My First Blog, My First Book
I started writing when I was a kid. My very first foray into writing was in the form of fan-fiction (though at the time I didn't know what to call it) and the muses of my first attempts at writing were the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Really. Swear to God. A friend and I would write these long stories featuring our favorite fab four and though all those writings are long, long lost, I still think of them with a lot of good memories and a little wincing. My friend was great at writing, I'm not sure that I was back then.
The next time that took to writing was in high school. I was in drama class and I was exposed to the wonder that is Phantom of the Opera for the very first time. Someone was listening to the original London soundtrack and Michael Crawford's and Sarah Brightman's voices set off little fires in my brain. I was in love. From there, PotO became an outright obsession for me. I dragged my poor mother to about eight performances of it across several states. (Thanks Mom, love you!) I bought everything Phantom related I could get my hands on, including whatever published fanfiction there was out there. (Kay, Michelle Rodriguez, to name a few.) And finally, a few years into this love affair with the Phantom, I started writing my own. An Eternity of This began in a large notebook, the first twenty-five or so chapters in my questionable handwriting until I discovered a fanfiction website that allowed writers to post their work and review others' writing.
That was in 2004, around the time that Phantom fever became an epidemic with the release of the ALW movie. I was twenty-three at the time and a fairly new bride, with my husband at the time overseas in Iraq. I had unearthed my notebook with Eternity in it and decided to post it on that website I had found. Writing was an escape when I was so worried and scared for the safety of my husband.
He came home safely, real life kind of gave us a hard kick in the ass and I stopped writing for a long time. I picked it back up, after a few stops and starts, in summer of 2018 and after getting a lot of encouragement from friends and family, decided I would finish the book and get it published. I was divorced at that point and recently graduated at last with my degree and had just taken a new job that allowed me more time to write.
Picking back up Eternity was like reuniting with a very beloved friend that I hadn't seen in ages. It was easy to slip back into that headspace and write again. I took the version that I had up on fanfiction.net and completely re-wrote it to better fit with the original novel by Gaston Leroux. (The first version of my story had been heavily based on the musical and I did not feel comfortable publishing it.) In re-writing Eternity, I felt I made a much better story, better characters and also felt as if the finished book was a better reflection of the writer I was now, rather than the writer I was in my early twenties.
I'm so excited to see the book go live and I hope that readers enjoy reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it over the years. I'll be sharing updates on future writing soon.
Cheers!
The next time that took to writing was in high school. I was in drama class and I was exposed to the wonder that is Phantom of the Opera for the very first time. Someone was listening to the original London soundtrack and Michael Crawford's and Sarah Brightman's voices set off little fires in my brain. I was in love. From there, PotO became an outright obsession for me. I dragged my poor mother to about eight performances of it across several states. (Thanks Mom, love you!) I bought everything Phantom related I could get my hands on, including whatever published fanfiction there was out there. (Kay, Michelle Rodriguez, to name a few.) And finally, a few years into this love affair with the Phantom, I started writing my own. An Eternity of This began in a large notebook, the first twenty-five or so chapters in my questionable handwriting until I discovered a fanfiction website that allowed writers to post their work and review others' writing.
That was in 2004, around the time that Phantom fever became an epidemic with the release of the ALW movie. I was twenty-three at the time and a fairly new bride, with my husband at the time overseas in Iraq. I had unearthed my notebook with Eternity in it and decided to post it on that website I had found. Writing was an escape when I was so worried and scared for the safety of my husband.
He came home safely, real life kind of gave us a hard kick in the ass and I stopped writing for a long time. I picked it back up, after a few stops and starts, in summer of 2018 and after getting a lot of encouragement from friends and family, decided I would finish the book and get it published. I was divorced at that point and recently graduated at last with my degree and had just taken a new job that allowed me more time to write.
Picking back up Eternity was like reuniting with a very beloved friend that I hadn't seen in ages. It was easy to slip back into that headspace and write again. I took the version that I had up on fanfiction.net and completely re-wrote it to better fit with the original novel by Gaston Leroux. (The first version of my story had been heavily based on the musical and I did not feel comfortable publishing it.) In re-writing Eternity, I felt I made a much better story, better characters and also felt as if the finished book was a better reflection of the writer I was now, rather than the writer I was in my early twenties.
I'm so excited to see the book go live and I hope that readers enjoy reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it over the years. I'll be sharing updates on future writing soon.
Cheers!
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