I’ve been fighting this battle for the past 5 years and honestly, I thought I had given up and hung my hat up on my series. Fighting can be exhausting and fighting for five years can drastically change an author’s life. But let me start at the beginning (WARNING: BOOK SPOILERS IN HERE)
Twenty-two years ago (I promise to make this short!) I was a happy automotive mechanic working as a service adviser in a small independent shop. I was pregnant with our first child, scared of what was about to happen. 36-hours of labor later, we had a beautiful and healthy little girl. Unbeknownst to me, my boss decided to fire me since I couldn’t work. (Yes, small businesses in Colorado can fire someone for taking maternity leave. I had no idea either). Taking a graveyard job so that either my husband or myself was at home with Madison, I was exhausted, furious, hormonal and wanted revenge. I began writing down different ways I could take out my boss and make it look like an accident. Yes, hormones run strong during this time. Luckily for both myself and my boss, my dad read my notes and told me it would make an excellent book. This is what kicked off my writing career.
Fast forward eighteen years. I’ve been writing sweet romance. My stories are great in the beginning but my grammar, punctuation is horrible (seriously, I won’t re-release my first book) but I studied, honed and crafted my work until I was not only producing a great story, but it flowed and read well too. I was making good money, had contracts with smaller publishers and stayed busy. Unfortunately I was also getting burned out. I just couldn’t bring myself to write about one more naked cowboy. I wanted to write stories like my favorites: Divergent, Maze Runner, Harry Potter, but with my own twist. At the end of 2018, beginning of 2019, I stopped writing sweet romance and started on my dystopian fantasy series.
I was in love with writing again! My protagonist, Willow, was insecure and unsure at the age of seventeen, just like I was, but she had strength inside, knowing there was something more. I also wanted her to have magical powers, as I truly believe we all have special gifts that often go overlooked within ourselves. Adding to my excitement, the Denver PopCulture Con asked me to be a signing guest for the 2020 convention, where I could premier the first book in the series. I was on cloud 9! Then the world turned upside-down. Despite Covid shutting everything down, I moved forward to promote my series. The second book was almost finished and I was getting ready to start the third. I created book trailers to post on social media to build up a following since I was entering in a new genre. To my surprise, marketing agencies were refusing to post my books. I had some that said it just wasn’t the type of books they promoted, while others stated that it encouraged uprising within the youth. I continued to push on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. In 2021, my first account on TikTok was permanently banned.
As my frustration grew, my royalties diminished. I had focused all of my time and attention on my dystopian series and hadn’t been writing sweet romance at all. I had put all of my eggs in one basket and the gamble had not paid off. By October of 2021, I had to find outside employment to support my family. I refused to give up on my series and began learning how to create amazing book trailers and began entering them into film festivals to garner the attention of others. I won my first international film festival and continued creating the vision of Willow and her Crows (to date, I’ve won twenty-three international film festivals). Unfortunately that didn’t draw the attention I was looking for so I started entering international book competitions. I won the gold medal in Readers Favorite International Book Awards in 2022 and to be honest, flying down to Miami and attending the awards ceremony fueled me and fortified my belief that I had truly written a great dystopian fantasy series. Surely this would open up doors for me. Unfortunately it did not. The series has won nine international books awards, including an IMDb certified film festival for books (yep, I’m on the IMDb website!) but it still didn’t equate to royalties.
Fast forward again to this year. I’ve cut the series from being eight books to five, having just released the last book, Gathering of Corvids. During the promotion last year, TikTok and Facebook continued their ridiculous removal of my content, this last reason absolutely egregious, as the image states that I violated community guidelines due to the book causing “civic and election integrity” and “sexual activity and services”. I tried to appeal it, as my series has NOTHING to do with the 2024 elections and 3 of the international book awards I have won were in YA categories because no, there is NO sex in my series. Absolute rubbish is how I feel these excuses are. My appeal was denied.
During this time, I also dealt with self-proclaimed experts on “book banning” and informed me that I could not claim that my books were being banned because libraries hadn’t banned them. I clarified that I always stated my books were banned on social media, but she continued to argue with me. I blocked her, not having the energy to argue with her and uneducated prejudices, as traditional publishers and large marketing firms were already discussing the issues of books being banned on social media. I also found that I was losing myself to a darker personality. Having your voice muzzled, having your work pulled from polite society is extremely painful and honestly violating. I could not understand how something that is purely fictional (she has super powers, folks!) could be removed for reasons that were false and far from the truth. I tried changing hashtags, different wording, studied social media marketing tactics and nothing worked. Out of the twenty-eight books I’ve published, this series was the only one being targeted.
Which brings me to Gathering of Corvids, Willow’s last adventure. I struggled with writing it for two years. I wanted it to be as incredible as the first books, but my frustration, exhaustion and anger was coloring my view and my creativity. It didn’t help that I was working in a 9-5 industry that sucked the life from my soul, so I knew I had to do the best I could for Willow, and myself. I released Gathering of Corvids September 5, 2025 (while I have it on Amazon, it’s priced at $200 for the snippet. The full book is only available on my website. Amazon is another story for another day.)
Here is a snippet of the fifth and final book. I do introduce characters that I’m excited to do a spinoff with, though it will not be focused on dystopian aspect, more fantasy as I do not wish to experience another book banning! And remember, I have the first book free here, not only to thank my readers who have supported me the past five years trying to get Willow’s voice out there, but for the new ones too!
I dropped the blade to the floor, sure that my beloved weapon had melted into a puddle, but found it solid and unscathed, as was my hand.
“It’s not your powers that Animus and Sherika are interested in. They do not tell us, and we do not ask. We follow orders.”
“You trust them that much?”
“Your people don’t trust you that much?” she scoffed. “You take much for granted. These people followed you because they trusted you. They still follow you, yet you hold secrets from them. That does not make a good leader.”
“I don’t want to put them in a situation where they could get hurt or even die.”
“They are already in that position, Willow, when you decided to go to Old York.” She sighed. “I waste no more time on you. Meet Animus, he is waiting for you.”
She left the room before I could say anything else. I tentatively reached for my sword but found the steel cold to the touch. No evidence of the scorching heat that caused me to drop it from my hand moments before. Throwing on some clothes, I grabbed my sword and sheathed a dagger, just to be safe. I wasn’t sure if Animus had powers or not. If he did, I wouldn’t stand a chance against him anyway.
You can find the entire series here.
You all have a blessed weekend and don’t let anyone muzzle your voice! It matters!
Always, RaeAnne