I think all writers, at some point or another, encounter an idea or a story or a character -- or all of that at once -- that just will not leave them alone. Maybe you throw together an outline, have some characters that you don't really know what to do with, or maybe it's a full and complete book that you end up revising and rewriting every 3 months because you're never satisfied with it and you can't get it out of your head and oh my god your friends are so sick of hearing you say "I'm writing this book again."
If that sounds oddly specific, it's because that's exactly what my experience has been with THE ORACLE STONE.
I can trace my very first notes and outlines for this book back to March of 2016. I was a freshman in college, and I distinctly remember a day in my creative writing class where our department chair came to talk to us about his experience having a book published, and that was the root of my dream. At this point, publishing was a faraway, somewhat unreachable wish, but I had a new idea for a story that I knew I could finally complete, and I could hardly wait to write it. After class, I asked that professor what he thought would be the best way to write a five-pov story, and he laughed and said, "Story? That sounds more like a novel!" To my surprise, he actually did not discourage me from my five-pov insanity (the book has since been pared down to three povs instead of five, but it took me like a year of editing and rewriting to realize that five was too many lol). I had been wondering if I should write each pov separately from start to finish (I do not know how I thought that would have worked), but my professor told me that with a strong plot and solid arc for each character, it was doable. He said, at first, to just get down what I needed to write, and worry about the structure later. To this day, that's still my drafting strategy, and maybe it's messy, but it works.
THE ORACLE STONE started as my first ever dot plot; I had about six or seven scenes I absolutely wanted to hit throughout the book, and then connected the dots between them as I went. Its original working title was "Night Quest," which stuck around for about three years before I did some major edits, cut out two of the original characters and killed most of the original plot, and introduced a new antagonist. This new version was called "A Quest of Riddles and Wishes," which I still like as a title and almost kept when the book became THE ORACLE STONE, but I think the publishing industry has seen quite enough "Blank of Blank and Blank" titles for a while lmao. "Riddles and Wishes" was a monster of a book that at one point was almost 120,000 words. It got revised more times than I care to count at the moment, and it was the first book I ever tried to query.
Which was a mistake. It was 100% not ready to query. I still cringe that I did that, but hey, it got me used to accepting rejections and was good query-writing practice I guess!
Looking back, it's really neat to see how much this book has changed from its first versions to what it is now. I thought, two years ago, that "Riddles and Wishes" was the last, complete version of it and it would remain shelved forever because it wasn't good enough to be published anywhere. But of course, it wouldn't leave me alone. Those characters have always come back to me, and I've never been able to stop going back to them. Two of the main characters, Jekku and Taja, have been there since the beginning (although they've changed as much as the book has), and the third, Lilya, has been around since the "Riddles and Wishes" days. They are all terribly stubborn, live rent-free in my mind, and wouldn't shut up until I made their story what it needed to be.
I hope I finally did that with THE ORACLE STONE. I'm pretty sure I got it this time. And the difference is that I did not write this version of this book for anyone but myself. It's full of magic and fun and adventure and high stakes and yearning and it's the queer fantasy novel I always wanted it to be. The book's heart has always been in its characters. To be honest, it's really their book, not mine. Maybe now they'll let me have some peace.
I don't know if THE ORACLE STONE will have a sequel. As of right now, it's a standalone piece of a bigger world that I revisit in several other books, so there's always the possibility of seeing these characters again. I definitely hope I do :)
THE ORACLE STONE officially comes out in three days. It feels absolutely surreal. But I am so, so excited.
I complain about this book more than any other that I've written, but despite all the trouble it's caused me, I love it. So much. It's been dear to me since I first dove into it five years ago, and it seems so fitting that it'll be my first published work.
I think it was always going to be, one way or another.
With that, I'll stop being sappy; I've got some plot outlining to do for another wip. I'll be back on Monday to yell about THE ORACLE STONE officially being available, but until then, you can get hype with me by adding it on Goodreads, pre-ordering the ebook, and/or following me on Twitter! You can also get a little preview of the main characters on my website; come meet them before you dive in!
And don't forget! If you're one of the first 50 people to purchase a paperback copy and submit your receipt, you can get BOOK GOODIES! More info HERE!!
Okay one more thing: I'm beyond honored to have THE ORACLE STONE featured on The Booked Shelf blog and on Beyond the Big 5 as an anticipated upcoming release. I'm floored that book bloggers found and chose to highlight my little book. Admittedly did a little happy dance when I saw it!
All right NOW I'll be done. See y'all in three days (three!! days!!) to celebrate my book baby's birthday. Till then! 😎✌🏻
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