognized by the American Legacy awards is a really big deal to me. My heart and soul went into every page. I told my 7th grade English teacher that I wanted to be a writer. It took 42 years, a close encounter with death and many life changing moments to make that dream come true. Mrs. Lanoue, if you read this, I’ve never forgotten you. Sometimes I wonder what the 17 year old me would say to me, what would I say to her. Would she tell me to follow my friends and go to California. Jeffrey, a very talented musician, sexy too, invited to be the lead singer in his band. Obviously I didn’t go. Was this a missed opportunity, a chance to follow my other dreams, or a lucky escape from unknown dangers? What would I tell me when I was making that decision? Would I tell her to avoid the people and things that hurt me? Even now, approaching 70, I can say that avoiding the things that came as I aged, may have lead me to things far worse. Unanswerable questions will always be unanswered. I don’t think there’s one clear path, there is only the one we choose.
I have to get back to my books. All my characters faced difficult choices. I had them make the choices that I hope I would have made. Life has a way of sneaking into our art. Now for the somewhat funny moment. The other choices my characters could have made would have made for very boring books.
There are so many things I could say. The things that hurt me blessed me in ways I didn’t expect. Being poor made me realize how little value money has. Thinking I wouldn’t wake up, made me realize how much I wanted to look into my husband, my babies face meant to me. Taking many years to have my son, made me learn that all children are ours. Facing possible death taught me how strong I am. When I held my child in my arms I learned the value of life. Some say it takes almost losing your life to learn how to live. For me, it did. We are temporary. Live your best life, even when it hurts. And today smile for me. You can never have enough smiles.
Author Event
I will be signing and selling books
I will be signing and selling books at Rhode Island’s newest and only summer book festival. It’ll be held on Friday, July 12th, from n10 AM to 6 PM at the Hope Artiste Village in Pawtucket, RI. There will be food trucks and live entertainment and best of all authors and readers. I’ll have my award winning Sister World Trilogy and the entire set of my Darkness and Light series. The first book, Dark Night of The Soul is a finalist by the American Legacy awards. Unfortunately I won’t have the books with their new covers, but that means you can buy the series at a discount. I hope to see you there.
New Covers, Audio Books and Old Age
I hate that head line but it’s true. I’ve gotten new, beautiful, covers for the books in the Darkness and Light series. My first, and unless I become a John Grisham, my only audio book will be released soon. When I first published Dark Night Of The Soul, the first book in the series, I was too concerned with the cost of publishing, than what the cover should look like. Titles are what draw me to books, but that isn’t true for most of us. Though I don’t regret making my own covers for the Sister World Series, BookFest loved them almost as much as I do, I do regret not following my instincts. Once Dark Night became the first in the Darkness and Light series, I knew the other covers should have Marcus on each of them. I just didn’t know how to do it. I created covers showing what he went through, not uniting them by who he was and what he became..
Although I can’t think of a time in my life when I didn’t love books and hoped to one day be more than just someone who read them, I was swimming in a pool without a life jacket. You would have laughed to see my 14 year old self taking beginner swimming lessons with the little kids (6-10 years old). I was more self-conscious than I am today, but I wanted to swim, so I put my head down and swam across the pool. I hope you see how I, once again, put my head down and swam across the pool, only this time it was pen, ink and a keyboard filling the pool. It really wasn’t that different than what I’d done before, Though the water is still over my head, today is different. Today I have a husband who, though he may not understand my desire, wants me to follow my dream, I have time to sit at this computer and however frustrating it is, I can try to figure out what I have to do,. I have friends and colleagues who help and support me. I don’t know you and you don’t know me, which means I really cannot offer you advice, What I can say is you should seek out those who support you, move forward even when your tired and force yourself to learn, even when you’re told the technology involved has left you behind. I’m frustrated, but I’m alive. Tomorrow may not come, but I have today. Yesterday is a fading memory that can and always does bring back memories showing a life well lived, but today is all we have. Live it well.
Releases
The audio book for Dark Night Of The Soul is still in process but the covers and their back descriptions are complete. The artist who created those covers has my highest regards and respect. Not only was he reasonable, he was reliable and easy to work with. I’m very happy with my Sister World covers and that they also received 2nd place from BookFest for a JPEG designed cover, makes me proud. I did them, (I’m bragging now) but if I ever needed another cover I would not hesitate to go to him. Remember
info@rockingbookcovers.com if you need a cover.
Now to a more personal note. Dark Night was a labor of love. I wrote it a long time ago and I rewrote it twice as many years have passed since its inception. Always, its many versions stayed true to the message of hope, love and the importance of seeing beyond appearances that brought the story to life . Receiving notice of it’s being a finalist by the American Legacy Awards helped me to feel like the time, which I cannot get back and the cost, which I can never replace, was more than worth it. I know I drove my husband crazy. I’m pretty sure the man who formats the books has also suffered with my lack of knowledge and neediest, but for me this will be a legacy second only to my son. The woman who told me to continue Marcus’ story, is very dear to me. Claire Mary, wherever you are, I hope you know this. She was right, not because she said series are popular, but because Marcus had, I had, so much more to tell. In Vampires(spoiler alert) Marcus finds himself living as so many of us have, only as to be expected, in extraordinary ways. Rising above a monster, of the problems that beset us all, is what makes his journey worth the effort. Now for the big, you must read the book moment. I ask you when is it too late to find redemption. Is it ever too late. We make many decisions every day, some without thought_Possibly my next book-so think about those little decisions. They may end up being not so little.
Book Descriptions
It’s funny, but for me it was easier to write books than to tell my readers what they’re about and don’t even ask me to talk about myself. I’ve done pretty good here but I actually hate doing it. It seems to me that when you talk about your life it can seem like you’re being overly dramatic. Most lives are lived, as is often said, in the quiet spaces between adventure and boredom. I was mostly on the side of being boring but then I learned that even a life lived quietly can have moments of deep anguish or joy, sometimes both. I knew I’d marry the man I’m still married to when I was seventeen. If you want to hear the fairy tale version, you’ll have to read fiction. It hasn’t been a fairy tale. What it has been is love, its triumphs and pain. He hurt me as no other could and I’m sure I returned the favor. No matter. He loved me and I know I returned that favor. He still makes me laugh. I do most of the laughing, he does most of the protecting. A fair exchange of abilities. It is in this relationship that I created the ones lived out by my characters. We aren’t easy. Complex and quite often perplexing, we struggle to find our place. I think this is true, though I won’t say this is something I know. The place we make for ourselves is not our destiny. I’s a complex cohesion of what we want, what we need, what we accept and what we’re forced to accept. To those who rise, you have my support and admiration, to those who accept the imperfections of those we love and those who find a way to move forward, I will forever be in your dept. I’ve heard that love is enough, but it must always start with loving who we are and who we need to be.
DARKNESS AND LIGHT
Soon, very soon, all the covers in the Darkness and Light series will be updated. With new covers and new descriptions on the back cover, I’m hoping to give new life to the series. The audio book has been recorded. I’m waiting to hear from Amazon. I’m excited to say Richard Johnson did an extraordinary job of bringing my characters to life. The covers, art work by RockingBookCovers.com, are exceptional and though the story remains the same it’s had some minor improvements. Having the vocal artist reading, the studio engineer/artist as well as the author hearing the book, any mistakes missed by the editor were corrected. I’m very excited about the forthcoming book release. As I said before, if you like what you read about the new books, the changes are truly minor and you can get a copy of the original book at a discount. I’ve waited thirty three years to get these books published as they are, I’m hoping to never read them again, as there will always be changes I’d like to make, but I am proud of what I’ve written. Whatever the future holds, I know I’ve told the story in my heart and did everything I could to make books I’m proud of.
Dark Night of the Soul
Here’s the cover
Thoughts
The covers are almost done.
info@rockingbookcovers.com did an amazing job. I finished the audio book taping yesterday. Richard Johnson did an amazing Job, even better than what I expected and I had high expectations. Dark Night Of The Soul, the book dearest to my heart is now a finalist in horror for 2025 by the American Legacy Awards. Picture a little girl. She wasn’t popular, having used clothes and two very hard working parents. Without a large number of friends, she spent many hours making up stories, and writing poems. The one she penned in the seventh grade is now published. She worked her way through college, marrying the man -a 17 year old boy friend-4 and 1/2 years after meeting him, though she knew she would from their very first meeting. She can provide proof of this as she told her best friend and sister the day after they met. She worked from the age of 15 in various jobs finally getting a job she was proud to have when she was 23. Eleven years later she had a child. Still she worked, her husband sharing their child rearing and everything else they faced. At 39 she found out she had a mass behind her right eye. It was the reason for her headaches. A bottle of 200 aspirins lasted 2 weeks and there were times she couldn’t drive because she couldn’t see well. Surgery brought about tremendous changes. Recovery meant not being able to take care of the house(Not bad), her child (awful) and not being able to drive (Metz-a-metz). She sat down and wrote her first book long hand at the kitchen table. She didn’t have a computer. For all the fear, the worry, and the pain, the tumor that could have taken her life gave her a better one. Below is the poem she (I) wrote when I lay on the gurney in the recovery room. For awhile, I wasn’t ready to open my eyes. I found myself in those few minutes.
Waking
They were calling me
I ignored the voices, listening to my heart.
I wasn’t ready
There was no reason to wake
For moments that seemed like years
I thought of the child
The child I once was
The child I’d brought into the world
I knew the person who opened her eyes
Would never again be the one
who had closed them
The journey wasn’t over
It had just begun.
1996
Debra Zannelli Author 
