It’s hard to believe that Relic has been five years in the making. What started as a spark of an idea near the beginning of the pandemic quickly became something that consumed my life. I poured everything into this book—time, energy, creativity, and more emotions than I can count.

The journey hasn’t been easy. I queried literary agents, hoping someone would see the vision I had for this story, but rejection after rejection made it clear that Relic wasn’t going to find a home through traditional p...