Thank you for having me in your virtual home today! I am excited to share with you all about how Real Virtue came to be.
So there I was, flying cross-country, when the older gentleman to my right asks me if I have a second life.
“A second what?” came my reply.
He then continued to explain the details of his job of creating virtual possessions that gamers on interactive game sites can purchase for their avatars. One of them being the game site, Second Life.
“Seriously? People spend money on a fake character?” And apparently enough for this guy to make a living on.
So, I bet you can guess what I was doing for the remainder of my long flight … plotting out the story that would become Real Virtue.
My questions to myself were what would happen to someone who took their virtual life just a little too far? What would happen if that said someone lost all these possessions to, say, a villain bent on revenge? How far would someone go to protect their virtual life? Would they be willing to give up their real life for it? Just what would drive a person to do it? Who would this person be?
And since I write romance, my next question was just what kind of person would be their perfect match? And Voila! Mel Mesini and Jeremy Stiles were born.
It took me three months to write Real Virtue. The words flew from my fingertips. I had written short stories before, but this was my first completed full-length novel. It actually clocked in at 135,000 words. Yikes! I didn’t know anything about the publishing industry and how they had standards on word count. So, it might have taken me three months to write it, but then it took me another year to cut it and edit it to make it sellable.
After many contest placements, including the Georgia’s RWA prestigious Maggie contest, where it placed second, I got the “call” that Real Virtue had found a home at Soul Mate Publishing.
My shining moment through this whole process from sitting in that airline seat to sitting here and chatting with you today, was when someone asked me what I do for a living, and I smiled proudly and said, I’m a writer.
I write higher-purpose stories in high-speed worlds. As an inspirational author, speaker, children’s ministry director, and home-schooling mom, I love to share tales of love, from the greatest love story ever told to those sweet romantic stories of falling in-love.
I hope you enjoy Mel and Jeremy’s story as much as I loved telling it.
And please, let’s stay connected! I not only would love to hear what you thought, but would love to get to know you…
“So then we are no longer strangers, but members of the household of God.”
~Ephesians 2:10
Contact Katy via one of these channels:
www.facebook.com/KatyLeeWriter
Twitter @KatyLeeBooks
About Real Virtue:
In a virtual reality game where she can fly, there’s someone aiming to take her down.
Mel Mesini is a New York City restaurateur and an avid, virtual reality world traveler. She’s risen above her misfit life and now bears a striking resemblance to her glamorous, gaming avatar. But her successful life—both online and in reality—takes a swerve the night her father is seriously injured in a hit-and-run. Mel is careened back to her judgmental hometown, where being the daughter of the town’s crazy lady had made her the outcast she was. To make matters worse, Officer Jeremy Stiles, the man whose harsh, rejecting words had cut her the deepest, is heading the investigation.
Jeremy knows he hurt Mel and attempts to make amends by finding her father’s assailant. When he realizes she’s the actual target, his plan for reconciliation turns to one of protection—whether she wants his help or not. What he wants is answers, especially about this online game she plays. Is it a harmless pastime as she says? Or is she using it to cover something up? As a faceless predator destroys the things that matter to her, Jeremy knows he’s running out of time before she loses the one thing that matters most—her real life.
Real Virtue can be purchased in e-book format at Amazon.com, BN.com, & SoulMatePublishing.com
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