Welcome to VTButterflybooks Blog. 2-3 days a week I will discuss my current and future novels and get your feedback. I hope to start a dialog on the characters in each story. Tell me what you think and where they should go from the point of where they are. Also, tell me what you want to discuss in this blog. I will start with my first novel A Pleasure Doing Business and then move on to my second novel The Doorway To Passion and Pleasure. Also, talk about my upcoming book Pleasures Of The Past.
Before we start to discuss my books, allow me to tell you a little about myself and why I started writing.
Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. Married at age 27, and we are still married to this day. From my marriage, we have two children and one granddaughter. For 26 years I managed group homes taking care Mentally and Physically challenge Adults. Then for 4 years worked at the YMCA in Youth Development and I graduated from Ministry School. I enjoy reading, writing, traveling and of course shopping. I also enjoy interior design but I'm not a designer. Now I spend my time writing and developing other new ventures as my husband and I build an empire together.
Growing up, I would love for my father to read to me. My father would read with so much animation and passion; it was a blessing that gave me a sense of happiness and joy.
Fast forward to my adult years; I would pick up a book to read because the cover caught my attention. Some were good and some I had to push my way through them so I could find out what happened at the end of the story. One day I was in Borders Books store (remember it) to buy a decorating magazine. I would purchase decorating magazine all the time because interior design is my favorite thing to look at and I love all things pretty, but this time I stopped myself. I said, "no Vicki, today your going to buy a book."
Now I didn't know what to buy or who for that matter, but then it hit me. I would always see friends and others reading novels by E. Lynn Harris. I didn't know who he was, but I was going to buy one of his books. I walked over to the African American fiction section at Borders and was surprised at how small it was. I remember thinking 'This big ole store, and this is all they have of African American books' what a shame.
Anyway, I looked for E. Lynn Harris books and found he had several novels. I didn't know which one to get, so I purchased the fourth novel in his series (at the time I didn't realize it was number four) because it was the only one. His other books had several each. That was on October 4, 2001. On that day I started reading book number 4 and from there went to books 5, 6, 7, and 8 back to 1, 2, and 3. By October 23, 2001, I had read all eight books, and that was the beginning of me becoming an avid reader. Two years later my neighbor and I started a book club called Just Us Girls. We are still going strong to this day.
In 2007 I decided I wanted to try my hand at writing a novel only to see if I could do it. I had no aspiration to become a published author; I wasn't even thinking about it. I just wanted to try to write a book. It was much harder than I thought. I knew how I wanted it to start, what I wanted in the middle and at the end, but all the other stuff in between was hard. So for a year, I would stay up to two, three o'clock in the morning writing. I had yellow sticky notes everywhere along with a notebook and anything else I would find to write my thoughts down. I drove my husband, kids, and co-workers crazy.
Then one day in 2008 my book was finished, I had written my first novel. I was so proud of myself; I didn't know what to do. I started telling all my friends. I also started writing two other novels that I didn't finish. At one of our book club meetings, we had an author as our speaker because we were featuring her book. When we were done and sitting around chatting one of the members told her I had written a novel. Now I had put that manuscript on a shelf somewhere and hadn't thought anything about it until that night.
The author asked to see it, and a few weeks later I gave it to her. She read it, liked it and asked for a copy to send to the publishing company that published her book. That happened to be Zane, but I didn't know it at the time. All of this also occurred during the time the economy was terrible, and publishing houses were closing. Well, I think you know what happened next. Yes, I received a rejection letter from Zanes company telling me she was not excepting any more authors at the time because of the economy and she had enough new authors for the next five years.
It hurt a little, but I wasn't looking to be a published author, so I put that manuscript back on the shelf and forgot about it.
In September of 2015, my daughter from another mother and I were walking into COBO Hall in Detroit for a Women's Empowerment Conference when I heard God say 'I gave you those books what are you going to do with them.' I looked around to see if someone was talking to me. There wasn't anyone around me except for my daughter from another mother, and she was a few steps ahead of me. So I didn't think any more about and went inside to enjoy the conference. About an hour or so later I heard again God repeat those words. This time I said, "okay God I will."
Later that evening when I got home, I went to that shelf, pulled out my manuscript and blew off the dust. I briefly looked through it, but I wasn't feeling it, so I put it down. A few days had gone by before I picked it up again. This time I read it and liked it. I had forgotten what I had written. I asked a few friends that didn't know each other if they would read it and tell me what they thought.
Each of them said I should get it published. So I reached out to a friend who recommended someone she knew.
A few weeks later my husband and I met with Bobby Ivory, and by December 2016 I had my first published novel, A Pleasure Doing Business. I can now call myself a Self-Published Author. One year later I published my second novel, The Doorway To Passion and Pleasure, which is the back story to two of the characters in the first novel. Now I am currently finishing one of the books I started in 2008. It is the third book in the Pleasure series called The Pleasures Of The Past.
As I continue to write and grow my prayer is to become better and better with each book I write. I have so many stories in my head I sometimes can't sleep. There are so many great authors I love and read, that I pray to one day be in the ranks with them but in my own style.
In my next post, we will discuss A Pleasure doing Business. I hope you will have a dialog with me about my books and enjoy my blog.
Thanks, Author Victoria Townsend
