Another Thank You Post...

I've never been one to have a lot of confidence in my work. It took a lot for me to let anyone read my work. The first person I let read BlackMoon Beginnings was my sister, Rachel. She's close to the age group that I'm writing for, so she was a good first candidate. It took months after that to let my mom and best friend read it.

I was afraid of their judgement. I was afraid of opening myself up to that criticism. I was afraid that once people learned that I was interested in writing, they'd start treating me different. I don't know why I thought that, but I did. I was afraid that my writing was going to be horrible and everyone would shun me. I realize now that that was a bit dramatic, but it was still possible.

As I got further into my writing and became more serious about publishing, I thought about the criticism I was going to receive. In the end, I decided that I could handle it. I've come to realize that I'm stronger than I initially thought. I've gotten a few one and two star reviews and instead of being upset about them, I was glad that it finally happened. It was going to happen sooner or later and I'm happy that I have those under my belt.

Sometimes I start to question if I made the right decision with this. It's hard to write, edit, and format. I don't have money to pay for someone else to do it for me and my schedule is pretty busy with school. It takes a lot of work. But when I start to have doubts about whether or not I should continue this writing/publishing thing, I get a message from a reader. No matter how many negative ratings and reviews I get, those simple messages from someone make it all worth it. Knowing that at least one person is enjoying the world that I created, makes me want to continue. It makes me want to push forward. I'll always write because I love it, but knowing that someone else likes my work makes to want to continue releasing my books for the world to read.

You are all probably getting annoyed with all my thank you notes, but you have to look at it from my point of view. I'm a nineteen year old college student. I've never really done anything to stand out. In high school, I was pretty much invisible, so this is all very strange to me. It's strange that people are contacting me. It's strange that people want to read my work. It's just all very strange.

This was not the reaction that I was expecting when I clicked that publish button. You all took a chance on an unknown writer and for that I will always be thankful. I've replied to just about every message that I've ever received. If you've reached out to me, I just want to thank you for your support. You guys are what pushes me forward. I'm going to try and make my future books worthy of your support. :)

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