When I opened an email from my friend and editing nazi, Jen Krom, I never expected to see what I did. Within the text she had pasted a message from a friend of her’s in Austria who had seen my blog on Facebook and checked out CAGED’s summary. What she said had me so overwhelmed, I didn’t quite know what to do with myself.
“LOVE the Caged Intro!!!! I don’t know why but I was really reminded of the fever series which btw is a HUGE compliment. You know how much I loved the books. I hope I can get it here soon. If not just let me know if I can wire money and maybe get it autographed? ;-)”~ Mona Morsi
So for those of you who don’t know me, you won’t understand WHY this is such a huge deal. Allow me to explain. The Fever Series is hands down, by far my FAVORITE series of all time. Period. No exceptions. I’m moderately to completely obsessed with it and have single-handedly tried to make everyone who can read, read those books. I think I’m directly responsible for at least forty-five people reading it, and indirectly responsible for hundreds by now, I’m certain.
I love Karen Marie Moning’s writing in this series for myriad reasons, but most of all because it’s just simple, clear, succinct and powerful. I reread part of the fifth and final book last night just to remind myself of WHY I love her writing so much. It took about three sentences. I’ll never be able to do it justice by explaining, so please, go check them out. You couldn’t possibly be disappointed. Her character development is awing. The world she created, inspiring. The plot, amazing.
Jericho Barrons, the male lead…there just aren’t words to describe my feelings for him. I’m certain that I should have my head examined because I shouldn’t love him, but I just can’t help it. He’s THAT amazing. My husband has been fully informed that if by some random occurrence Barrons should become a living, breathing entity, I’m leaving him immediately (just kidding, Bryan…but not really:)
I started reading the Fever Series shortly before I started writing, and I think that it was in part because of Karen. She took something that came to her in a dream and wrote it. It was a deviation from the success she’d already found in the romance writing arena, but she was true to her gut, and her characters and wrote it anyways. I know (because I’ve spent an unhealthy amount of time reading forums on her work) that she lost some of the fans of her Highlander Series because the tone and content of Fever was so different than what they were used to. Doing what she did was brave, and has ultimately paid off for her in spades, having just been awarded Best Paranormal Romance 2011 by Goodreads for her last installment of the Fever Series, Shadowfever, as well as being a NYT Best Seller.
Many people…family included, thought I was nuts when I started this endeavor. I already had an amazing career, why would I want to mess with that? Because I HAVE to. I can’t explain it, I can’t make sense of it, but I feel I owe it not only to myself, but also to the story. Maybe that sounds cheesy or cliche, but it’s true nonetheless. When I’m up late, making myself insane over wordsmithing a sentence to death, or formatting into the wee hours of the morning, I think of authors I admire, like Karen. She honored what was in her head and has achieved amazing success because of it. To have received that compliment that put something I’d written on the same level as Karen Moning’s writing was truly beyond comprehension, and I’m humbled by it.
Karen is one of my idols.
Maybe one day, I’ll be someone’s idol too.
