In my previous installment, I left off in 2021. So, here’s what happened between then and now.
June 2021. I have a character. I know what she looks like, and I have her love interest and I know what he looks like, but I they didn’t really have personalities, wants, fears, quirks, anything. I knew she’d be a sort of anti-hero and he would be the sweet, innocent bystander giving us the play-by-play, but that was it. Still no story.
I can’t really get into specifics on my inspiration for the story, because it literally hit me out of the blue. I had a download from my higher self, telling me what my book would be about. And not long after that, it told me this would no longer be a standalone book, but a series. A trilogy. It may yet be longer than a trilogy. But for now, that is what I have mapped out.
So, after fleshing the story out and my characters, I started to write, right? Yeah, no. Oh no, I had to have a visual representation of my characters. And so began my love affair with Photoshop. With determination and YouTube, I spent the next two and a half years creating the cover to my book while simultaneously writing it. I also took some time off writing it to create my tarot deck, Moonlight & Shadow Tarot, which taught me so much about Photoshop that after those were done, I went back to work on Hybrid’s cover. You can see my deck here. I’ll be working on getting that published once I’m established as an author.
I started to write Hybrid in October 2021. Got about 30% of the way through it, and somewhere around February 2022, I worked on my tarot cards, had a failed Kickstarter campaign, but it taught me a fuck ton about running a Kickstarter campaign! Once that was done, I got the writing bug again, and started re-writing the first 30% I had written, and then pushed forward.
Fast forward to December 2022. Armed with my cover (left), I lit a fire under my ass to finish writing the first draft of Hybrid. On April 6th of 2023, I finished. And holy shit, the feeling I got when I ended that epilogue was ridiculous. I felt completely numb. That wasn’t at all what I thought finishing my book would feel like. You go 23 years with a story in your head telling yourself you’ll write it someday, to suddenly having it complete, but you know that the first draft is only the beginning. There was so much more work to be done, and I wasn’t about to kill my momentum by taking a break. Not even to celebrate.
I took about a weekend off writing before heading into edits. And wow! My first draft was a shit show! That was a rough summer. By the time I’d finished my 4th round of edits, I had added about 100 pages. I’m one of those people who writes too much. And I can’t relate to those who struggle with getting their word goals in on the daily. I knew I’d have to pare it down when the time came, but I needed to get it into the hands of beta readers first. It was ready.
To the right is the very first proof I got for my book. Now, the cover no longer looks like this, and the book has changed quiet a bit since this version, so, I shall keep my proofs as a physical record of the original. When I tell you I was stoked to hold my book in my hands—even just one version of it—now that gave me the feels.
Moving on! Beta readers are damn hard to find. If you’re not familiar with what those are, they are volunteers who read your manuscript and give you feedback based on the type of feedback you want. Sometimes, they’ll give you feedback you didn’t ask for, but for the most part, it’s all helpful. I had about 12 or so beta readers, of which I knew I would have a solid 3-5 actually finish the book and provide me with feedback. And I was right. They’ve all agreed to beta read Part II and be ARC (advanced reader copy) readers for Hybrid when it’s complete. ARC readers get a free copy of the finished book in exchange for an honest review on agreed upon platforms (Amazon, Goodreads, TikTok, etc). If you’d like to be an ARC reader, hit me up!
I digress. While in the hands of beta readers, I started writing Irinsbane Part II. That’s right, like a psychopath, I needed to punish myself more by writing another goddamn book. I started on September 16th, the night I met and saw my favorite band, Bad Omens, in Boston, and finished the first draft on December 29th. And it was even longer than Hybrid. I will reveal the title of Part II when I start seeking beta readers for it. Soon! Ish. Soon-ish. Yeah.
Speaking of Bad Omens, I want to give them a shout out. Without finding them, I probably wouldn't have had the inspiration to finish the first draft of Hybrid so quickly. Within 2 months of finding them through Apple Music, it went from being 50% done, to 100%. Their entire music catalog, along with the catalogs for Spiritbox, Sleep Token, Dayseeker, The Birthday Massacre, Architects, and STARSET, were literally on repeat while writing. God, I love me some metalcore and post hardcore.
After I received my feedback from my betas on Hybrid, I took, again, two days off and started working on my developmental edit for Hybrid on January 1st. And I literally just finished on Monday, March 4th. Two months to do the developmental edit. Not too bad. As of yesterday, I am working on my line edit and I’m busting my ass to get it done within six weeks.
I’ve got a publication deadline to meet, so I can work on gathering pre-orders. In the meantime, I am also working on developing my TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram profiles to build a community of my future readers. I have a vision, and all I need is hard work and consistency to manifest it.
Speaking of my publication deadline, I have chosen a release date for Hybrid and only my subscribers will know when that is and when the pre-order date is first! So, hop on over to subscribe, grab your copy of the exclusive “Uly” chapter, and be the first to get updates on the publication, giveaways, and other goodies.
I will be shooting out an email shortly with the release date, and, in my next blog installment, I will show you the craziness of what it was like designing my cover start-to-finish. With a little surprise at the end. Oh dear god, it’s going to be embarrassing showing you where I started, but everyone’s gotta start somewhere.