The nutshell for those uninterested in long posts about personal updates/accomplishments…
- I wrote a novel.
- I would be over the freakin moon if you decided you were interested enough to purchase said novel. You can find the paperback and ebook here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BKS92MZ4
- If you read it and like it, leave a review to that effect. If you read it and hate it, maybe forget you ever saw it. 🙂
Now for the rest of you who need more…
Holy shit, I wrote a novel!
Here’s the deal. I started this beast over a decade ago, set it down for a long time, and then decided to finish it earlier this year.
Reasons I set it down:
- Writing a book is actually a fair bit of work, and the time and energy it takes to finish projects like this is not always something I possess.
- I was scared.
- I was scared.
- I was really scared. You know that voice in your head that sounds like this: “Who exactly do you think you are, a real writer? You know that this won’t be all that good and then people will laugh at the fact that you even tried.” You know, basically calling you out for being “too big for your britches.” Yeah, that voice is my constant companion.
Reasons I picked it back up:
- Because screw that voice.
- Because not trying got scarier.
- Because I remembered the original feeling that made me want to write this little book to begin with.
So what is this novel about? In short, it’s about my mom. More accurately, it’s about my mom as a child.
For years she told me stories that I only half listened to, because kids can be incredibly self-absorbed, and I was no different.
Those stories began to take on new dimensions when Emery (my oldest child) was born in 2011. I began to realize that my mom had experienced several things that I had only really seen portrayed in books and movies. I had also begun writing a lot back then, in the form of blogs mostly, and really enjoyed that form of self-expression. I had a lightbulb moment in the little house Nic and I were renting in the Barnum neighborhood of Denver shortly after Emery was born. My mom was in our living room and I started asking her questions about her childhood and I almost immediately realized that I wanted to write about those stories.
I started writing them in the form of letters to someone my mom often talked about- the nun that really loved her during her earliest years of growing up in a German orphanage. I started to add some other details to fill out the story, condensed it all into a single year, and that eventually became the novel this entirely too long post is all about- Thea: The Orphan Letters
When I was younger I learned to guard myself from bullies by feigning disinterest, even when something actually excited me. For some reason, (probably because kids can be really mean) when I expressed excitement in almost anything, a kid would always be right there to remind me that I was showing my lack of cool-ness in that moment. This kid (who also lives in my head these days) makes me want to say something like, “If you want to check it out then do, but it doesn’t really matter to me either way.”
But here’s the truth. I am SUPER excited about this! I am very proud of myself for following through and finishing this thing. I feel like a kid who just learned how to do a front-flip on the trampoline begging my parents to come watch. I am so damn excited to share this with you all! This is in no way me trying to pressure you into buying it! But it is my way of saying that I am proud of this novel and I am not going to hide that I would be crazy happy if you decided to give it a shot.
Lastly, a disclaimer. When nobody is asking you to write a novel you actually have to pay editors to do their magic. Well the punk rock kid inside of me was happy to just DIY this thing rather than breaking the bank, so be warned that there are surely some “blemishes” in there making it clear that I did this mostly on my own (Emery helped edit it and did a bang up job!).
If you made it this far, thanks! Also, the link at the top will get you to the book if you’re interested.
Ben Edwards 