Update ~ July 16

Nine years ago, on July 10th, 2009, I had a random decision to write the scene that I was making up in my head that night. It wasn’t technically any special scene. I’d had many random characters, magic systems, and scenes for made-up-on-the-spot plots following my day-to-day alone times for as long as I could remember. I generally played with them for a day or two and let them go.

But that night, I had the silly thought, let’s write this one this time. So, I grabbed the nearest utensils to me (a used/ripped up composition notebook and a sharpie) and started writing. I didn’t plan to finish the first page.

But I did.

As I approached the bottom of that first page, I realized maybe I shouldn’t be using sharpie. Maybe this was going somewhere. In April of 2010, I was staring at two notebooks and 258 hand-written pages. I had finished my first book.

I texted my friends in that moment. I remember feeling something. Something warm and ever-reaching when I lifted my pencil from the final period. As I reached for the new, empty composition book (I have it marked that I started book two on April 18th, at 10:33 pm, because high school me assumed it would be important to keep track of that stuff), one friend texted me back about how her mom was friends with an agent and she might be able to help me get in with them. I had little clue what she was talking about besides the word “publishing” and told her I had so much I needed to edit before that, and temporarily turned down the offer.

It’s been… an adventure.

Nine years later, I’ve learned so much. I met so many people. Experienced so many writer’s blocks. About two, maybe three, times, I seriously wondered if I was better off ditching it all (One time, I actually tried to (and it went horribly!)). But I’m here now. Four books in and ready to debut the first one.

I started contacting agents today.

Part of me wants to save this post for when I actually publish the first book, but this is a personal milestone in and of itself. For nine years, I’ve been wondering and imagining about this stage. Now I’m actually doing it…

May we rise to meet our challenges and never lose sight of the dreams that got us where we are!