Today we’d like to introduce you to Tina Harvey.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I was orphaned and separated from my only sibling at 7. Somehow in the chaos of my early childhood, I learned to read, early. Books quickly became my safe escape and I consumed them. By 5th grade, I’d exhausted my school’s little library. By eleven I was reading Stephen King and Anne Rice. I didn’t have stable housing or public library access until I was in my twenties so I would borrow books from my friend’s parents and grandparents. I read everything I could find. In my teens the urge to start writing my own stories hit, but my foster parents kicked me out before I finished high school so I had to work to pay my bills instead. It wasn’t until the past year, at 36 that I finally had the financial stability and space to start writing. So I did. In nine months I wrote an entire adult urban fantasy novel on my cell phone then learned to edit, format, design the cover and self-publish it. It sold 100 copies in its first two weeks. I’m currently writing book two, though I’m using a laptop for this one.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The hardest part has been having the financial stability to be able to make the time to write and invest in it. Self-publishing is surprisingly expensive and what you have to learn is pretty intense!
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m a writer but also a publisher and editor and formatter and marketer and social media manager and cover designer. I’m honestly super proud that I taught myself to do all of those things. But I think anyone can learn how to do it all, given the passion for it.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Stick with it. Allow yourself to be terrible. Then do it again. And again. And again.
Contact Info:
- Website: Tina-harvey.com
- Facebook: Facebook.com/writertinaharvey
- Other: Tiktok.com/virtually.chaos
