My debut novel, Jagged Emerald City, is published.
And it’s so surreal. A year ago, I was finishing up revisions and neck-deep in querying; but after some serious thought, and then visiting the place where my story is set, I decided it was time to get this story out there on my own. I’ve been researching marketing and publishing and the business side of authorship for years, but it’s still been a whirlwind of learning and then actually doing.
This story actually started…
… as 15-year-old-me writing interactions between two characters as I tried to figure out my concept of romance. (I didn’t kiss people to figure things out, I wrote stories about kissing people.)
It didn’t really exist as a real story with… you know… a plot line. But at 15, I wanted to write a story about two people becoming friends and then falling in love. But with magic. And monsters. And like, a lot of adventure-y stuff.
It’s almost bizarre looking at where this story started and where it is now. It’s been through a lot of changes then since. These characters really didn’t blossom into themselves until the time I hit 20. At a similar point, I actually put effort into developing the world (versus nebulous ideas of “well maybe I could…” lol), and that’s when everything really took off.
By my mid-late twenties, this story started it’s final evolution into what you can read today. And even then, it went through a big final change.
I think all debut authors probably say this in some form or another, but this book came right out of my soul. Not only did it grow with me, but—and I didn’t realize it until nearly the end—I was working through a lot of my own trauma while putting Fairian through hell.
And now Jagged Emerald City is published. In the world at large. Eek. I kiiiiinda feel like throwing up being this vulnerable, but we’re doing it anyway!
Without further ado, I’m going to slide JEC’s description right below here, and then just some handy buy links at the end if it sparks your interest… 😉
Meet Fairian Leynthall. She’s irreverent, the unwilling heiress of her family’s business empire, and obsessed with learning magic. She’s also got two big problems.
One, there’s evidence the magical being who killed her sister is in town.
Two, there’s this supernatural jerk interfering with her field research. He keeps spouting nonsense about danger, treating her like she matters, and distracting her with big lonely eyes. Not to mention it’s aggravating how much being around him makes her feel like her true self.
Then turns out that her supernatural jerk, Daimyn, is some kind of lynchpin in the magical community, and people are desperate to control the power he holds. As Fairian struggles to unravel the truth about her sister’s death, a ridiculous rumor of Daimyn’s affection for her spreads, and she becomes a target. Fairian convinces Daimyn to work together to fix it, but she won’t let herself get close to him. Because the last magical being she trusted? Killed her sister.
History threatens to repeat itself as Fairian falls further into the tangled web of supernatural politics. Becoming a pawn would be the easy path. The hard path will mean believing in herself, being vulnerable enough to trust, and take back power to be her own piece on the board.
Jagged Emerald City is the first in the OBSIDIAN DIVDE series, set in an eco-city and following the adventures of Fairian Leynthall as she discovers and finds her place in the magical underworld.
