In 2020 I remember asking some of my closest friends three questions. 

1. What couple of things would you like to be remembered for at the end of your life?

2. What personality traits of yours do you love the most?

3. What was an experience or interaction with someone you really enjoyed?

I wanted to use those questions for if I ever chose to write a book. I knew I would want my family and closest friends to be represented in them. I'm a sentimental bitch what can I say lol.

 Fast forward to the fall of 2021 and my life was about to change and I knew. Now is the time. So I bought Scrivener (a writing software) and set about outlining my book. I came up with tropes, certain scenes I wanted, etc. and wrote all the ideas on colorful sticky notes. Noting that at this point I was living in an RV and didn't have any wall space to fill with sticky notes, and therefore couldn't display my plot line on the wall like I'd originally been planning. Pivoting, I grabbed my large artist sketchbook and taped all the sticky notes within the blank pages so I could attempt to see the plot from a birds eye view. This worked as well as it could've for my vision and voila! My outline was in place. I made a Pinterest board, as one does, made an author Instagram and TikTok then on February 10th of 2022 I made my first TikTok video, posted it, and started to write.

Taking my time I attempted to write every day but sometimes the inspiration was off, the mood was wrong, or the words were running from my brain faster than I could think them #adhdproblems. I ended up finishing my first draft on August 25th, 2022 and I was over the moon! Could I even believe I had done it? That same week I was so excited I went to FedEx and printed my first draft. And there it was.

I was holding the first draft of my first book in my hands. 

One thing I have absolutely loved about this process is the series of firsts I've experienced. My first 'the end', my first round of edits, my first time compiling a team of incredible and kind individuals to assist me in making my book the best it could possibly be. I am so incredibly grateful to be where I am at in this process and meeting such wonderful people over this year and a smidge who have helped me in my craft and shared my excitement.

Since completing my first draft I've done a round of self edits, worked with an alpha reader, and worked with my developmental editor. I have five beta readers in place, three of my four sensitivity readers scheduled, and as soon as I'm finished with these developmental edits (hopefully by the end of April (fingers crossed!)) then I'll send the manuscript back to my editor for line edits.

That's about the gist of what has happened. I've made a Linktree, a newsletter, and now this website/blog, and I am so thrilled with how everything has gone!

Oh! But I simply cannot continue without mentioning the title: Grounders. It's funny because when I first started writing I had to name the document and I used the word Grounders because of the magical community in my book that falls in that category. I thought 'well, I'll use this for now until I come up with the title' silly me. I could not think of one for months! I thought of some that were too long, some that didn't feel right, and talked it over with friends and other authors but I kept coming back to Grounders. One day, when talking with my best friend, she mentioned how much she enjoyed 'Grounders' in itself and boom. It was sealed within my brain. Took me months to figure out I had had it all along!

I've since announced the title on TikTok as well as the release date. Every step I've taken has felt so official and exciting but also scary... I've pretty much been going through the motions in an excited terrified anticipation this whole time lol. But I've met so many wonderful authors, readers, bookstore owners (love you local indies!) and I'm thrilled to be a 2024 debut.

I'll end this here before I start getting too mushy lol but thank you for checking out my website, thank you for reading this blogpost, and thank you for talking bookish things with me. I hope you are as excited for Grounders (est. March 19th 2024) as I am.

Have a lovely day, dear readers.

And happy reading!