Why my stories are set in the United States and EU countries other than Slovenia

You may, indeed, be wondering why I set my first two novels in the United States when I live in the small country of Slovenia, in the heart of Europe, between Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia. You’ll find the answer as soon as you begin reading my books. I love writing about people who have succeeded in life and became very rich due to their exceptional dedication and hard work. The plots are made more interesting with violent crime, such as murder, kidnapping, serial killers, and so on.

Slovenia is a small country where there are no billionaires or violent crimes such as occur in large cities around the world. Because I’ve travelled extensively and lived in the USA, France and Germany and acquired a great deal of international experience, I decided to place my stories into a wider environment and I have no intention of limiting where one of my books can take place.

This is why I don’t see myself as a Slovenian writer, but a world writer. In future I shall probably once more move to the States or Britain. I also think that through the internet electronic books unite the world. It’s not so important where you’re from, but how well they are written.

The Beginning

I started self-promotion one month ago. Already more than 2300 readers have uploaded the book Promise Me Eternity for free. This week I have sold 25 books. Not bad for the beginning. I’m very happy.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone!

The content of my future blogs

In my future blogs, I will write about the following themes:

• My life
• How I became a successful writer
• The mistakes I’ve made
• Other things I did before writing
• And many other interesting details
• Creative writing
• Why there are so few successful authors
• What are the main characteristics of a crime novel
• How to arouse feelings in readers
• Publishing and self-promotion
• How to publish a book in electronic form
• Amazon, Smashwords …
• Self-promotion

Those who will follow my blog will be able to read about my life from childhood to the present. They will also learn a lot of interesting things about creative writing. And future publishers will be able to get excellent tips about publishing and self-promotion.

Electronic books do not sell without self-promotion

When my first book appeared on the shelves of libraries, people started borrowing it en masse. This is because all new books start their “career” in a special spot, marked as “new arrivals”. When a reader returns the book, it lands on a trolley for a few hours and then it’s put back on the shelf. But because people are always browsing through the books on the trolley, my book hardly ever reached the shelf as it was always taken by the next reader.

Things are a bit more difficult on the shelves of a bookstore as a book soon gets lost among the others. Usually all you can see of a book on a shelf is its spine, i.e. just an inch or so, depending on how thick it is. And so without special promotion, a writer can’t expect his book to sell well.

The situation with electronic books is even more complicated as the reader will never just randomly look among tens of thousands of titles, but will choose a title that is on the list of the best read books. But how do you get on the list if you’ve only just started?

I’ll tell you a secret. The book Promise Me Eternity was published a few months ago. I haven’t sold a single copy. This proves just one thing – that self-promotion is a must with electronic books. This is why I wasn’t disappointed like many other people, it just made me even more determined to do everything in my power to reach my goal.

Honesty

Before I started writing my blog, I read some other writers’ blogs. Often they start off by trying to convince their readers how very much they like writing and that they have always loved it. What’s interesting, though, is that some of them are forty years old and have only published three books. How come, if they really like writing so much?

The fact is that at the very beginning they write what they think they should write, but they’re not quite honest. Even my friend Dušan Kaluža, who lives in Madrid and is involved in Kabbalah and for whom I have a great deal of respect, tried to lecture me about what I should write so that readers don’t get the wrong impression. But as writing a blog involves so much information, I’ve decided to be completely honest even if it means revealing something I shouldn’t. It’s definitely my intention to make my blog as interesting as possible. But I intend to be succinct, just as I am in my novels. 

The main characteristics of crime novels

The main characteristics of my crime novels:

• I shock and surprise the readers at the very start. I want them to begin enjoying the book straight away and then the plot draws them in so that they can’t put the book down until they’ve reached the end.
• I never start writing until I have composed a scene-by-scene storyline, which I think about for at least three months. Usually, this means three or four different stories, which become more and more connected and interlinked over the course of the book until at a certain point they all come together. The stories are divided into smaller segments, which can range from one to several pages. In this way, the reader’s interest never wanes, as these are extremely readable units that often foreshadow coming events.
• Within the plot I try to arouse emotions in the readers, which means that they identify with the book and feel everything that the main protagonists feel.

The plot of my second and third books

So far, I’ve written 5 books and published 3, which will shortly (within 3 months) also be available in English in electronic form.

Here is a short summary of the second and third books:

ONLYTHE STRONGEST SURVIVE

The novel opens with a hair-raising scene in which two men kidnap Emely Donnovan, one of the wealthiest women in America, and bury her alive. What is behind this horrific crime? Raised in a strict religious institution, Emely never knew her parents. Fearing a life of poverty, she starts up a small business that deals mainly with buying and selling stocks. Thanks to her extreme dedication and knowledge the company grows over time into a major conglomerate. In her desire for ever-greater financial security, she has accumulated quite a number of enemies for herself. But now she finds herself locked up in the basement of a house in the middle of a forest, watched over by one of her captors who makes her buy and sell stocks for him so he can get rich. But things become even more complicated when Emely’s captor falls in love with her…

FORGET ABOUT THE PAST – (expected to be published in three months)

The reporter Anya Horvat, who works at Clarice, a weekly women’s magazine, has problems with men. She is 35, but has never had a single relationship that lasted more than two months. This is what makes her decide to see the well-known and very successful psychiatrist Patricia Bellows, who is later found horribly murdered. Anya has never dealt with a murder investigation before, but when her boss literally forces her to take the assignment, she begins to uncover the murdered psychiatrist’s intriguing past – and at the same time, the source of her own problems…

A Short Summary of Promise Me Eternity

Dr. Simon Patterson is a successful and well-respected neurosurgeon at Central Hospital in the town of Medford. Married, though without children, he keeps himself so busy that one day is not much different from another. Until, that is, he saves the life of the powerful mobster Carlo Vucci. At a dinner in honor of Dr. Patterson, Carlo Vucci introduces him to his alluring wife Christine. Simon is entranced by her beauty. Three weeks later, Christine shows up at the hospital, complaining of terrible headaches. Dr. Patterson offers to help her, but Christine did not come to see him just because of her health. A series of shocking events follows that transforms Simon’s life into a nightmare. Among other things, he finds himself in court being accused of first degree murder…

My first blog

I decided to use a blog to promote that which I do best – writing crime novels. I’m aware that many obstacles lie on my path, but I’m determined like never before. Sooner or later I will reach the goal I have set for myself.

I was born in Slovenia (in the European Union), but in addition to living in my home country, I have also spent considerable time in the USA, France and Germany. I’m fluent in English, French and German. Because of my extensive international experience my novels are set in the USA and various parts of Europe.

I can boast of having achieved exceptional success in Slovenia, both in libraries and bookstores. All three novels have sold very well, and all three have been ranked among the top 100 most borrowed library books. Enthusiastic readers write to me, saying they can’t put my books down and read them within a few days.

Individual libraries have ranked my books among the top 10, sometimes even the top five most-borrowed books.

I’ve decided to offer one of my books for free for a short period (till 31.12.2011) on Smashwords.

I invite you to visit the following website, where you’ll be able to download my novel:

DOWNLOAD ON SMASHWORDS  FOR  FREE WITH COUPON: ZP78E TILL 31.12.2011.

DOWNLOAD ON AMAZON   FOR 0.99$

 As I’m new on the American market, I ask the readers to comment and say what they think about my writing.