Guest Post From Author S.M. Bailey

I agree with S.M. Bailey in that story always stems from character. Welcome this author to my blog and read on for more...

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On November 11, 2013, the tenth anniversary of my grandfather’s passing, I sat down with my laptop and started writing. It was meant to be a therapeutic exercise. But a few paragraphs turned into a few pages...then a few chapters...

The greatest authors have said a story is never finished, it constantly evolves. I believe writers have to be a little schizophrenic to help us out in our journey. Some characters have lived in my head for years, and still do. To writers, these characters are as real as our next door neighbor because let’s face it, he probably has a personality trait that lives in one of our characters somewhere.

These characters have guided me through tragedies, helped me to escape reality or return to it, and most importantly, comforted me. I have built whole cities and communities in my head, and I love to write about them. In a way, I was meant to be a writer. I have always wanted to write.

But I had this bad habit of letting my stories lose steam and fade away. Because of this, I have many stories in the works. I finally finished one. "Straight Ahead, In the Dark" is the culmination of my therapeutic exercise of the last two years.

It’s a story about a man recollecting his past while taking a trip down the East Coast to start a new life, a story about a man battling his demons, a story about heartbreak and triumph.

I have been told that Junior Benton and Cora Pontini are the two most potent and powerful characters in the story. They are heavily modeled by actual people that are, and were, in my life. Characters….It’s what the story is really about, right?

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I'm very grateful to S.M. Bailey for contributing to my blog. If you'd like to more about the author you can visit his website here, and you can find him on facebook too. Here's a direct link to the author's book on Amazon.

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