Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve loved writing stories. I grew up on a wooded hill in Wisconsin in a house full of books. I read voraciously, particularly fantasy and science fiction, and ideas came to me constantly. I’d dream up tales while strolling through the woods on long summer evenings, and run inside to jot them down. Like most writers, over the years I ended up with drawers full of half-finished stories and story ideas and stories that didn’t quite work. Whenever anyone asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, the first—and only—thing that popped into my mind was “a writer”…. followed immediately by the acknowledgment that it wasn’t a very realistic career choice.
Then, when I was in college, one of my ideas took off. I can’t even remember now exactly where it came from. I created the setting first, a tale of a pirate culture with a dark and complicated past, its peoples forced to flee from their ancestral homeland to found a new city at the edge of the world. I filled notebook pages full of details about the ways and history of this strange society. Somewhere in there, an idea seized me: the story of a young man named Gorgo who sets out to stop an ancient copper golem from assassinating the city’s leader, a legendary figure known only as the Warlord. I finished the tale while I was studying abroad in Spain, sitting at my desk in the dormitory while the sights and sounds of Madrid filtered through my window. It was the first novel-length story I’d ever completed, about 60,000 words hand-written in notebooks.
Over the next thirteen years, I wrote two sequels, while my life hopped from Spain to Florida to California. I finally switched to composing by computer, making revisions so much easier; I wouldn’t write any other way now. But publishing any of it still seemed like a pipe dream. Then my life got crazy with grad school and motherhood, and I put creative writing aside for a few years. During that time, though, I became trained as a science writer, and for the first time had the opportunity to take professional writing classes. When I moved back to Wisconsin in 2009 with my family, and I was between jobs and at loose ends, it seemed the perfect time to start attending creative writing seminars and looking into book publishing.
I joined a writing group, and with feedback from my fellow writers and everything I’d learned at seminars, over the next several years I revised and cleaned up that initial story. I streamlined some aspects, combining characters and tightening the plot, while fleshing out other sections to let the story breathe. I ended up with about 85,000 words of an action adventure, The Copper Assassin. (My working title had been “The Assassin,” which thankfully my writing group pointed out was a little too generic!) My colleagues encouraged me to publish it, but the task still seemed daunting.
Fortunately, the publishing world was changing at a breakneck pace, thanks to the rise of ebooks and print-on-demand. In the last few years, it’s become practical to self-publish, opening up opportunities for many of us who have written non-traditional tales to put our work out there. Inspired by my fellow writers who were blazing the trail, I finally pushed through and put everything together. I hired amazing artists to design the cover art and map, and am still gobsmacked at the incredible job they did. If the book catches people’s eyes, it’s all thanks to these talented artists and their vision. (Book editing was all on me, however—if there are any typos or mistakes remaining, that’s my bad! And despite the countless times I’ve gone through this story, I’m sure there will be one somewhere…)
Now my book is launching through Kindle Direct Publishing. On March 25, 2020 (not coincidentally my birthday), it will be available in paperback and ebook to anyone who wants to read it. Many thanks to everyone who made this possible. I don’t think this story ever could have been published through traditional routes, as it does not hew to established formula in many ways. (My favorite bad advice from a writing seminar: “Why isn’t the main character forced into the plot by a prophecy saying only he can do this?” Insert eye roll here.) But maybe for that reason it will appeal to people in the mood for something a little different in the fantasy genre.
I hope people enjoy it, and I hope it finds a modest audience. But whatever happens, for me it is a tremendous satisfaction to finally be a published author. For that little girl who always wanted to write, this is a big moment.