My name is Amanda Fasciano, and I am the author of The Life After Series, as well as the upcoming Silent Sentinels Series.
If you had told me 15 years ago that I would be a published author (not just self-published, but with a publisher), I would have thought you were playing a trick on me. Not only that, but I’m learning screenwriting to adapt my books as well. I’ve wanted to be a writer ever since I can remember, having always had a strong passion for crafting stories.
The Life After Series started as a mix between a “what if?” scenario, and a dream. I grew up in a haunted house and have always had a fascination with the paranormal because of it. As such, when shows like “Ghost Hunters” and “Ghost Adventures” started popping up, I devoured them.
This is where the “what is?” part comes in. I’d been watching an episode of one and of course they only got half of a shadow on camera, fragments of voice answers on EVP and such. A random thought hit me, as they so often do: What if there were rules to being a haunting spirit? What if there were ghostly officers to enforce said rules?
That was an idea I pondered over for a while, but it wasn’t until I had a certain dream that I linked the two together and it became a real story.
The dream was a female detective whose brother was killed in a college dorm, and his ghost haunted the dorm. She could see him and could try to go in and get to him but ended up in a kind of booby-trapped cave system trying to get into the house through an open basement door.
Everything clicked into place then. I suppose you could even say I was kissed by a muse.
Within six weeks I had the first drafts of books 1 and 2 done. Things sometimes work like that for me, and I get very lucky. I’ll throw myself into writing this brilliant idea and be done quickly. I recently did that with my new Silent Sentinels Series, which is a companion or sister series to The Life After Series.
Whereas The Life After Series is kind of a PG-13 to R rated Paranormal Mystery series regarding ghosts and ghost hunters, The Silent Sentinels Series is in the same universe and characters will freely cross over between the two. The Silent Sentinels is a spicy Paranormal Romance that focuses on the earthbound realm of the supernatural, vampires, shifters, gods, etc.
The funny thing is none of this would have been possible without two key people. A Power Rangers Putty and a viciously wonderful soul sister.
At Tampa Bay Comic Con I went to a panel that had R.A. Salvatore and Neo Edmund to name a few. Afterwards Neo, who had been talking about the benefits of self-publishing, was gracious enough to speak with me. I told him I had written these books, had the first one professionally edited, but I was scared to put it out there. After one hell of a pep talk by the man, I went home and pushed the publish button on Amazon. The Life After Series came to Kindle life on 8/27/2016.
In 2018 I met a woman who would end up being one of my best friends and colleagues: Amanda Byrd. In late spring of 2022, she messaged me about Four Horsemen Publishing. She told me that they were a publishing house that strictly dealt with series novels. I took the info but proceeded to sit on it for a couple more months. Finally, I got the nerve to submit the first three chapters, per the instructions. I expected, like other submissions, to either not hear back at all, or get a very nice rejection.
Within a few weeks, however, I was in an online meeting with the Senior staff of Four Horsemen (all of whom are amazing, kind, and talented people in their own right). I was signed by them, and the rest is history. The first four novels of The Life After Series have been published under their banner, and the 5th comes out in a few more months.
In the meantime, I found an actor who is a perfect fit for one of the characters and I’m working with him on creating a trailer from Aiden’s point of view. Another thing I never thought I would be doing, talking to actors about *my* projects.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still in the part of this where it is passion, not money. I work a normal day job and live paycheck to paycheck like everyone else. But I am a very lucky woman to be able to be doing something I love that others enjoy too.
So, the next time you feel like you might be in the mood for something that is a mash up of the X-Files and Ghost Adventures, but from the ghosts’ point of view, check out The Life After Series. And if you’re more in the mood for the more flesh-based side of the universe I’ve created, check out the upcoming Silent Sentinels Series (because alliteration and spiciness are fun!) coming for your eyeballs in 2025!
In the meantime, Happy Haunts!
