Honest Author Thoughts + Cover Reveal

I’ve always been a writer.

Ever since I knew how to string words into sentences, I’ve been creating stories. I’d sit out on the grass in my front yard and write by hand with a pencil, vainly trying to complete my stories before my hand cramped up.

Then I moved to the family computer, and my goodness, was typing easier on the hands. I could save and print my stories, no longer having to carefully store them in my bins of treasures.

I’ve always been a writer.

I’ve written poetry for so long that I don’t know where I began. Just that the notes app in my phone is overflowing and random scraps of paper have the whimsical scribblings of a girl who simply wanted more than the mundane.

I’ve always been a writer.

However, I haven’t always felt like one. It’s coming up on the four year anniversary of my first published novel. My only published novel. Part of me thinks there should be more to show for it. That those years were wasted simply because the words I wrote during those years were simply for my eyes.

I truly love writing. Oh, so much. The words come alive and I’m able to paint worlds and people and pain and love. To show the human experience; what it is to live. Pulling up a blank document sparks such joy.

Four years feels like a long time, though. Too long. Maybe I’ve lost the magic. Maybe the words grow dull. But it means too much to stop now. So even if it takes another four years and another four after that, so be it.

I’ve always been a writer.

Somehow, someway, this post has turned rather spoken word/poetry, though I’m not complaining. As I continue to write and push myself forward, I’m reminded of the love I have for all of this—the writing, editing, graphic design, marketing, etc. And so, I am delighted to give my newsletter subscribers the first glimpse at Rose’s Ruin’s official cover!

A ruthless general

A father without hope

A broken man

Pan, the Queen’s blade

Denthlire is a place of power, magic, and knowledge—a safe haven for all who seek to learn. But not all of Atulau appreciates the influence the kingdom has.

When rumors of war reach Pan, general of the Denthliran forces, he readies the people to fight for their freedom and their land.

But when the enemy doesn’t fight fair and exploits Denthlire’s secrets, the kingdom begins to crumble. Pan must be Queen Viren’s blade—called upon to win the war at all cost, even his own soul.

Now Pan is in the fight for his life to win a war he can’t hope to win but can’t afford to lose.