A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Getting Published…
by Colleen Halverson
I’m very lucky to have two parents who equally support me in my writing career. They were thrilled when I told them I had started a book, but when my dad said, “I can’t wait to read it!” my stomach twisted in knots. While Through the Veil has all the trappings of a traditional novel—characters, plot, setting, and all those fun literary things—it also has a boat load of sex. Tons of sex. Really explicit sex. No fade to black for this girl! Readers will leave this story with their fair share of knowledge about Irish mythology and folklore, but they’ll also leave it with vivid depictions of my characters’ anatomies and what they choose to do with them when they’re alone.
“Dad,” I said into the phone. “The thing is…I mean, it’s a romance.”
He laughed. “Oh, I’ve read that Fifty Shades of Grey. It’s fine.”
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG…
After lifting my jaw off the floor, I decided to deflect with a joke.
“Well,” I said. “At least no one gets tied up.”
In this book, I added inwardly, giving the sequel the side eye.
“You should consider it,” Dad said, ever the pragmatist. “People are really going for that these days.”
My recovering Catholic mother actually had very few issues with the sex, but it makes sense. I had a voracious appetite for books in my youth, and I would pick up anything—my Dad’s Stephen King, my brothers’ sci-fi novels, and of course, my mom’s bodice rippers. While my mom’s sex talk consisted of “just say no,” I think secretly she’s proud of me for standing up and writing what I want. That’s what her generation of feminists fought for, so why not? Her main problem was with all the cursing.
“But I guess that’s how you young folks talk these days,” she said.
To which I thought, “Mom, have you ever listened to yourself after two margaritas?”
But I kept my mouth shut and considered myself lucky that she didn’t suggest I include a pair of handcuffs.
I felt a lot of fear when I started writing Through the Veil. I was nervous about how people would register all the sex in it. In On Writing, Stephen King talks about how much shame he felt about writing horror, and that—the shame—deeply resonated with me. Women especially are taught that sex is something wrong, and that if we like it, we’re sluts and whores and all those terrible things. It’s strange at thirty-five that in many ways I’m coming out to people as a sexual being. Even though I’m married with two kids (clearly the jig is up!), publicly standing up in front of my family and friends and saying “I enjoy sex, so I write about it” was a huge personal hurdle for me, and I know I’m not alone. But if women are going to tell their stories, it’s the only way. While I never (EVER) want to discuss Fifty Shades with my dad, having my parents support has meant the world to me on my path to publication.
Through the Veil
Aisling Chronicles #1
Colleen Halverson
Publication Date: February 22, 2016
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Elizabeth Tanner is no Tinkerbell, and her life is no fairy tale. Broke and drowning in student loans, the one thing she wants more than anything is a scholarship from the Trinity Foundation. But after the ancient Irish text she's studying turns out to be more than just a book, she becomes their prisoner instead. And when Trinity reveals Elizabeth is half-Fae, she finds herself at the center of a plot to save the magical races of Ireland from a brutal civil war.
As Commander of Trinity's elite warriors, Finn O'Connell isn't used to having his authority challenged. He doesn't know whether to punish or protect the infuriating young woman in his custody. When he discovers the Dark Fae want to use Elizabeth's abilities to control the source of all power in the universe, he'll risk everything to help her.
At the mercy of Trinity and enslaved to the Dark Fae, Elizabeth finds herself alone on the wrong side of an Irish myth thousands of years in the making. Refusing to be a pawn in their game, Elizabeth has to fight her way back to the man she loves, but to do so, she must wage her own war against the magic that binds her.
As a child, Colleen Halverson used to play in the woods imagining worlds and telling stories to herself. Growing up on military bases, she found solace in her local library and later decided to make a living sharing the wonders of literature to poor, unsuspecting college freshman. After backpacking through Ireland and singing in a traditional Irish music band, she earned a PhD in English with a specialization in Irish literature. When she’s not making up stories or teaching, she can be found hiking the rolling hills of the Driftless area of Wisconsin with her husband and two children.
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