Waterfall: a novella by… yours truly

Today is an exciting day. Today is the day you can finally actually buy one of my (short) books, and I didn’t think it would be as exciting as it is.

At the beginning of this month, I decided to self-publish a novella I had written nine years ago. One of my friends suggested doing this, and keeping my “bigger” novels for traditional publishing as traditional publishing is my dream but I also liked the idea of sharing something, anything, through self-publishing. When she put that spark into my head, I realized: I wrote a novella nine years ago, a complete story that is 22,000 words… so why not self publish? Utilizing Amazon KDP, I garnered the help of my friend Sarah to proofread, set about making the tiny changes a nine-year-old story will always need, designed a cover… and here we are.

I didn’t think self-publishing would be this exciting. Self-publishing, in my mind, wasn’t for serious authors. Authors who really absolutely loved writing. Authors like me, who write generally sweeping romantic historical dramas… self-publishing was what, in my mind, I would have to do if traditional publishing failed. And I don’t know why I thought that, because it feels almost every bit as official and exciting as it would any other way.

So here I am, finally able to say “yes, you can buy my book for your bookshelf, and see my name in print!” Or, if you’re not a physical book person, get it on your Kindle. When I got the proof version in the mail, it was a giant thrill to see my name on the cover. My name, printed right there, on a semi-official looking cover (designed using an image from Pexel.com and Amazon’s own book cover designer), in my hands, attached to pages that I wrote years and years ago.

Waterfall is a short love story and mystery set in the late 1800s midwest. It follows the story of Delilah Sutton, a woman who has been ostracized from the small town where she and her mother lived, and Jonas Avery, a common horse thief whose life is on the line. As their lives connect in an unexpected way… well, I’m not going to write an entirely new book summary just for this post. Go read it on Amazon, decide if you like how that sounds… and maybe buy the book.

Or don’t. (But no, please do!)

Thank you for supporting me in all of the ways you all do! I genuinely would never have come to a place where I would be confident to put myself out there in this way if it was not for you.