My creation, it lives!
The first book in my Leaper trilogy is out in the world, and all I can say is 'it's about time!'
From age, like, 13 maybe? I've dreamed of writing books, and even of being a young published author. As a very young adult, having a book published by age 20 seemed like a pretty doable number. Then it was 22, then 25, then 'in a few months'.
I can at least say it didn't not happen (double negatives, gotta love 'em). But turns out 29 is my year.
I have a book out. Some people have even bought it and are, presumably, reading it. There are even a couple of star ratings and a review. That's pretty cool.
But I can't say it's all fulfilling my wildest dreams, which are pretty wild.
I'm an impatient person when it comes to accomplishing what I want. I definitely never imagined this process would take so long. From writing my first chapter in, say 2010(ish) to publishing Leaper: Down to Earth on April 28 of this year (2019), so much had to happen, but it was the waiting that was most difficult:
Waiting for people to finish reading/editing the various drafts, waiting to hear back from book agents. Never hearing back from most agents, getting a couple bites from a few only to, many months later, be told they'd decided they were, in fact, not interested.
Then finally deciding that I'd publish my book myself. That's right, Leaper: Down to Earth is a self-published book. (That's why it's only currently available as an ebook)
'Self-published' can mean a lot of different things to different people, but I'm sure 'low quality' is high up among the term's connotations. So what can I say to convince to you take the mind-adventure I've made?
I'm a journalist, so maybe that helps? Not that journalists have amazing reputations these days. Nonetheless, I'm used to writing for a living, having my work edited, editing my own work and making sure that not only is it readable but trustworthy. Google my name and you'll see it attached to many newspapers and stories I've written.
Above all, though, Leaper: Down to Earth is the book I wanted to make. It's a long look into the lives of some weird, silly and broken people. It's about the daring, dangerous things we do to make life worth living. It's about family and belonging. It's about going after your first job, your dream job, and inevitably finding out it's not what you thought it was. It's about discovering more about the world we live in and how screwed up it is, and where we fit into those problems. It's about how beautiful the world is, and how, even as we screw it up, we make it beautiful in new ways as well. It's about survival. It's about growth.
I'd love it if you'd give it a look.
I'll be writing more on this blog as I continue to market Leaper: Down to Earth (I'm learning that getting the book in front of readers is the second part of a marathon I thought would finish when I clicked 'publish'). I'll also blog about other books I'm working on, including the second instalment of the Leaper trilogy, as well as some of the many other ideas I have.
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