The idea behind FAITH

The idea behind FAITH
I was watching a documentary on coffee one day while ironing when I got the idea back in 2000. Coffee documentary!! People exclaim.

Yeah, it all started while watching a program on how coffee was processed. They were interviewing the owners who were brothers. In that moment the hero, Manolo Guerra was born.

From that day the story started to build in my head and everyday it grew until one evening I stopped working and just began to type to get it out of my head. You know so I could clear it and be done with it. But guess what? It continued, as I was driving, cooking and trying to sleep I couldn’t get it out of my head as the thoughts kept coming, so I kept writing until I came to the end of their relationship.

Then the book just sat there for two years. I wanted to have somebody read it that could be honest and tell me what they thought. So one day I just happen to mention it to my friend Monica Garza. And she said sure! I immediately took it to her and then it so happened that she got very sick with the flu. She was absent from work for many days, and guess what she read the book instead of sleeping.
When she returned to work she brought in the 300 pages in the black binder wrapped with a big rubber band with her notes. She then said that she liked it, but didn’t like the ending and recommended that I change it.

I told her that I couldn’t change it, because then I’d have to retract to the middle of the book in order to change it. I was surprised that she thought it was worth trying to find someone to publish it.

Again, years passed and every time I would run into Monica or when she would send me a Christmas card she always asked, “And the book? Are you going to have it published? You should.” That was always her comments when ever she would see me. So finally in early May of 2008 I decided to do some research on how to submit a book. I re-read my book for editing and re-worked the love scenes for Siren as they expressed that the love scenes had to be written with nothing left to the imagination. I thought to myself, WOW, can I? How embarrassing! I Felt a bit uncomfortable, but thought to myself that this was my only option since I didn’t meet any of the other publishers requirements because my book did not have a happy ending that was so required in order to submit.
I said what the heck, I have nothing to lose. I really thought it was a long shot and I just wanted to get it out of my system that I had tried. I never thought that they would say YES.

When I got the news from Siren, I just happened to have missed their email by an hour and left on my camping vacation. So when I got back which was after the 4th of July I was in total shock! I read the email like four times before I realized that it was real. Yep! They said we like your book and would like to publish it. Let us know so we can send you the contract for you to sign.
During that period, my niece Krstyal was very excited for me and kept that excitement up for over two weeks. So I told myself, let me let Krystal read it and see what she thinks, since she is like a bookworm. Always, reading!! So I e-mailed the unedited manuscript. She read it over a weekend and also said for me to consider changing the ending.

Meanwhile, the manuscript was under going editing and when I got it back, the editor also suggested changing the ending.
I thought about it for three days, as I thought to myself how I could change the ending. Then I thought of how I could and did. The book NOW met any publishers’ guidelines, without the need to be so explicit on the sex scenes, but it was too late as I had already signed the contract with them.

THE BOOK COVER
The first book cover they sent I didn’t like the candles and the fact that the rosary was like pasted on the model. I picked up the phone and called my niece Krystal. Why Krystal? Well, because she does this for a living. She received her degree from Saint Mary’s, San Antonio in Marketing. Krystal works for a big marketing firm out of Houston and her client … yes, she has only one to keep her busy is McDonalds!

She said that she also didn’t like the candles and the rosary and suggested to remove the candles and have them use a crucifix in place of the T in the word faith. So then they made the changes and it changed again.

The cover changed one more time with the Siren logo when the ending changed. So then the cover came to be what it is now!