How it all began…

Perhaps you have been wondering how it all began…how did The Lost King’s Daughter come to light?

In this post, I’m looking forward to sharing with you the background into the conception, if you will, of The Lost King’s Daughter, as well as provide a sneak peek into how the story grew and morphed over time.

In my previous post, I mentioned that I attended a public university, and it was there that my love for writing came upon me by happenstance. I credit a classical humanities course as the root from which sprang my love for writing. The course was literally titled Roman Cities, and it was one of my most memorable and cherished courses I took at university, aside from my medieval French course, which was just as equally inspiring. And so, here is the story behind how it all began…

the foundation

It is still with fondest memory that I look back on the second semester of my junior year at university and remember how good that first gentle caress of spring felt, flowing in over campus after the sharp, biting cold of the long winter months. The soft air brushed my face with warmth, instilled my heart with new hope, and completely changed my outlook on the remainder of my evening (and semester) that late winter day. That first glimpse of warmer days to come further sparked my creativity as I walked back from King Library in the half-light following several hours of research on Roman life, culture, and buildings. Once safe and snug in my dorm room, I would settle down at my desk and spend the next 3-4 hours composing in detailed journal format the adventures of a young university student’s “visit” to Rome: her journeys based solely on what I’d researched that day. My favorite music would be playing softly in the background, and the setting sun would mark the hours spent at my desk, trailing its rose-gold fingers ever more slowly across my bedroom wall, as spring emerged more fully with each passing week and lent more daylight to my written expeditions. 

The inspiration and awakening

My classics professor, for whom this journal assignment was required, encouraged this first-time creativity with his sincere comments regarding how much he enjoyed this new take on his class. Coupling this with the Director of Classics inquiring as to whether I planned on publishing my now overflowing tome on Rome (over 400 pages), I began to seriously consider whether or not this was a possibility. To this day, I still don’t know whether or not the Director of Classics was teasing me, but it did awaken within the back of my mind the realization that perhaps this could actually someday be a real possibility. I had always dabbled with writing throughout my childhood: to amuse a friend or to participate in a normal childhood pastime, but I’d never actually finished anything; and I wasn’t sure I could then either. So I kept this ember of sudden creativity nestled in a quiet place, deep inside, and determined if something should come of it, I’d try it. If not, I’d let it lie. 

the conception

Weeks later, near the end of this same spring semester and close to my summer holiday, I found myself ruminating on a consistent daydream I’d have while trying to fall asleep each night. The more it formulated in my mind, the more I considered that perhaps a real, honest-to-goodness story could unfold from it. So I fostered the idea, cultivating one scene in particular, until I was sure it might have some credibility. I sat down at my desk one evening, my fingers hovering over the keyboard, impatient to pound out those first words that actually begin an adventure, when I realized with some trepidation that I had not considered one very important detail: where exactly to begin. After some lengthy reflection, I began where everyone says to begin…at the beginning…with the first words that came to mind.

The Crafting

I spent the entirety of that summer holiday crafting the book that you may have lying on your nightstand at this very moment. Fourteen to sixteen hours a day. Every day, except Sundays. (Sundays, I limited my writing engagements because of church). All three books of what is now the In the Shadow of Emerald Fire series, I wrote that summer. All three books bound up in one single volume that was, if I recall correctly, fewer pages than the final culmination of Book 1, The Lost King’s Daughter. I was quite proud of this achievement: having finally, actually, fully completed a book. It was the best summer of my life and will always be so. 

Not long after that, however, the real work began with the very harsh realization that crafting and writing a book isn’t the be-all, end-all of being a writer, let alone an author. It is only truly the very beginning. What followed were many ups and downs, edits, rewrites, doubts, renewal of belief in the story and myself, more edits, more rewrites, a new flood of doubts and what-ifs, and finally a realization that all things happen for a reason and God’s timing is truly perfect–a truth my mother so patiently and faithfully reminded me of, however frequently I needed the reminder. And I did need that reminder quite frequently.

The culmination

In all, I believe this series was rewritten a total of 5 times (honestly, maybe more than this!) and was edited and reedited greater than 15 times following each rewrite. They say your “first creation,” your first book, is the worst, and therefore should be shelved and forgotten. But for me, despite shelving the book for a period of about 6 years, I couldn’t forget about it. It remained a haunting memory, a calling, a constant reminder that the medieval story bound within those pages could not rest in darkness because it must be brought forth to the light. It must be shared and loved and read and reread until its very pages are worn thin and its characters housed within become near of kin–people who are almost real enough to touch, instead of a waning figment of the imagination. Once you achieve this and stir the reader’s heart and soul to a level in which they cannot rightly know the difference between reality and fiction, then you know you’ve really written a book. You’ve touched readers lives in a way that can never be retracted–for good, not evil. You’ve provided the escape they needed to dream and live and fight and conquer whatever conquest might be in their lives that day.

The ending

Alas, there is so much more I’d like to share on how The Lost King’s Daughter morphed its way to where it is today, but the bulk of that story I shall save for another time, for there is too much left to be said on this topic, and I have already commandeered too much of your time as is. 

Thus, I will bid you a fond farewell for today. I hope you enjoyed this more detailed insight into the birth of my love for writing and consequently how the story you may have already read began. I also hope this post inspired you by showing that everyone’s “author journey” is different. Whether you’re a late bloomer (like me) or very early in your pursuit of writing, remember your journey won’t be carved from the same path as mine or anyone else’s. It is this individualism that makes an author unique and identifiable without disqualifying him or her from the running. Take heart, dear friend, if you are an aspiring author yourself, because my story is another testimony to the fact that with God all things are quite possible. 

Do you have your own “how it all began…?” Feel free to share with me and all those who might, by God’s Providence, visit this page. You never know whose life you might touch–and change–through your testimony.

Wishing you a cozy and reflective day in which you realize the dreams and accomplishments you seek are truly yours for the taking…