I Wrote a Book

A little late on the uptake on this one- but, we've been celebrating and processing.

On the night of October 12th, I penned the final few words of my debut epic fantasy novel: The Last Dreamwalker. Although we have been editing extensively as we go, this is the first final draft, and we still have a long road ahead but ultimately - I can say, for the first time the very simple words-

I wrote a book.

I can't explain what this moment means to me. It's a personal monumental milestone. I have been dreaming of being an author my whole life, but it always seemed like such an intangible goal. In the past I have started so many story ideas, but finishing any of them just felt so daunting that a part of me truly never believed I would, or even could.

To prove myself wrong feels so damn good.

The first seedlings of the concept for The Last Dreamwalker were planted in my imagination in 2012 when I was seventeen.

A full seven years later I developed an anxiety disorder from my service in the military. I stayed up all night long with panic attacks, crying in fear, unable to sleep or distract myself. On one particularly bad night, my mind snapped to that one story idea I'd been chewing on for years. I opened my laptop and just started free-writing different parts of the story to get my mind off of my panic attacks.

I learned coping mechanisms, got some counseling, and improved on my symptoms (though I 100% still have death/apocalypse anxiety and that sucks, but my coping is much better now). Life went on and the story went dormant again.

Enter June of 2022. The spring of that year was easily the worst period of my life. So many terrible and traumatic things happened in such a short period of time. It was the lowest of the low. Once again I found myself in the depths of anxiety and depression, once again I turned to writing for comfort. This time though - I took it seriously, and genuinely broke ground on the real work involved in making The Last Dreamwalker real.

I spent hours at home or in Barnes and Noble worldbuilding, creating the universe, and writing the chapters. I mark June of 2022 as the month I truly started the labor of love that was writing this book. A few months later, I showed one of my longest and dearest best friends Brea what I had been working on, and she dove head-first into the project with me. Her support and encouragement, her belief in me and my story, really fueled my heart and creative fire.

Soon after we showed the third in our little triad of bestie love, Ashley, what we had accomplished and she then also dove right in- adding even more support, assistance, feedback, passion, hilarity, and life to the dream.

With my passion for writing, combined with their love, support and genuine WORK (websites, social media plans, marketing - all the stuff I have no idea about and is so freaking critical I LITERALLY couldn't do it without them), I can now call myself an author. I've finished a book, and what started as a simple idea that had been growing it's roots over a decade ago, that then started truly sprouting into a reality two and a half years ago, is finally blossoming with a tentative release date of February 2025.

I can't believe it. Whether we sell one copy or one million copies, I feel like I am on top of the world, because I can tell the little girl in my soul that we did it. We really did it.

We wrote a book.

And now that we've done it once, we know we can do it again.

When I look into the future of The Last Dreamwalker, and of Lochwood Court Books, I see that with determination, hard work, love, and support - the dream can come true, and I can't wait to see what comes next for us.

Here's to The Last Dreamwalker, which has the distinguished title of being the first, but I promise you, not the last.

Thank you, and welcome to the beginning. <3