One month ago, I did a terrifying thing. I hit the publish button on Amazon. And with that, my first novel went into the world.

To date I've sold a few dozen copies. Some people might be distressed by this, but I'm actually delighted. I didn't expect much, or any reaction. There's so many books by so many people on Amazon, I figured that even if it was fantastic, it may never be found.

But I knew a few things before I hit the publish button. I'm going to slowly blog about it on here because I am surrounded by book people and it seems like the right place to do it.

The first thing I knew, even from the moment I figured out the plot of my book, was that it was utterly ridiculous. Flimsy, but entertaining. I spent long years trying to write something lyrical, something important. A spiritual successor to This Side of Paradise. I realized about five years ago that I couldn't write that book anymore. I was in my mid-thirties and that thing I'd been struggling with was the thoughts of someone in their mid twenties. I needed to create something that didn't matter so much to me. Something my whole soul wasn't invested in. I needed to tell a simple story. Independent Now and Forever is that. It leans into tropes, it follows the typical arc of a movie. Joseph Campbell would dig it. I tried to make something that didn't challenge the reader too much.

Next time I'll talk about the setting. Thanks for reading.