How I Got To NowYou know, lately I have been thinking a lot about the past, and how I got to where I am today. It certainly has not been an easy path, full of bumps, bruises, and more than a little bit of frustration. But it has all been worth it to get to this point, a published author by 16, first book published while 15. So, since I've realized I haven't really told my story yet on the blog, I've decided now is as good a time as any. So lets learn about how I went from hating writing, to being a published teenage author. It all started when I was around 8 or 9. I absolutely loathed writing. As it was put by my mother, 'it was weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth to get you to write a few sentences.' I was that bad. But don't worry, I am obviously MUCH better now. After all, I still manage to put out a few posts of writing a week and survive High School, don't I? But I digress. My mom got so fed up with my hatred of writing (which was surprising considering I'd loved reading since I was about 3 or 4), that she decided to do something about it. So she came across the fantastic Brave Writer curriculum and started to use that on me. It involved a lot more fun projects, one of which was the creation of your own fantasy map. And thus the world known as The Middle Lands was born. With this map came a few short stories about the history of this place, which if I'm being honest, were not very good. Fast forward a few years, and I went to a book launch for one of Richard Paul Evan's Michael Vey books. At this book launch there was a young woman by the name of McKenzie Wagner who had written and published her book Benotripia. I realized she was just about my age, and that made something in my mind click. I realized if this gal could write and publish a book, why couldn't I. At the daring ages of 11 or 12, I started work on Stones of The Middle Lands Book 1 with little to no plan and with my mom somewhat dragging me through the process yet again. Finally, I had a finished product after around a year of blood, sweat and tears. And nothing happened. The biggest thing that happened was we ordered a couple custom copies from a service called Blurb to satisfy our own pleasures. It stayed that way for years, until a fantastic coincidence occurred A little bit of backstory on my family. We are not big on "traditional schooling." In fact, I didn't even really do traditional preschool. My mom saw that I was already above the rest of the kids and decided to start educating me at my own level, instead of whittling my days away in the public school system. Since then we have bounced around different online charter schools, getting the best education we can, and participating in the occasional homeschooling co-op. Anyway, on with the story. Most folks may call it a coincidence, I consider it some form of fate or divine intervention. Either way, my mom was at a co-op for my younger brother when she got talking with one of the other moms there. She found out that this other mom recently started her own small independent publishing company. My mom mentioned that years before I'd written a book of my own, and this other mother asked if she could read it, just because. And boy did that lead me down a rabbit hole. My mother sending my first book to Teapots Away Press led me on my greatest endeavor yet. This other mother was impressed by the plot of the book, not so much the writing. She told us if I was willing to rewrite it with the better writing skills of a 15 year old, then she would be willing to publish it. Of course, we had to weigh what this would really mean, but we jumped on board, signed a contract, and got cracking. It took months of behind the scenes publishing stuff to get it all done. I had to entirely rewrite a 40+ chapter book, edit it, re-edit it, and finalize it, all while trying to survive my Sophomore year of High School. But we managed to do it. There was little to no rest for me, between school assignments, classes, and writing, there wasn't a ton of time for me to do "fun" stuff. But I was so excited to get going on this huge project. We used breaks to do vast amounts of writing and later editing done, which meant very busy Fall and Winter breaks. Yet we somehow managed to do it. While the process was often hard, it was also so rewarding. It was amazing to see creatures and places that had only existed in my mind until this point portrayed in professionally done artwork. It was incredible to have so much support from my friends and family, to see how excited they were for me. It made all the extra blood, sweat, and tears worth it. Finally, we reached the day. All the artwork was finalized, every word was as it should be, and I was so pumped. It was a dream come true to be a published author at 15, only a month short of my 16th birthday. In April 2019, just 4 months ago, my first book ever was published. Stones of The Middle Lands: The Castaway Hero was released into the world. I haven't experienced a ton of what most would call "success." To my knowledge, only around 50 of 60 copies have been sold yet. But it's a start, and I am so excited to see what the future will bring. So lets talk about that. What The Future Holds, and An Exciting AnnouncementThe future is a place of infinite possibility. It holds every opportunity, if we just decide to reach out and take it. After my first book was released, I created an entire road-map of what I wanted to publish all the way through 2032. I'm that excited. Now chances are that nothing will go exactly according to that plan, but a boy can hope to exceed it, not fall short. So here's what I see in the future, and then we'll get to the announcement. At this point in time, I see a lot of writing in my future, just week by week. I have committed myself to writing at least one blog post and one short story/poem a week and sending it out to all of you fantastic people. That alone keeps me plenty busy in addition to my Junior year of High School. But I also plan on finishing the Stones of The Middle Lands series before I graduate High School. That is my big goal. Beyond that, there is so much more for me to look forward to. I plan on going to college after serving a religious mission for a few years. As I mentioned, I have road-mapped out the books I plan on publishing for the foreseeable future. This includes some fantastic Middle Lands prequel possibilities, as well as further stories elsewhere in the world of The Middle Lands. But that's quite far in the future. For now, lets just celebrate the current announcement. BOOK 2 IS COMING!!!!!Oh yeah, you heard me right. The sequel to The Castaway Hero is coming, and its already well on its way. It is full of many new twists and turns, new foes and allies. So get hyped ladies and gents, its gunna be a whopper! I can't wait to get this book into your hands, but until next time, keep on writing!
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Welcome to The Writers Block!AuthorKen Mears is a new 17 year old author, here to share his wisdom, advice, and experiences with you, the reader! Archives
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