New Month, New Member

My name is Jena Galifany and I am new to the Roses of Prose group. This is my first blog post and I hope I don’t disappoint anyone.

As a new writer I first tried self-publishing. I’ve only had the one experience with this twenty years ago and it was not a good one. I was new to the game of publishing and didn't think anyone would actually want to take a chance on signing me to a contract. As it turned out, I’d really rather forget I was taken in by the disreputable company that was to "help" me with self-publishing my first book. I have to chock it up to lesson learned and pay better attention next time.

Since that time, there have been many reputable companies emerge to aid the writer with this endeavor. They will legitimately help self-publishing writers but a person still needs to pay close attention to details and small print.

Years after my false start in the world of publishing, I was blessed to work for an online review site. Through the reviews that I wrote, I was able to see the quality of books coming from several online publishers. I had the opportunity to see who would be the most likely to publish the genre of books that I wrote and carefully put together the submission package for ShadowsForge 1: Three Times a Hero. I sent it off and, as I was taught by other writers, forgot about it while moving on to the next writing adventure.

Since I had readers at my day job, people who pushed me into publishing in the first place, who read SF1 and wanted to know what happened after the first book, I commenced to write two more books in the series. After two months, I received an acceptance letter and contract from the publisher for the first installment.

The contract stated they wanted to see any other books that included the same characters or continued the story. I contacted the publisher that evening to find out how to submit the next two stories, together or separately. She answered that she was going on vacation and if I could email them to her that night, she’d take them with her. Long story short, two weeks later, I was the proud owner of three contracts and doing the Snoopy Dance of Joy on the ceiling for about a week.

ShadowsForge, life on tour with an 80s rock band, is now available to follow in four of the six books in the series. Three Times and Hero, Trials on Tour, Retaking America, and The Long Way Home are available at Whiskey Creek Press.

Note: “ShadowsForge” is one word spelled with a capital “F” in the middle just to irritate my older sister who should have been an English teacher.

Since this beginning, I have added my first Western Historical Romance, Shyanne’s Secret, to my WCP portfolio.


Her Perfect Man, an Historical Paranormal, and a holiday short story, Love Lifted Me, are available at Red Rose Publishing.

I’ve thought about trying to self-publish but so far in my writing career, I’ve had such wonderful publishers helping me along the way, I don’t know if I could do as outstanding a job without them. But that’s just me. From research I’ve done, it sounds like a lot of work to self-publish but I do believe that there would be a lot of self-satisfaction that would come from it as well.

I hope that I’ve not bored you all with my humble beginnings. I am pleased to be a part of this wonderful group and hope that I will be an asset to the Roses of Prose. Thank you for giving me that chance.

Cheers!

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Jena Galifany writes in the genre of sweet romance and adventure. She can be found at her WEBSITE, on Facebook, or writing book reviews on NovelSpot.net under the name of Marge _Anna Conrad.