I wrote a book, and now I want to publish it. This series, which will have more content in my Substack newsletter (Follow that story—check it out to subscribe here!) is the start of documenting that journey, though it’s far from the beginning of it all. Actually, it’s hard to pinpoint the beginning: it goes back to before I wrote the first sentence, before I hiked the trail with the unsolved murder from the 1800s that the book is based on, before the stories I made up on boring days at my greenhouse summer job and scribbled on paper bags. This newsletter is the beginning of a slice of the writing journey.

Because writing is one endless, exciting journey, and I’d like to share some of it. When I thought about beginning this newsletter, I worried for a minute: what if I don’t publish the book? What if I do, and only sell ten copies? But the response to all these “what-ifs” is that writing is a conversation, and most of what writers do is bounce conversations back and forth in their mind until they allow some of it to spill onto the page. Then their private conversation starts communicating with others. The hand is talking and the eyes are listening. 

I’m learning so much and enjoying getting ready to take the leap towards publishing that I want to invite others into this conversation. Hopefully, you’ll find inspiration or guidance, whether by following what was successful or avoiding the mistakes I make. 

Read the rest of this post on my Substack newsletter: Follow that story.