Hello, little book baby. Welcome to the world.
Oh, my little beauty. It may take nine months to grow a human baby, but as of this May, it has been nine YEARS since I first began working on Legend of the Storm Sneezer. And here she is!
I'mma be real with you 'bout something, here. I didn't always want to be an author. Yes, I've always loved writing and telling stories, but enough to pursue it as a career? Enough to pour heart, soul, blood, sweat, and tears into words on a page? If you'd asked me that question when I first started writing Rose's story, I'm not sure what my answer would've been. But coming out of the query trenches after all these years, I can tell you this. There were moments -- genuine, heartbreaking, faith-shaking moments -- when I thought that Rose and her story would never find a publishing home, and I had to ask myself that question: What would I do if my book baby was never born? I know what the writing community would tell you to do, of course. "Write more books! Write till you write the one that sells!" And that's good, solid advice for anyone who hopes to be a published novelist. But was that the epitome of my creative dreams? Being a published author? Or did I mostly want to be the author of Rose's story? If I look deep inside myself, written on my heart of hearts is the answer. I didn't write Legend of the Storm Sneezer to become an author. I became an author to write Legend of the Storm Sneezer. And if my dream of seeing it published was put to rest, I think my desire to be a novelist would've died with it. I know that might sound silly, even childish, to my writer friends. And I'm certainly not setting up my experience as a standard to be followed! One of the greatest lessons I've learned from the publishing world is that every writing journey is different. Mine is that a teenage girl fell head-over-heels in love with a world and characters that whispered out of a broken heart aching to be filled with faith and truth and compassion. Though she didn't realize it at the time, her own Author -- the most brilliant Author, God of the universe -- was using that world and those characters to reach her heart, to speak a language she could understand. And the more she let Him in, the more beautiful the world and characters became. She developed a fierce loyalty and devotion to this story, for it was a diary of all the truth she'd learned...and the questions she still had no answers to. Her love for her story grew strong -- so strong that as she queried it for years on end, the idea of it never being published felt like ripping her soul in two. But God was in the waiting, and in the waiting was an altar, waiting for a sacrifice. Because the girl's life was not meant to be devoted to her dreams, nor her love meant merely for a book. It was meant for Him. And so she took the book that held her heart, and page by page, she gave it back to Him. And here we are.
You can order Legend of the Storm Sneezer through any of the following links: