So if you've been following me on my social media, you might have seen some pictures like this floating around my feed:
If you've been a little confused as to where these random quotes are coming from, I'm proud to announce that I have been developing my novella, You Will Make It, as an eBook available on the Kindle store!
Developing YWMI into an eBook has been a fun and challenging process. My favorite bit so far, honestly, has been customizing the images for all the quotes I grabbed from the book to post on Instagram and Facebook. I started writing YWMI in 2010, inspired largely by a song of the same title by Jem, and also this image that I had found on DeviantArt by the talented andrahilde. If you haven't seen some of the fan art she's done for Legend of Korra or Avatar the Last Airbender, I totally recommend her art gallery.
The novella was largely inspired off the whole Twilight craze. While at the time I had actually enjoyed the books just fine, the immediate overload of vampire romance books which followed the Twilight saga I found to be a little nauseating, and so, in true teenage, angst-y fashion, I decided I was going to write a story that was way cooler than all the Twilight knockoffs, because my story was going to be different.
While I can laugh at my predisposition back then now, the root of what really inspired the novella was the characters. As I started writing, this young woman started to emerge - bubbly, whipsmart, full of sarcasm and wit. I really started to love Mickey as a character, and I labored to make her struggle a very grounded one, though not one I could possibly ever understand in its full complexity. To be a young person, and not only have to grapple with the reality of your approaching death, but having to wrestle, everyday, with a constant, ever-present chronic pain, while not wanting it to define you.
I hope that I managed to evoke that from Mickey's character, because her struggle is very much one of not wanting to be just another "cystic fibrosis patient", and although I could probably best define the novella as a cross between The Fault in Our Stars and Twilight, I didn't want for it to be just another "hospital" story, or another "vampire romance". I wanted it to be about two teenagers finding love and acceptance for each other, and helping to find love for themselves as well.
This is a short excerpt from one of the first chapters:
You’re never supposed to have a child with problems, the sort of problems which can dictate what the rest of your life becomes. No one wants to have a kid with a mental disability, or a handicap, or a terminal illness. That’s everyone else’s kid. That other poor bastard you heard about on the news, or at last week’s PTA meeting. When you’re young, they give you statistics. “One out of every three women in this room will be assaulted at one point in their life”, and you think, oh. That’s bad. Not because you’re scared for yourself, but because you’re thinking of that poor unfortunate “one”, looking around yourself and trying to guess who the likeliest candidates are.
If you're interested in reading more, stay tuned, because the book will be released soon! I couldn't be any happier with the cover.
How do you guys like the cover? I'd love to hear what you guys think of what you've seen of You Will Make It so far!
