So… I wrapped it upside down… totally meant to do that… 😬
My 4-year-old wanted to help me unwrap the present, and we may have unwrapped too much…
Easy fix. It’s totally fine. #wegotthis
So, I almost didn’t write this book. I started on it years and years ago, but I made the mistake of sharing the first few chapters with someone who completely ripped it apart in a non-constructive way. It totally shattered me. So, I put the story in drawer in my mind.
I was sure that The Very Real World of Emily Adams would be the only book I would ever write. But it was WAAAY too long. And you know that phrase, “kill your darlings”? Well, I had to kill a few darlings, one them a scene between two of my favorite characters, Nothe and Rain. They are both suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, but Nothe sees a light at the end of the tunnel—all Rain can see is darkness.
When I cut this flashback scene, I realized, “Well… I guess I have to write another book.”
This scene is based heavily on something I wrote years ago, almost like a letter to my former self—to the person in a dark place, feeling like there was no way out. When I wrote it, I’d felt like I’d made it to the other side of despair—and I needed former me, and anyone else struggling as I had once done—to know they could make it through.
And sometimes, these days, I need those reminders.
Here is a short excerpt from that scene:
“Look,” he put a hand to his forehead, thinking, “imagine you were the most powerful being in the universe—say some god-like being with all the freedom and power to do anything you wanted, and you were thrown into a world like ours, this very same universe, just like you are now. What would you do then?”
Rain answered immediately. “I would change it.”
Nothe nodded, his golden eyes wild and glowing. “Yes! Exactly. And you have that power. It’s just more subtle. It’s like,” he searched for the words, “it’s like the stars shining in the black sky. But what do people do when they’re surrounded by darkness, and they see those stars? They look. They look, and they feel something. Those stars …. They are subtle and small from here, but they guide the lost back home.”
Where Rose Writes Very True Stories 