The Marathon and the Sprint

In late 2018 I read a New York Times Bestseller which shall remain nameless, and I thought it was the worst written book I'd ever read. Yet I was so captivated by the premise and the setting, I snatched up the sequel as soon as I could get a hold of it. That experience made me think maybe I could write a book too, and someone somewhere could enjoy it.

I set myself a goal of having a book completely ready to pursue publishing by in a year, and things were looking good. After eight months I had my first draft, and after going back through it once, I did an initial betaread. My poor beta readers.

I learned of course that I had a lot to learn. I started reading voraciously in the YA genre. In 2019 I attended literary conferences, where I met amazing published authors who had nothing but encouraging things to say to an aspiring writer. In the 2020 pandemic I had the chance to tune into weekly webcasts of authors speaking on the craft. That summer, I signed up for an advanced fiction class through the library. Two and a half years and one and a half babies later, I couldn't be prouder to present this novel.

It's so much more than fantasy. It's my real beliefs and values poured into the characters and world on these pages. After the marathon Eris Cathaway has been through, I hope her story absorbs you so it feels like a nonstop sprint to the ending.

#webcasts #betaread #editing