Saturday, July 7, 2012

An Introduction to Eugenia O'Neal

Wow!  I'm the newest member of Team Novel Spaces and I'm very pleased to be here!  Thanks so much, Liane, for inviting me.  I'm really looking forward to getting to know everyone. 

My first post is going to be pretty short because I just, basically, want to introduce myself.  I'm a writer from the British Virgin Islands, a territory just south of Puerto Rico.  If you check the map, you might mistake us for specks of dust but we're a bit bigger in real life. :-)  I've lived most of my life in the BVI but I've lived in the United States, England and in other Caribbean countries, too.

I started writing years ago but it wasn't until Greenwood Press published From The Field to The Legislature: A History of Women in the Virgin Islands that my writing career got off the ground.  Really, I should say, it lurched off because I didn't publish anything else for years and there have been big gaps between my books.  Small publishers issued the historical adventure romance, Dido's Prize, and the contemporary romance, Just an Affair.

I decided last year to get serious about the whole thing - it was now or never time - so I started a blog, became more active on social media like Facebook and Goodreads and began looking around, once again, for a publisher for Jessamine.  I'm going to blog about that experience in a future post but right now, to make a long story short, I decided to self-publish and Jessamine, a full-length novel, is now available from all major ebooksellers.  My first two novels were romances but Jessamine and the other manuscript I'm working on are not.  I read in all genres and I'd love to try my hand at a mystery or a horror so we'll see how that goes. 

I've learned, and am learning, a lot about writing and publishing and I hope to share what I've learned with you as this exciting journey continues.

10 comments:

Niambi said...

Hi, Eugenia! As you know, I'm very familiar with the BVI :) And if I'm correct, I first heard of A History of Women in the Virgin Islands on DC's Pacifica Caribbean show. I have Dido's Prize (beautiful cover!) and look forward to reading Jessamine.

Charles Gramlich said...

Welcome. I'm looking forward to learning more about you and your writing as the journey begins at Novel Spaces.

Lynn Emery said...

I'm adding my welcome! I look forward to your posts.

William Doonan said...

Welcome, Eugenia! Looking forward to working with you.

Liane Spicer said...

Welcome aboard, Eugenia! Looking forward to reading your posts - and your books. Just finished the Amazon sample of Jessamine and am about to get the full story. I have to know how it turns out!

Eugenia O'Neal said...

Hi, everyone! Thanks so much for the warm welcome!

Liane - let me know what you think. The thing I'm proudest of, next to having written it, is that I formatted Jessamine myself. I'm so hoping nobody comes across any funny stuff!

Niambi - Hi! *waves* You're practically a BVIslander! :-) You know, I didn't know that about Pacifica - never heard of them until now. That's great, though.

Jewel Amethyst said...

Eugenia, welcome to Novel Spaces. You're in good company. There are a few of us here from the Caribbean too. Our specks of dust may be slightly bigger than yours but you miss them without a magnifying glass.

I'm looking forward to reading more posts from you.

KeVin K. said...

Welcome, Eugenia!
(A day late because I don't pay attention.)

Delighted to have you on the team.
Must confess I have not read your fiction (yet), but from your blog posts and links I like how your mind works.

Eugenia O'Neal said...

Thanks Kevin and Jewel! Looking forward to getting to know you all.

Two Cables and a Frapp said...

Hello Eugenia, even though I just joined this blog, I'm adding my Welcome also. Love your story and that you self-published. I've thought about this many times. Talk to you on FaceBook !

Carolyn