Development - Full Circle
As I sit down to begin editing the second book of the Wardenclyffe Series and prepare for the imminent release of the first book, I can’t help but reflect back on my writing journey over the past couple of years. I’ve been working on my first book in some form for the past five years, usually between the random jobs that I was working at the time. But no matter what I did, this story was floating around in the back of my mind. I would jot down ideas on my phone or whatever random notecards were sitting around my room at the time. I still find these random notecards around the house from time to time and every new project I tend to go out and buy another stack of notecards to store all my ideas on.
As with anything that’s been in your life for five years, I ended up putting a lot of myself into this story. As you read Wardenclyffe you’ll find that there are many parts that are grounded in my real life. From trolleys and lighthouses, to the characters themselves. For me, these connections to something real help to ground the story and make it feel believable. When I read through the scenes again I can see them pictured vividly in my head, blurring together with all my old memories that inspired them.
In much the way that a story comes full-circle, it feels like the process of writing this book has also come full-circle. I’ve ended up back in the town I grew up in, getting ready to publish my novel from that same place. The bookstores that I grew up with are now the places I’m asking to carry copies of my book. The libraries I grew up with have copies of my book on display for all the local patrons. Even the post office I ship my books out from is the same one I lived a block away from for 18 years of my life. The exact same place where I used to wait in the early-morning hours for my school bus to pick me up in high school.
As I plan my book launch event at the Willoughby Wallace Memorial Library here in my hometown, I think back to the integral part it’s played in my life. From going there to build gingerbread houses as a kid, to renting out the audiobooks for The Hobbit on cassette and being introduced to the world of J.R.R. Tolkien. Coming back to this space to launch my book feels right. If my writing journey was a series of books, then this would be the conclusion of the first story. And now I’m coming back to finish it in the place it began, just like bookends.
But as much as things have come full circle for many parts of my writing journey, there are also so many new things that I’ve discovered along the way. I met incredible people through my writing group, met other incredible authors through various writing communities, and even discovered new stories as I searched for inspiration for my own. And this discovery of new things is what I’m channeling into my second book, looking to all these new experiences and seeing how they can help shape my writing. So here’s to the next chapter of my writing journey!
