BACKGROUND
When Roses Cry" is the first published novel. It is not the first completed book. That started when I was a kid and wrote a fantasy book about some wizard that saved his town. This was in fourth grade, and from there begin my love of writing. After that, I wrote a variety of stories and even finished a book called "Heatwave." It was friendly but not realistic and will probably never see the light of day.
WRC started as an idea that spawned from religion and psychology class at The Ohio State University. We talked about people suffering from multiple personality disorders and how religion plays a part. When Roses Cry went through a variety of changes, and I learned how to write a book professionally. I tried to get it to publish by the traditional means but received a plethora of rejection letters. I even tried other book ideas with more no's. Finally, I heard about Publish America and used them to publish my first book. That was a great and exciting time. It was fantastic to see the contract and even told other people to use them (Kyle Golson - "Darker Prisons" and Shawn Holland "Voted Most Likely Not To Succeed, But God...!")
After seven years, my contract with Publish America ended, and I was thankful for them giving me a chance. It was great to see your book in a store and to get some sales. Once the change happened, I decided to publish the book myself, which happened two years after Foundation of the Fire, Repeat Offender, and In The Beginning. During that time, the book was updated and fixed to sound better. It wasn't massive changes but large enough to make the sound and quality of "Roses" better. With a new look and a Kindle version, I'm hoping for great things with my first published book.
TITLE
The title stems from a poem I wrote many years ago. A version of it is in the book, and it came to mind after hearing a song called "Dolphin's Cry" by Live. Some people think that it's a romance novel because of the title. It's far from that even though there is a love interest and some romance.
Previous Ideas for the title were "Nosotros," "The We," and even the other poem in the book, "Beauty Wrapped In Harmony." Nosotros was really alternate identities. I know many people like the title (When Roses Cry) and said it intrigues them to take a look. Which is excellent.
COVER
The cover has gone through some changes. The original idea was the cover used by the first When Roses Cry. It involved a woman's face with a vase full of roses. The company added glowing eyes, which was cool. The old cover is to the side and on amazon.com. However, you can't buy the old version but can view it from that site.
I loved the eyes and kept them for the new cover but made it one rose instead of several. I love the other cover but can't use it because it was created by Publish America. It took a while to get this cover right, and there was an alternate version. Look over to the side and see another version that has the black rose. The problem with the black rose, and glowing red eyes is that it looked a little too dark. But trust me, it was really close to being the new cover. For a time, the Kindle had an all-red rose cover with the eyes throughout.
JUNE CHARACTER
June's character is a composite of many people she came in contact with or needed. I don't want to go into a lot of detail (have to read the book), but they indeed run the gambit of different people. The original story was supposed to be the first person from June or at least entirely her POV. The problem was the switching characters. At the time, I was not an experienced writer. I didn't feel comfortable writing the book from all of her various character points of view. Each character makes their way into the story, but some not as much as others. Also, once I learned about co-conscious, then it became easy to have the characters interact.
While reading the book, there is an explanation of multiple personality disorder and dissociate identity disorder. This is done on purpose, so you're not lost in the book and can follow what's going on. Having an explanation helped me and allowed the story to be easy for all those who buy.
CHANGE OF CHARACTER NAMES
I tell anyone who writes to create an excel sheet or chart with your characters. Sometimes you start writing a character and will either change their name or forget what you called them. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it can happen. Many of the characters in WRC had their names changed. Because of this, I had to keep a list to add confusion within the story.
Esmeralda was actually called Esperanza, and her nickname was Espy. Instead, somewhere in the middle of the book, I changed her name to Esmeralda. I'm not exactly sure why, but when I went back to edit, I was completely confused about who Esperanza was. Instead of changing her name to the original, I just kept the new name. Maybe I'll use Esperanza later.
Spencer's original name was Royal. There was a joke in the middle of the book using his name, but it had to be taken out because it didn't make sense. I liked the name, but it got changed because I wanted the absolute main character to have the letter "R" for their first name. This is the only book where that will be true, and from now on, I will use whatever letter makes sense for that character. So instead of Royal, he became Spencer, and one of June's personalities went from Sonja to Raven.
Louis' name was always that, but he was supposed to be called Louis Drake. Always. I think in my mind, it would've been funny for someone to be called by their first and last name all the time. That joke died immediately when the words started to be typed, so he was just Louis. That's it. Nothing more, but you do learn his last name.
Chase's name was not because of the bank. Nor was it a name due to my job (I didn't work at the bank when writing the book). Instead, it was because she pursued Spencer so vigorously. There were other names in mind, but nothing as strong as Chase. Even still, I like the name so much I might have to use it for future novels.
FAMILIAR CITIES
To make the book simple, I used cities that I was familiar with. The original story was supposed to take place in Los Angeles. This way, it made Chase going after Spencer makes sense. However, I decided that I didn't know that much about the city and base the book in Columbus, Ohio. There's still a brief showing of L.A. in the book but I also had some of the story take place in Chattanooga. I've been to Tennessee many times because of family. This made the story easy to build and navigate. In the revised copy of When Roses Cry, the new stadium in Indianapolis is mentioned. In the old version, the RCA Dome was talked about. That's just one of the many changes that happened so the story would feel modern.
WHEN ROSES CRY 2
So many books and films have sequels. I had thought about it for When Roses Cry but really don't see that happening. In reality, it doesn't make sense even though there is a way to do it. What really perked my interest would be a prequel. There are flashbacks in the story that gives you a glimpse of June's life. It's challenging and gritty. However, I think it would be interesting to delve into her life before and after her time with her dad. It's tough, so the end of the book would be exciting, but other stories will hit the market as of right now. However, if enough books get sold, and people show an interest, who knows.
