Since my teenage years, I have written a number of short stories of various genres. I generally blogged them and felt they would not have any commercial appeal. However, I was constantly told that this story or that story should be a book. Somehow, I always felt that they were just being nice and never pursued writing a novel. It was only when in 2004, I entered a short story into an online contest among 10,000 other writers and my story won fourth place. Yet, it was not until a year later that another short story came to me. That story would change everything. It was meant to be a dark comedy where a woman is stalked and assaulted by a man named Tim. Vickie, the victim was not having this as she is powerful physically and mentally. Vickie beats Tim down, then, she proceeds to stalk him and torture him in every way. She befriends his wife, mentors his daughter all the while playing with him. As I wrote this story, it turned dramatic and ended differently than I anticipated. I thought to myself; “this is too big to be a short story.” I had no idea how to write a novel and it sat for eight more years. Then, it came to me how to write Vickie’s story. It took two years to write with the help of friends and relatives of various professions. I had lawyers help with the legal aspects of the storyline, and even a famous astrophysicist high up in NASA gave me a behind-the-curtain at what it is like being a scientist for my astronomy character. My friend Nicole, who is a VP of marketing for a DRTV company jumped in along with my wife Melinda to edit the story. Melinda gave me great insights into the character. Nicole employed her mom who is a retired literary professor to help edit and the novel began to take shape. Nicole’s aunt who is also a literary major, dug in and became a harsh critic chapter by chapter forging this story to be solid. With the help of all of these people, the story tempered into a hard-hitting powerful story of an indomitable woman. An extremely strong woman that endured rape as a teenager and numerous other life events to make her an instrument of her judicial design. The book was entitled Vic/Tim for Vickie and Tim the main characters who are both victims.
After being turned down by over 500 literary agents, I decided to self-publish Vic/Tim until Tate Publishing contacted me and wanted the book. Tate was not a big publisher and had a poor reputation but it was a quantum leap from self-publishing. Tate required a large retainer to publish books, but their executives waived it wanting my story. They told me that “Vic/Tim” was controversial like “Fifty Shades of Grey” and that controversy sells books. So, I was in and after eight months they released my book. It had a moderate notice from people but the feedback was interesting. Women generally loved the book and some said they had to get back to it once in a while because it was so hard emotionally to read. Most men like it as well but several men told me they had a huge problem with the Vickie character. I was cornered by these two guys separately but saying the same things; Vickie is too powerful, too smart, not a hero, and not a nice person. I never claimed she was a hero or nice, that is the point of the book. They were actually deeply disturbed by Vickie. I told them that if they are that emotionally disturbed by a fictional character, they probably need to look at themselves for the answer. Yet, there was a calling to who Vickie is and how she came to be. While Vic/Tim touched on the fact she was a rape victim and forcibly had her baby taken from her and given to adoption, it was apparent that readers wanted to know more. It was at that point the entire story of her life came to me in great detail and I decided to make it a series of six books. Vic/Tim would be #4 in that series because of Vickie’s age. So I wrote #1 and #2 in succession in thirty days and forty-five days respectively. Tate soon published them and managed to get Vickie in the shelves of some Barnes and Noble bookstores. However, Tate began to have severe financial issues and I realized they had adopted some business changes that I knew were going to put them in bankruptcy within a few months. They begged me to stay but released everything to me once I had laid out the reality of what they were facing. In a few months, they did get closed down by the Attorney General’s office of Oklahoma and the founder and his son were arrested on fraud charges. This left 30,000 other authors out in the cold. While they did do things wrong even to me like not paying royalties, I did not think them to be evil people just desperate which they made poor choices. They did launch me in understanding how the publishing game works and I started publishing under my own banner Mazzaroth.
On my own now and pushing my books, I started getting them translated into various languages. I also got into audiobooks and started them in various languages. It was then I met actress Leni Rico which narrated my book Vickie into Spanish. Leni is originally from Spain and has been in movies and TV, most recently finishing up a movie with Morgan Freeman and John Travolta. As she narrated my book, she emailed me that she had to stop and compose herself as the book was so heartbreaking. It really drove the point in how Vickie became so powerful. Leni was so moved by the book she took it to a producer she knew by the name of Barney Cohen. Barney created shows long ago like Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Forever Knight and movies Friday the 13th The Final Chapter and Gernika. Barney is a very smart and seasoned producer that asked for a breakdown of all six books I have written and planning to write. After reviewing them he wanted to know more about book two Valkyrie. So after reviewing that book further, he focused in a part of the story about an evil corporate game played on interns called The Lazarus Game. This is a game Vickie takes on in one of the major plot points of the book. I explained further the game is a phase from coming nemesis to Vickie called Violet. Violet is being written right now and she is a very wealthy powerful woman that plans to take Vickie on for her interference. Barney liked the Lazarus Game aspect and decided to write it into a TV movie. So now I have an actress and producer on board with a VP of marketing as team Vickie to make my books a TV show.
Yet while the TV possibility is exciting, the most moving thing for me is feedback from readers. One lady told me she is a rape victim from her teens and asked if she could share her real-life story. It was heartbreaking to hear what happened and the response she received from family. As a man, I did not try to pretend that I could write an event so personal to women to beguile them I understand such a thing. I also tried to write the story of Vickie’s rape tastefully without graphic details just trying to capture the emotion of it. Reading the real-life event of this lady, the feeling was the same as Vickie’s. Then I had another lady come forward with the same testimony. She said that reading Vickie was like reading her life story and she wanted me to know she would help in any way to promote my books. I felt a weighted responsibility how words matter and books influence. While my books are far from being on everyone’s bookshelf, I hope the audience they do reach is happy with them. I never considered myself to be a great writer or even a very good one, just a storyteller.
In the midst of this, I wrote a book adapted from a short story written long ago called “Southern Cross”. This is a more all age appropriate book about a boy from a poor Mexican village who dreams of being an astronomer. His dad wants him to be a rancher like him but Miguel is not having that. However, one night Miguel discovers the stars are wrong and he and his entire village are on a different part of the planet. While his fellow villagers do not believe such a preposterous thing can be, he must endeavor to convince them and find out how it happened. In this book, I borrow Vickie and a few characters to cross-pollinate it with the Vickie books. It also gives an Easter egg glimpse into Vickie later in life we will see in the final books. While Southern Cross is a standalone book, I hope it will find audiences sharing both.
While Vickie herself continues to be written, it has already gathered attention from other producers who are looking at the books. Yet, I continue to write Vickie as she fulfills her destiny and eventually saving the world from a terrible conspiracy. I am asked who inspired the Vickie character and an answer is a number of women. One I cite often is Lucille Ball in which I was inducted on Lucy’s IMDB page about and which I am still humbled by. Lucy was a tough lady that ran her own production company and started a variety of shows like Star Trek which influenced the world. Vickie is tough, strong and laser-focused on dealing with injustices in life. She is a broadsword, not a surgical instrument as why other characters have to help be her conscience and restrain her at times. I hope as these books are written that people come away with empowerment, self-worth, and anyone is redeemable. The Vickie series are powerful and sometimes harsh but provide a viewpoint from a number of sides and issues. While Vickie is a serious interruption in the affairs of people doing wrong and washes out many in her wake, she also builds people back up. My hope is that these books will entertain and help at least one person. They have already motivated my teenage daughter to write books now, so I can think of no greater success than that.
Mike Sims
More info: Mazzaroth.net
What Will Vickie Do?
