2012 - The year my writing life died

The demise of Alan Place 

                                                                              The Trending Years 

I am in no doubt, 2012 was the year my life as a writer ground to catastrophic end.

The year before, I had earned an award for a short story selection. All 2011, someone I knew in the writing community trashed my book online, despite the fact I beat her in three writing contests, she kept saying she was the better writer.

Of course, 2012 was the year of the Mayan Calendar, and the end of the world as we knew it. Authors flocked to the trend of writing about the calendar, and the end of the world. They can't sell the books now, but they made their mark.

After that trend came Harry Potter, and authors copied J.K.Rowling themes to get sales, I was not one of them.

I did get some success in 2012, my last, I wrote the short story which became my Amazon bestseller, Holding Richmond.

Holding Richmond is an American Civil War short story about vampires.

I wrote this in opposition to the trend of the time, The Twilight Saga.

If you expect sexy, young things as vampires, you will be upset; my vampires hark back to the 1920 film, Nosferatu, from Germany.

Though I had a slight resurgence with my Science Fiction series, Forgestriker, with only the opening books selling, I never recovered from 2012.