In all truth it started in the fourth grade. It was writing warm up, and I had the wildest imagination out of everyone in class. I was no where good at writing. Back then, an entire chapter was four, maybe five, sloppily written sentences. Now, I have to tell myself to move on to the next chapter before I reach 5,000 words.
Anyways, back to the topic at hand. Dragons had been my fascination––that and fairies. Any kind of magic, really. First the story took place on Neptune. Then, somehow, ended up on Earth? I'm not entirely sure where, or how, that happened. But it did.
Soon, I forgot about the four "chapters" I wrote and my imagination was clamped by school and focusing on getting good grades. It slipped my mind, and the worlds of dragons and fairies ceased to exist.
Over the pandemic, I did some "soul searching," if that is what you could call it. I found my love for writing again and the worlds made of magic came flooding back to me.
I remember the night specifically; I was trying my hardest to sleep and dreams had not quite overtaken me. Thinking that sleep would come easy enough, I climbed in bed and stared at the ceiling for what felt like hours. Before I knew it, it was one in the morning.
To quell the roaring thoughts, I decided to chew on something that had been picking on my mind as of late––getting the thoughts written down somewhere. To get them out of my head and to finally have some peace and quiet within my thoughts.
Later, I would find that my thoughts would be only overrun by that singular sentence that it had started with, no longer able to find the peace that I had been looking for that fateful early, early morning.
September 18th, 2020. That is the morning that I stayed up until the sun rose over the tall pine trees outside my window.
I can remember the feeling I had after finishing the prologue (which, after the second draft, got deleted entirely), it was euphoric. To finally have a dream and to claim it as my own.
It was the starting of an obsession.
Soon, the chapters started to come easily; one came after the other, stacking up to a whopping 25 chapters after just two months. I was writing in all my spare time and saw an extreme change in both my self esteem and mental health. I was happy.
Writing was a drug, one that I had tasted bit by bit every year in classes. But this year, when I was in my lowest, I tried again. And now, it is all I can think about. I'm addicted, as one could say, and it is a high that I will happily never stop riding.
After just three months, I had finished my first draft (sometime at the end of December). It was joyous to finally get those thoughts down, to finally be done. But little did I know that it was truly only beginning.
Now, I am 11,000 words into the sequel to When Mountains Wake. The title will be coming soon. How soon? I am not sure, but the title hits hard...
So, this is probably what you have been waiting for the entire time, more about the book in specific.
Though, recently I have felt like this story no longer feels right. So, I have decided to rewrite it. Before this decision was made, I was ready to start looking for beta readers. Now, however, I am unsure as to when my debut novel will be ready. Yes, it is a bummer to realize that three months of writing is going down the drain. But I have learned so much and my writing style has taken on a language of its own. I am so happy to rewrite it into something newer and a thousand times better.
Current word count for When Mountains Wake rewrite: 71,609 🎉
And I will give you the UNOFFICIAL synopsis for my book:
After living in the woods by herself, Kiara Finn has found her own separate way to living life. But that peacefully daunting life comes to an abrupt end. Weeks ago, she would’ve laughed at the choices that she has made. Now, she doesn’t question it.
Her heart becomes nothing but water when he touches her; the softness so very different from their startled meeting.
Together, the two create an unbreakable bond that one can only describe as two things: love, and their fiercely competitive nature.
Navigating her new life, Kiara braces herself for whatever is to come. But when the inevitable happens, and the devrit awaken, Kiara is not as prepared as she once thought she was.
The link to my Wattpad, where you can find the sample chapter, is linked somewhere in here.
And, as you will come to find––in both my Wattpad announcements and if you decide to email me––I always sign off with one thing:
To the chaos!
P.S.
I have way too many works in progress and can't wait to share all the wonderful stories with each and every one of you!
P.P.S.
This was strange, writing something casually. It differs so much from how my book sounds... And I kind of like it. One of my WIPs takes on a more casual approach and hopefully writing blog posts for the YWHH will help me develop a whole new "sound."