The end of

Lore’s Adventure in

Thimbleton

Right here, right now is such a weird space to exist in. When I originally drafted Down the Well I didn’t think it’d be the book that landed me a publishing contract. Lore’s story was one of three that ensnared all my creative focus. At the time, I was freshly out of high school, going to collage full time, and working at a small family owned bakery. Lore’s story has parts that overlap with my own and I was floured to see how many readers connected to her as well. It made me anxious that the same readers who connected with the first book may not enjoy its sequel. From there I spiraled on if I made the correct choice to combine books 2 and 3, as this was suppose to be a trilogy, and combing those drafts felt like I was creating my own sort of Frankenstein’s monster. It pushed me to a sort of creative panic that I started seeing the story in blips and chunks not wholly. Not cohesively as I leaped between chapters. The thought of is this good enough. Am I good enough. Weighed heavy on my shoulders. I’m feel fortunate to have a publisher I can speak so openly to, and after leaving that conversation with Zara I now had a name to what I was feeling. Second book slump.

Turns out that this is something common within the author space. It can be very isolating and hard to navigate. It’s also a feeling I wasn’t thinking about before publication. There was a lot of moving parts of the industry from standards to big feelings that I was not thinking of before signing but that can be for a future blog.

The self inflicted pressure felt like it had sprouted roots in my bones. I am still a small author with a very small readership, and I appreciate each of them so much, while I know you can’t make everyone happy, I really wanted to make most of my readership happy with Cliffs of Wayward, and the conclusion to Lore’s story.

I guess this would be the part where I share how I overcame the big bad second books slump, but I haven’t really figured it all out just yet; however, I am closer to being out now than at the start of the year. So, while some days I still second guess myself, I accept that will happen as imposter syndrome strikes all of us at some point. What keeps me going is the love of story telling and my little trio of close knit friends. They keep me passionate about the craft of writing. I have many of novels in the work as I write this that I’m excited for. In a way they each brought my spark back because of their themes, importance, and characters lit a fire in the dark.

Adventures in Thimbleton was the first manuscript I had ever finished, so it is kind of poetic that it was my first published, completed, series. Lore as a character and her story quickly became a key for bigger ambitions for my story telling. While it may be vague now, in time I hope some of you will remember this tid bit and the vagueness becomes more clear. While Lore has left Thimbleton, I hope to have the opportunity to return.

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