Christina With An A

So when I was publishing The Dragonlord's Heir, I created a Facebook "author" page. I've since disabled it, but I can still go back and read the things I posted. Turns out I posted quite often, from sharing inspirational quotes, to sharing helpful links, to writing my own stuff.  At the moment it has retained 132 page likes. That's not very much, but at the time, I was pleased with it. It was a small audience, and they followed me regularly. That's something to be proud of, even if it is small! As I read through these old posts, I realize how my attitude has changed, and not necessarily for the better. Back then, I felt like I had the world at my feet. I believed the future was mine. The optimism and genuine passion in my words almost brings me to tears. Where is that ambitious, driven twenty-something-year-old? Where did she go? I'm glad I stumbled across these old posts. I needed it. I needed to be reminded of the passion I once had for this g...

It is so difficult for me to stay committed to one story idea. Does anyone else have that problem? For me, it stems from the fear of time running out to find the one . I suppose I’m afraid that I only get one shot at writing something successful that has the potential to be traditionally published. I constantly second-guess myself and my writing, wondering if I’m wasting my time because I could do better with something else. In fact, I'm writing this blog post right now instead of working on my novel because I'm experiencing this exact feeling at this exact moment (ironically, I am wasting more time by not sitting down and just finishing the damn thing). In hindsight, I know that’s ridiculous. One of my favorite quotes about writing comes from the great Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author of Tarzan of the Apes : “If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor.” And it’s totally true because we as writers have a hundred—nay, a ...

I should mention that I originally wrote this post probably over a year ago. I did not post it right away because — well, for the reasons listed below. I felt like now would be a good time to finally share my thoughts given how I've been struggling lately to feel like I'm doing anything of value with my skills and talents. This is the most honest thing I've written, probably ever. So to channel Usher, these are my confessions. First, I feel like I owe an apology to several people. Namely to the people who read my first self-published book, The Dragonlord's Heir . Yes, I self-published a book under the pen name, Christina Kenway, after Edward Kenway, the protagonist of Assassin's Creed: Black Flag . Dorky, I know. I published my book four years and three months ago, to be exact. It was a middle grade novel about a young boy who discovered he was a modern-day dragon slayer à la Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson. I wasn’t proud of my book after a while, but about...

Once upon a time, I wrote a bunch of fanfiction. Oh, who am I kidding? I still write fanfiction. I think the last one I wrote was a Final Fantasy X fanfiction a few years ago about Yuna’s father and his pilgrimage with Auron and Jecht. But anyway. I wrote fanfiction before I even knew what it was. When I was eleven years old, I wrote a twenty-something-page story about a woman named Jessica Weller who was basically a Lara Croft rip-off. I became obsessed with Tomb Raider at the ripe age of six. I thought I would become the youngest published writer ever known to mankind. I sent that masterpiece off to a handful of publishing houses in the U.S. and awaited the inevitable flood of acceptance letters. Surely, publishers would be vying for my literary work of genius. It was just a matter of time. While I waited for those letters to come in, I bought myself a handy-dandy professional leather briefcase and stored my stories, my (terrible) illustrations, and my publishing notes...