After years of the rough draft sitting in my treasure box, after a year and a half of going through the publishing process, my children’s book has finally launched! I am thrilled…I am nervous…I am vulnerable…I am slightly in shock even though I’ve known this was coming!
I started writing when I was a child. I can remember typing out stories on my dad’s old word processor, feeling so self-important and serious as I sat at my antique desk watching the tiny green screen as the words I typed popped up. I came across one of my old stories that I printed out recently…and had the biggest belly laugh. Let’s just say that I always said that I had symptoms of ADHD as a child and this story was irrefutable proof. In true Sarah style is was a dramatic beginning, had no relevance to the title, and the ending came way too quickly leaving the reader completely and irrefutably confused.
I have many, many, many stories that I have started but never finished. King Zara was a first, and is a project near and dear to me because it is the story of me; the story of my own struggles in childhood and as an adult. Hence the nervousness and the feelings of being vulnerable. My creative projects have mostly been done in private – a remnant of my social anxiety. I may want to put my art out into the open, but my fear of exposing myself overrides this desire.
You can imagine how I’ve been feeling about having to release this book – to show everyone how I’ve been feeling most of my life and showing a piece of my work for praise and scrutiny. But, you can’t sell books if people don’t know about it right? I’ve been marketing myself on social media and have sent off press releases. Trying the think outside the box, I’ve created videos that I’ve posted on TikTok and Reels for Facebook. I’ve been riding the wave of positive feedback, praise for the book, and people showing their support online for this achievement….then here it came….the first negative comment.
I was nauseated reading it. This person was obviously a troll, a stranger watching my Reel and spewing whatever fool comments came to his mind. I deleted it quickly, but his allegation was serious and disgusting. It was clearly dark, negative comments from a dark, negative person. As I started spiraling, I remembered the whole point of my book…monstrous people feed off of negativity and create darkness. I wrote King Zara to encourage children (and their parents) to not cave in to darkness; to fight against it and let light and love rule the day. This is why I wrote the book, and I choose to revel in the love and support of my family and friends instead and not let the darkness win.
Unbound Light 