Every book starts somewhere. Book ideas are everywhere, but there’s something special about the ones that get written. There has to be, if you’re going to spend years of your life on this idea and these characters. An idea grabs hold of you and refuses to let you go, and there’s always a reason for that. 

Into Shadow had an interesting start. It began as some very disparate ideas that somehow combined into a cohesive whole. But if I’m going to talk about Into Shadow, I really have to begin with another novel, Trial by Fire.

When I was eighteen, I finished the first draft of my first novel. It was terrible, of course, so I re-plotted and rewrote multiple times until it was a completely different book. Six or seven years later, I was still struggling with this project. Something just wasn’t working, but I was reluctant to let go of something that I’d worked so hard on for so long. I was also desperately attached to my characters. I had little flirtations with other ideas, but I always came back to Trial by Fire, because I was determined to make it work.

Eventually, my sister told me that I should give it a rest and write something else. She was right, of course, but it was hard to accept at the time. How could I just give up? And I’d been working on it for so long…could I really write a whole new novel? Was I even capable of writing a new novel?

Fast forward to the summer of 2020, about six months after this conversation. I was feeling frustrated and stuck with my writing. That was when I finally decided I would try something new.

I started, very simply, with dragons. I wanted to write a book about dragons. 

I began by researching dragon book clichés, so I could decide which ones to avoid. I had some other ideas in the back of my mind, and I began to consider them and see which would work with a dragon story. 

The seed of this story was really a “what if” question: what if dragon riders weren’t revered, but oppressed? I imagined a world where dragon riders were so looked down upon that people refused to touch them, which is not a particularly new concept, as there have been groups of people throughout history who are considered “untouchable” (it’s not just historical, either). However, I put a fantastical spin on it. In my world, people who can bond with dragons aren’t allowed to touch anyone else. Of course, I then asked, why? I decided it was because the dragon people bonded with a dragon by touching it, and bonding meant that the dragon would do their will. People in my world are afraid that being touched by a dragon person means that they’ll be enslaved to their will as well. Eventually, I decided to name the dragon people “Rooks.”

From there, I needed a protagonist. After being diagnosed with bipolar II myself, I really wanted to see a protagonist with bipolar disorder in fantasy, which was how Wren came to be. I wanted to write the book that I’d needed when I was diagnosed, which I hadn’t been able to find. I decided Wren would be a Rook who lived with bipolar disorder, and I knew that I wanted her inner struggle for the book to be around her self-worth. She has to figure out how to fit into a world that looks down upon her in every way. So, while the book features dragons, it’s not really about dragons. They’re a catalyst, but the heart of the story is Wren’s struggle with herself. 

These two things (the Rooks and Wren) were enough to thoroughly capture my interest, and soon I was building the story by adding more ideas that had been on the backburner for a while.

I’d had a dream about four powered people breaking into a castle. I don’t remember my dreams too well, but I did remember one of them could see the future, and she had foreseen her own death. Because of that dream, I’d been itching to write a book with multiple point-of-view characters. I realized that this could be just the book for this idea. I was so intrigued by someone fighting against her death, and from there, I came up with the character of Celeste. (Ultimately, I did write the book with multiple point-of-view characters, but it turned into five instead of four.) Initially, I assumed I would give all of my point-of-view characters magic, but in the end, only Wren and Celeste have magic. Wren’s magic came directly from her being a Rook (wouldn’t it be interesting if someone who’s forbidden from touching other people had a power that only worked through direct, skin-to-skin touch?).

As you can see, a book that started as “I want to write a book about dragons” soon turned into something much more complex. It began out of pure desperation. I just wanted to write something to get some distance from Trial by Fire, and I’m so glad I did! Giving up on Trial by Fire ended up being the best thing I could have done for my writing, because I wrote something that was way better. 

In the end, I’m really happy with Into Shadow. It’s a culmination of many ideas and many, many hours of work. At the beginning, it meant a lot of mind-mapping in a notebook and playing with different ideas. It’s also the direct result of some life experiences. Into Shadow wouldn’t exist if I hadn’t gotten bipolar disorder, and it wouldn’t exist if I’d been able to find the book I needed when I was first dealing with that diagnosis. I can’t say I’m grateful that I got bipolar disorder, but I can say I’m grateful that it enabled me to create this thing that I genuinely love. I’m so excited to share it with you! Release date and synopsis coming soon!