Attic of Memories: The Start of my publication journey

              "I spent a lot of time trying to imagine a life that was better than the one I had." 

According to Facebook, I have lived a seemingly perfect life. Scrolling down you'll find images of your typical middle class girl. Starting in 2009, the beginning of a promising era, I have photos of my perfect friends enjoying our wonderful lives. I had good grades, participated in after school activities, and found myself in honor classes. In 2012 I graduated as expected with my high-school diploma ready to take on the world. Now I have a husband, a baby, and a house living the great American Dream. Recently, I released my first book and today we celebrate the pending release of the novel. 

This very black and white blurb starts after I knew I would become a writer. And like all ink, it looks good on paper until you get it wet and the lines bleed together.

My life is not perfect.

My life has never been perfect. 

But life goes on 

Because it has to. 

In reality I picked up writing because I was trying to imagine a life that was better than the life I had. Now don't get me wrong, I have lived a fantastic life, but it has never been easy and most definitely has been hard. 

When I was around four my parents split up and my dad began his own journey as a single father. I was given (within reason) all the things I wanted. But I felt that there was something missing in my life because I didn't have the mom that everyone else had. Disney movies were a big thing for me and the characters often sung about their problems. Since naturally everyone sings about their problems I began to write songs. I spent most of my grade school and middle school life believing I was going to be a singer at night and lawyer by day. 

My dad remarried a wonderful women who would fill that void or so I thought. This women stayed in our lives through out my middle school years and reclaimed the title of mom. I loved her very much but was unable to please her. I lived a similar life to Cinderella with a wicked step mother but an amazing step sister. 

But I was a dreamer and couldn't focus on the variety of chores I had been given. I spent my time imagining far off lands, spectacular villains, and secret heroes. These characters became more of an obsession that offered no ticket for escape. I would never be a hero or go to far off worlds. I could not save my new family from it's self destruction. 

So to rid my mind of my characters I wrote them down so that I wouldn't have to think about them anymore. And suddenly as if over night the writer in me found the light. 

My songs became stories and then eighth grade came to a closing. 

I became a tragic hero.

I revealed my step mothers true nature.

Became a character witness in trial for my sister's custody

and lost the family I had always hoped to have. 

Not only did I stop writing songs but I had stopped singing all together. My craving for Harvard and law school dissipated after a real life trial and I didn't know who I wanted to be anymore. 

But 2009 brought promise. I was a freshmen in high-school and had found myself in Honors English. My characters had grown so much in my head. I was writing and stopping stories at a rapid rate. I was going to be a writer. Nothing was going to stop me. Not only was I going to be a writer, I was going to do it by the time I was twenty-two. 

In 2012 I wrote a short story called "Blue Birds" for a contest. Up until that point my love for writing lived within the fantasy world but for this contest I went the science fiction route. Without any real edits I sent my story to the Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contest. A contest that thousands of authors enter each quarter. But I received only an honorable mention. After some research I found that the honorable mention put me in the top fifty but you needed to be top ten to win. So the story died until I met my editor. 

Now that story is pending release as "Seeking Incandescence" and I am twenty-two. 

But these are not the characters of my eighth grade years. 

Heroes come in many forms. 

Heroes are hope.

Heroes are passion. 

Heroes are tragic.

And these heroes are found in "Seeking Incandescence." 

Face Lift!

Our little blog has gotten a remodel! I hope you are excited as me because it means the beginning of my summer series! 

Since, I have begun my the publishing journey I have found that many people have asked me some of the same questions. "Kristen, how do you juggle everything?" Another question, "How did you publish so young?" And through this journey, I have come across a lot of questions that I hope to answer for future writers, illustrators, and editors entering the industry. 

But for now let's take a tour.

To the right you can see a few fun categories! These links will take you to different places connected to me and my books. 

Subscribe away! This is your chance to keep up to date on all things "Incandescence" and the next series I have lined up. I love to do giveaways exclusive to the account! 

AND YES! I do have a YouTube account but nothing is happening on it YET! But in the next few weeks I will be starting a video blog! 

Maybe you noticed that our blog's new theme is birds. What is all of that about? Well, the author in me loves symbolism, so here are a few special details. My new icon is a blue bird with watchful eyes. For some of my poetry readers, the blue bird may seem familiar. A special character from Seeking Incandescence is the "author" of the "Blue Birds" poem in The Museum: A Collection of Dark Poetry. This is because Blue Birds was going to to be the original name of Seeking Incandescence.

Since Seeking Incandescence or SI is a story about a world void of freedom, blue birds become a symbol of the wings my characters wish they had. These birds can fly free outside the sphere-shaped world that contains Inno, Mint, and Pepper. 

But birds also are special to my villain as well. When you walk up the large stairwell leading to Clarabelle's room, you can see her door has carvings of children playing with birds. This is an interesting concept, as Clarabelle is one of the main reasons that people are not allowed to "hoard" or have their own children

I hope you are enjoying the new page update. Stay posted for more sneak peaks into the world of Seeking Incandescence. In the coming weeks, you can expect to see teasers, video blogs, and book trailers. 

Did you know my Facebook page is hosting a game to win a free unedited addition of the book before the release? Check out the link to the right and try your luck at the small game! I'm calling these special books Black-Out books because one character perspective will be blacked out.

I revealed earlier on my Facebook page that while the cover I have released advertises two characters there are actually three first person perspectives! If you are able to win the black-out book you will be reading the book from Mint and Inno's perspective only. I like to leave a bit of mystery in my games so that when you get the official copy you can see how much the story changed from just one character. Currently, there is one game in play now on Facebook until 6pm central on May 6th. I will be hosting one last chance to win a Black-out book the following Monday along with a special surprise for the winners. Stay posted!  

SPRING TIME IS HERE

Spring time is here and I know we have friends looking for Seeking Incandescence and I am here to tell you that June 17th is the official release day! But head over to our Facebook page and check out the contests I am hosting for a chance to win a signed unedited proof and an official copy! https://www.facebook.com/Floodpublishing/

I am excited to announce that "The Museum" will be participating in Cyber Monday this year! The kindle version will be $0.99! For those of you who do not have a Kindle, the print version is $9.00 for a limited time on both Amazon and Barnes&Noble.

    I attended the Local Author Event hosted by the St. Charles Library this evening! I have to say it was an amazing experience where I had the honor of meeting other local authors and getting a chance to sign books for some readers.
    The moment I stepped into the event room I was overwhelmed with one hundred other authors setting up their booths. I felt so small next to all of these accomplished writers and I think that is important. It is important to be humbled by others success and it is also important to embrace that success.
     I quickly set up my booth and prepared myself to melt into the background but I didn't. Instead I greeted the readers that ventured from booth to booth and made connections with local authors. Originally, I had felt so small but I grew into my confidence the moment I got to my booth because even though I am young, I am an author on my way to success.
   

It is November the release of "The Museum" and The month of "Thank you's". I am thankful for all of you! This is also NaNoWrimo which means I will be writing 1,667 words a day on my novel that I am hoping to have come out the Fall of 2016. Two novels a year is my goal! Seeking Incandescence comes out in the Spring and if I work hard enough then I should be releasing The Wish Maker's Servant, the beginning of the Wish Maker Series, that fall. Wish me luck!