Shelving AVW & Reading Wrap Up #4

I would hazard an uneducated guess that most writers have known the curious pain of shelving a project.

For the uninitiated—shelving a project simply means putting it to the side. Maybe it will one day feel its maker’s touch again, maybe it won’t.

I had expected that if I had to do this at some point, as I more than likely would, that I would be devastated. Depressed. Unconsolable. Curiously, I have found that shelving A VENOMOUS WOMAN has felt strangely liberating.

A VENOMOUS WOMAN, the book I intended to be my debut, is a standalone epic fantasy following a succubus’ revenge against the society that warped her identity. Writing it was cathartic, explosive, and empowering. It was instructive and demonstrative of my potential as a writer. It was also riddled with fundamental flaws as a result of my inexperience with long-form content. Many of these I corrected with editing, but others are so baked into the manuscript, correcting them would constitute the crafting of a new skeleton, organs, and skin for the piece.

I did query A VENOMOUS WOMAN, but it soon became apparent to me as I began work on my next project, a sapphic vampire romantasy, that A VENOMOUS WOMAN is not the best foot forward I want it to be. I braced for a damning feeling of pointlessness and futility to grip me. I’d spent two years working on this book, certain it would be my debut. I’d commissioned lovely character art work, worked with an editor, and had it beta read by peers, friends, and family. I’d slogged through edits and revisions while working full-time, attending grad school, and welcoming a new puppy into my home.

But yet . . . that damning feeling didn’t come. I felt light. Hopeful. Excited for the future. The project had served its purpose: it taught me how to write a book.

A VENOMOUS WOMAN gave me the confidence to draft my next, stronger project. And the projects that will follow this one will certainly be stronger, and stronger, and stronger. Perhaps one day I will extricate Korrie and company from the car wreck that was A VENOMOUS WOMAN (I already have countless ideas on how to do so), but the beautiful thing about shelving this love of mine is that even if I go the rest of my life never returning to AVW, it will be okay. I will be okay. AVW’s characters, her lifeblood, and all her mistakes and triumphs, will continue to propel me onward.

Before concluding this blog post, I wanted to share some of my favorite reads from this year! These marvelous works kept me going; as did, of course, my beloved family and friends.

Ray Nayler’s sci-fi The Tusks of Extinction was hauntingly moving. I read it in one sitting.

Tasha Suri’s epic fantasy trilogy The Burning Kingdoms rewrote my understanding of the genre and blazed a new trail for sapphic fantasy everywhere

Olivia A. Cole’s Dear Medusa—Y’ALL! Phenomenal, phenomenal YA novel in verse. Heed trigger warnings.

The next time I update will be with news on how my latest project is faring. I do believe the world, and myself, are better prepared for Clara and Yami than I was for Korrie. <3