From True Blood Fanfiction to Published Author by Harlow Layne

[Note from Frolic: We are so excited to have author Harlow Layne guest post on the site today. Take it away, Harlow!]

I’ve loved to read for as long as I can remember. Of course, there have been times when I didn’t read for example when I was in college or I had a newborn and could barely stay awake. I started off reading Stephen King. Those were the only books my dad read and so I read them too. My first book of his was the first Dark Tower book. From there I loved reading autobiographies. Yes, that a strange turn, but something about their stories spoke to me. 

I’m not sure how I started reading the Southern Vampire Mysteries (now the Sookie Stackhouse series) by Charlaine Harris, but I devoured the first few as they were already out and then the rest as they released. Next came the show True Blood on HBO. I already loved Eric Northman but seeing him on screen made my love turn into an obsession. Alexander Skarsgard is a hottie. Can you blame me? You’re probably wondering how this got me into writing right? Yeah, it’s a bit of tale, but bear with me. You know how excited you are when a book you’ve been anticipating comes out. Wanting to skip work, real life, and ignore your family. That was me on the twelfth book in the series. I sat down and read my heart out. What I didn’t anticipate was my heart breaking. I was devasted that the author was tearing a part a relationship that had grown and transformed through twelve books. Side note: I will never do this in any of my books.

If you’re still here, you’re probably still wondering how this got me to write. I took to the internet and found a forum for people who were just as unhappy as I was. Those lovely people directed me to fanfiction. I knew nothing of fanfiction. Absolutely nothing but I read everything I could get my hands on. EVERYTHING. I spent the next two years spending all my time reading what I call SVM (Southern Vampire Mysteries) and True Blood fanfiction. One day I decided to start writing a story for True Blood. I wanted to give Eric and Sookie their happily ever after, and I wanted her to stop disregarding him as she had in the book and TV show. I wrote a total of seven fanfiction stories and six one-shots. Most of these were book length. During that time, I had a dream that stuck with me over the years. I kept building that story in my head and fell in love with the characters who are now Luke and Alex in the Fairlane Series. 

With the encouragement from my fans, I finished up my last fanfiction story and started writing With Love, Alex. I waited until I was finished writing their Luke and Alex’s story which turned into a novella, and two novels before I published. Since I first published last year on September 20th, I haven’t stopped writing. A year later, I’m publishing my seventh book, Secret Admirer.