What you’re looking at below is the word and page count (single-spaced) of a book I started writing in February. This is only the first draft, but now that that’s done, I can start the editing and rewriting process.

I started this as a short horror story written in my notes app on my phone. It was an exercise to see if I could make something compelling in the horror genre, with plans to send it to a magazine or other publication once it was done. As I wrote, however, I began to feel attached and excited by the characters and world of the town I’d created, a neighboring town to another fictional town that I’ve written about in (unpublished) stories before.

It wasn’t long before I was telling myself this story was a novella, like the Reyairan Spirits books. I’d written novellas, I had experience with them, and I could do another, no pressure. When I hit 40,000 words and still was ramping to the climax, I knew what I had in my hands.

Writing novels that inspire, excite, entrance? That’s been something I’ve wanted to do since I was four years old, and now that I have one, written front to back, I’m feeling more proud of myself than I ever have before. It’s gratifying, and I’m ready to turn this into the special book I know it is so I can get it out there into the world. My novellas were the first step I needed to learn and grow as an author, and now I’m taking the next step, and I can’t wait to see what that brings.

Hopefully, I’ll get to share this with everyone very soon.