Carmen Stefanescu guest blogger

Please Welcome  Carmen Stefanescu Romania Author to my blog.

  I am Carmen Stefanescu from

            http://shadowspastmystery.blogspot.ro/

            I live in Romania, better known as Dracula's country, in Eastern Europe.

            Books have always meant so much to me. They still do. I cannot imagine having no books in my life, either in print or e-books nowadays. Books created, in my mind, a new landscape that allowed me to see life differently. It was the only way to escape, evade reality during the grim years before 1989, the fifty years of communist dictatorship when just speaking about God, faith, reincarnation or paranormal phenomena could have led someone to great trouble - the psychiatric hospital if not to prison.
            My novel, Shadows of the Past, was released on 4th December 2012 by Wild Child Publishing, USA. It's a paranormal romance/light horror. For me, a Romanian, this is a huge accomplishment. I can tell you it was a tough task for a beginner and I, a non-native English speaker, can say it was a real challenge. Being able to enter the highly competitive world of publishing isn't easy. Living overseas made it even more difficult.

            The fact that writing my novel took me two months, while finding acceptance for its publishing took more than seven years, took me by surprise. I looked for literary agents at first and then, receiving rejection after rejection, I started contacting publishers directly. The only solution for me was e-publishing.   However, in this long process I have learned much and keep doing it. Now I’m at a new stage in my learning experience with promoting, blogs, websites, review requests, etc.

             The fact that people who read Shadows of the Past say it's a compelling story, "that will keep you glued to the pages" showing they enjoy it, even "could relate to the characters" makes me happy; it feels nice and warm.

            People ask why I publish abroad and above all why English. As a teacher of English for so many years, I felt it easy to express my thoughts and feelings in English, even if vocabulary usage may be a bit tricky. I started with poems that met acceptance abroad and in 2004 I was awarded the Silver Cup for poetry.

            Regarding my novel, I absolutely didn’t want to go self-publishing. I wanted to know, and this could be told only by a professional editor, if my writing had any value. It appears it has.

            I would suggest to aspiring authors to roll with the punch of rejections and stand up and try again. And above all: Read! Write! Read and write! In my opinion, these are the main rules to becoming a writer: read a lot and write a lot. You can’t do one without the other, no matter how much you try.

            I want to thank again my editor Shawn for making my debut novel a dream come true, and for inviting me as guest on her blog!

Happy Writing and Reading to everyone in 2013!

Buy her book here

http://shadowpastmystery.blogspot.com/

 

http://bookblogs.ning.com/profile/CarmenStefanescu

 

http://youtu.be/6LmY-9yDl5s

 

http://www.wildchildpublishing.com/paranormal-c-84/shadows-of-the-past-p-410.html