My debut book is out in the world!

After wanting to be an author for 13 years, completing 5 books, and writing for thousands of hours over the years, I can finally say I'm a published author!

The Age of Pandora is out today and it's such a surreal feeling to finally share this story that I've held close to my heart for so long. I started TAOP five years ago during lockdown and it's been a long journey to get it to where it is now.

I'm a relatively slow writer so it took me eight months to finish the first draft. Then came months of re-writing and editing, again and again and again, until I was finally happy to send it to beta readers. Then came feedback and even more redrafting and editing.

During the beta reading phase, I linked up with my book coach, Andrea (@andreaerla_bookcoach) for the first time and this changed the trajectory of my book massively. I'd never worked with a book coach before but I would never go back. Andrea and I hit it off immediately and it is so helpful to have someone to bounce ideas off of, challenge me to improve my writing, and act as a cheerleader throughout the entire writing process.

Then came querying. I have always thought that traditional publishing would be the route for me so I queried a series of agents over the course of a year. I did get a decent amount of full manuscript requests which was super exciting but, ultimately, I didn't get that all-important offer of representation. But I took all of the feedback I got from agents and, you guessed it, did even more editing.

At the end of the day, all I've ever wanted to is make this book the best it can be and then share it with the world. So I decided I would self-publish it and I'm super glad I did. Self-publishing gave me the creative control that had initially scared me but ended up empowering me. I got to work with some incredible editors, formatters and artists to bring my book to life.

And, before I knew it, my book was ready to publish!

I've been thinking a lot about enjoying the process of becoming recently and I've realised that I didn't necessarily savour the process as much as I should have. I've wanted to be an author since I was 11 years old and so, for 13 years, I've had my eyes on the prize the entire time. I have worked tirelessly, slogging through many first drafts and ideas and failures, all with the same goal in sight. But I've been so focused on the end goal that I maybe didn't appreciate the journey as much as I should have.

The growth in my writing, the excitement of brainstorming a new story idea, the accomplishment of editing and seeing my manuscript improve right in front of me. It all felt like such a long process when I was going through it, impatient at being able to publish it, but now that the whole process is over, it feels like it went too quickly!

It makes me appreciate the book I'm currently writing a little bit more. I'm in the editing stage at the moment, working with Andrea to go through the entire manuscript chapter by chapter, and it's been feeling like such a sloggish process. But I'm trying to appreciate every single stage now!

I've started to get some reviews for The Age of Pandora already, particularly from my wonderful ARC readers, and every single review starts to make this feel more real for me. My particular favourite was that someone has told me that TAOP made them cry. (It's not as sadistic as it sounds). Ever since I was a kid and fell in love with reading, I was amazed that words on a page could make me laugh, make me love, and even reduce me to tears. So to know that my books are eliciting the same reaction in readers makes my heart full.

Finally sending The Age of Pandora out into the world feels like the end of a journey but also the start of one that I'm so excited to jump into. I owe a massive thank you to everyone who has helped me along the way and I can't wait to share all the other stories that I have up my sleeves.