Why Start a Blog?
For a number of reasons, I believe. I am often attacked by certain questions throughout my day. Why do you write? For whom do you write? Why do you love it so much? What drew you to it? What makes you continue? These questions and so many more are constantly pulsing through my cranium. Honestly, I want to know the answers! I am hoping that by writing through them and exploring them as individual concepts, it will start to bring some light to them.
On another note, I have done a sickening amount of research in my writing career so far. Throughout that time, I have discovered that there are countless people out there who are unbelievably similar to myself. This tells me that there are probably countless people who are going through the exact same things, doing the same things, making the same mistakes, and learning the same lessons. I believe there are also a plethora of writers out there who are very new and may not have been through as much yet. My hope is that some of these posts will save someone else some time or heartache. I am also aiming to inspire. That has been a massive help to me as I have grown and as I continue to grow as an author. The ability to read or follow along with the journey of others.
Writing can be a very lonely endeavor. You spend hour upon hours alone with your work. Those hours turn into days, which turn into weeks, which turns into months, and before you know it years have gone by. For me, it has helped to not only have my immediate circle around me cheering me on, but also engage with others on the same path. Whether that be through social media, blogs, YouTube, etc. This is also a career filled with set-backs and rejection, and it is very important to know that we are not alone in this quest we have chosen!
Who is Tyler Porter?
My name is Tyler Porter. I am a 24-year-old indie author with an unyielding passion for mystery, suspense and thrill. I started my writing journey at the age of ten when I wrote AND illustrated my very first book. I still have that book, packed away in a box at my parents’ house, but for the life of my I cannot remember the title. What I can remember is that the characters were not people, they were not animals and they were not household items. They were vegetables. I have to believe I was just coming off of the VeggieTales phase of my childhood.
After that amazing debut into the writing world, I wouldn’t try my hand at writing again until my senior year of high school. I remember I had just started dating the first real girlfriend I had ever had. I will pause here. Go ahead. Pile on the jokes. HAHAHAHA! Yeah, I was a late bloomer. What freakin of it? No, I’m kidding. Not about being a late bloomer. That is no joke. Anyways, I started writing an actual novel at that time. I never did get around to choosing a title, which now makes a little more sense.
I have written two novels and have a third in the works and I have always chosen the title after the book is almost completely written, I never start with it. I got through three chapters of that first novel and then stopped. Probably because summer break, family stuff, high school, trying and failing to make the basketball team (5’9 is not my friend), and going through my first and second break-ups. Same girl. Now is the part where you laugh at my misfortunes. Ha. Moving on, I spent the summer between graduating high school and staring college working for a scrap company in their scrap yard.
Then, this brave, valiant, five-foot nine-inch, loveless stud would begin college. I would then go all the way through college before going back to writing. The difference was, this time it stuck. This time, it occurred to me that this interest in writing had come back to me over and over and over again. So, I decided to actually write a book. A whole book. The result was my very first novel, Love Before Law.
LBL is the story of a mysterious, secretive, reclusive business man who has a secret. A secret from his past that he has spent his entire adult life running from. A secret that in the book returns to haunt him and forces him to face it head on. It is full of twists, turns, and breath-taking revelations. Wow. Why don’t you talk up your work some more dude? God! I know, I know, but it’s like every time I describe the story it gets a little more dramatic and enticing and it gets ME excited! Truly though, if you haven’t had a chance to read that deal, it is available on Amazon in both print and eBook format.
Alright. Enough with the plugs. Rolling forward. I published LBL on Amazon in May of 2019. Now, I will say that my original plan was to have it picked up by a traditional publishing house. I went through the querying process, and if you don’t know what that is, it is essentially where you pitch your manuscript to dozens of literary agents. The hope is that one of them sees some potential and agrees to represent you at which time they will begin trying to sell your work to a publisher.
I pitched that first book to forty-seven literary agents by my count. I didn’t hear back from most of them and when I did hear back it was a rejection. Going back to earlier when I mentioned having done a lot of research, I was expecting this. I gave it a couple of months with no success. At that point, I decided that I didn’t want to wait anymore and so I dove into research on self-publishing.
I fully intend to do a separate post on self-publishing so for now I will just say that it is a truly amazing process that I love. I published LBL in May of 2019. I had really found my passion for the writing process and I had no desire to lose the momentum I had created. So, I immediately started on my next novel, which is currently titled Count to Three.
Count to Three is a first-person crime thriller told from both the perspective of a serial killer and the perspective of the detective hunting the serial killer. I love the story and I was really going full throttle on the first draft. However, right around the half way mark, I started hearing back from people who had read LBL. Some hated it, but a huge majority absolutely loved the story. Then, several people reached out asking about a sequel.
I will be very honest in saying that I originally had no plans for a sequel. I did leave LBL on a cliffhanger, and in looking back at it, it was the perfect Segway into a sequel, but I had never considered it. At first, I rejected the idea because I was already so far into Count to Three, but after a few more requests for a second book following up on LBL, I relented and about half a chapter in I was so happy I did.
Vengeance Before Virtue is the result. It is currently in the editing stage and is set to release at the end of October. It picks up DIRECTLY where the first book left off and I think is an even more moving story than the first. I won’t give too much away, but I will say that those who were blown away by the ending of LBL are going to lose their minds when they read the ending of VBV. Speaking of the ending, it too ends on a cliffhanger. Some will be driven crazy by this, but not to worry. The third book in the series will be complete in November and released in December!
What else?
This wraps up my very first blog post. I have been sitting here for about thirty minutes writing it and I will be honest. I like it. I think I will do more of it! Hopefully you have subscribed to my newsletter/email list and if you have you will receive these as they are produced. If you are not, please consider signing up for that on my website www.tylerporterbooks.com.
I would also encourage you to connect with me on Facebook on my author page Tyler Porter Books, Twitter by following @authorporter and on Instagram by following @tylerporterbooks. I am also in the process of starting a YouTube channel so I can share even more of this crazy journey that I am on. Thank you so much for reading, thank you for supporting my dream here as well, it means more than I can put into words. I hope you enjoy the books as they continue to come and I hope you continue to chase your dreams too! Make it happen!
Tyler Porter Books 