One of the oldest goals I developed for myself goes all the way back to middle school. I had just found out that books were interesting and dove headlong into J.R.R Tolkein’s the Hobbit, Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman’s Dragonlance series, and Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire series. My love of reading only grew in High school where I set a specific “bucket-list” goal for my life. I decided that I wanted to publish a book.

“… a mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge.” 
― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

This pursuit of writing has led to multiple forays into writing novels. At this point I have started at least seven different novels. Ranging from an auto-biography, a sci-fi novel, and multiple fantasy and fiction novels.

Currently, I’m working on a fantasy novel that is inspired by both the city-state system of ancient Greece and the latin language. I’m trying to root the basic plot in contemporary issues that readers may care about. In addition I hope to keep the book grounded in important fundamental human questions. I find that sometimes fantasy and sci-fi authors lean to heavily in the setting and world-building and I think the core of a reader’s experience is their ability to relate or identify with the underlying characters.

My biggest struggle seems to be keeping the discipline to write regularly. I go through fazes of intense focus on writing and then lose it all a few weeks later after I hit a wall in the text or hit a busy season at school. Now that I have finished my master’s degree I hope to pick my most recent novel back up and get the words rolling.

I don’t claim to be an expert at writing and will undoubtably make mistakes as I continue this journey of making this hobby into something more. I plan on documenting my progress and process to achieve this goal primarily to hold myself accountable, but also to see if others are looking to do the same.

Thanks for reading.