I’ve gotten a lot of questions recently about what the self-publishing process looks like and, while it is a bit different for each person, I thought I’d take a moment to walk you through what it has been like for me, personally.

As I get closer to the (self)publishing date of my first book, I’ve been thinking a fair bit about the story: where it started, how far it’s come, and all the many pieces of the writing process. Something that makes this story so special to me (other than the fact that I wrote it) is the fact that wrote so much of myself into it.

It’s that time of year again. I wish I could say that the weather has cooled off, the leaves are changing, and the air is filled with the indescribable magic that only autumn can bring. Unfortunately, it is still 80 degrees outside with little reprieve in sight as summer retains its iron grip on October. But there is a different kind of magic in the air, for the time has come for my annual reading of the Harry Potter books.

Last week I finished the first draft of my second book.

That feels incredibly surreal to say, partly because of how long it took me to write my first book. I had the idea for The Key when I was ten years old and scribbled down the first few pages on wide ruled notebook paper in my bedroom. It obviously reads a lot differently now than it did then, but that was when it all started for me. I spent years picking it up and putting it back down again, adding a few pages each time. It wasn’t until I moved to Nashville in 2013 that I finally finished it. The time between the first page and the last was fourteen years.