Guest Post ~ HOW I GOT MY START from Avery Olive

Welcome! Today I have author Avery Olive here with a guest post about her start in becoming an author. Avery is the author of A STIFF KISS, a young adult paranormal story published by Crescent Moon Press.

Here's Avery!

HOW I GOT MY START

I’d always been one with words. At an early age I started writing poetry, filled books and books with words that rhymed. It was also an outlet, a way to share my feels, or at least acknowledge them. Perhaps no so much literally share them with other people.

But I really got my start only a few short years ago. I was on a little vacation, having flown several hours to visit a friend, kick back for a week and catch up—she was mean and moved away from me. However, people tend to do silly things in the company of others. I’d been landed not more than a few hours; we were watching her daughters jump on a trampoline and well... I have a big mouth. Back in the day I was awesome at the trampoline and could do flips! So, I said, hey, I can do a flip!
                                                             
 When you say something like that it requires a demonstration. Needless to say, after years of not being on a trampoline—my flip, which at the time I landed didn’t end so well. Though I never heard a crack, never felt any shooting pains and never thought anything was wrong—that is until a few hours later, after sitting around chit-chatting and chilling in the sun I went to get up.

And OMG I hadn’t realized my foot had swollen becoming a weird shade of slightly purple and it was painful. Like really painful. I hobbled around for two days before my friend insisted I go to the doctor. The swelling was getting worse, the pain in my foot when putting weight on it was excruciating—I had no choice, I couldn’t spend the rest of my trip laid up.

Now, of course I went to the first walk-in we could find. And I’m not saying that all doctors are bad, and perhaps not all doctors are created equal but this doctor told me I sprained my ankle, put some ice on it and within a few days it would get better. I didn’t. I spent the rest of my trip sitting in front of the TV, foot elevated, ice packs covering every inch of my foot, and popping pills like no bodies business. It sucked. I walked as little as possible, but I couldn’t ignore the fact that I was on vacation, and was supposed to be having fun.

When I got home I went to my doctor, right away they did X-rays, and as it turns out my little sprain was a big fat crack in my bone! Yup. I landed a flip—nearly flawlessly and yet, managed to somehow break, BREAK my leg!

Since I’d been walking around on my broken leg for well over a week I ended up being put on bed rest. No walking unless with the aid of crutches. No bearing weight, no taking of the cast off (I at least was lucky and got one of those air-casts instead of plaster) and doing nothing to put any extra strain on my already ruffed up leg.

So what does when do when they are immobilized? Read.

And boy did I read, a lot. I was devouring at least a book a day. I’d send Mr. Olive out to grab another book, promising to read this new one slower only I wouldn’t. He eventually got tired of my daily book requests and one day came home with an entire series of books. It didn’t take me long to work my way through those...

Then I thought, hey, instead of reading books why not write a book. It seemed like the cheaper solution. I was spending copious amounts of money, had numerous weeks before I was allowed to walk on my leg and I couldn’t go in the hole because of books.

And thus... my first novel was born. It would take me a couple more novels before I landed my publisher, but I almost owe the entire start of my career to my friend, Danielle. If she hadn’t made me do that flip, if I hadn’t broken my leg, and hadn’t had all the time in the world and an already over active imagination I might never have even tried to writing a novel.


Thank you, Avery, for that lovely post!

Who knew kissing a corpse would change everything? Death always hits Xylia Morana too close to home, but she likes it that way. She hangs out with the terminally ill, attends random funerals, and every so often, when the weather is right, she sleeps in open graves. But after Landon Phoenix, the high school hottie, dies in Xylia's arms, she sneaks into the morgue to say goodbye. How could she know stealing a kiss from his corpse would wake him up? With Landon returned to the living and suddenly interested in Xylia, life has new meaning. But what Xylia doesn't realize is that by kissing Landon back to life, she's thrown Life and Death off balance. The underworld demands a body, and it might just have to be Xylia's this time. ~From GoodReads

You can find Avery at:
her blog  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  | 

You can purchase A STIFF KISS at:
Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble  |  Book Depository