7 Years Ago

This time of the year holds a very special place in my heart, and not simply because I enjoy the holidays -which I do.  Seven years ago I began the journey into the writing world.  It all started with the cover you're looking at right now.  I sat down and started writing what would become my first novel, The Magic of Light.
For those of you who haven't heard the story, The Magic of Light followed the lives of Trisha and Keith.  They were "good" magicians, living in a world overrun and terrorized by Dark magicians.  Magicians have always seemed to fascinate me, and I feel like for a long time they've been haunting my mind, waiting for me to tell their stories.  Anyways, back to the story... This book was definitely not ready for publication in any way, but my inner writer was determined to have her voice be heard.  And so fate had it that many -more than I can count-publishers would hear my voice.  The problem of course was that this book was not publishing material. Sure there was promise perhaps, but it wasn't perfect and certainly wasn't ready.
I cannot begin to tell you how many rejection letters I received during the four years I worked so hard to have that book published.  I was determined, and when people criticized the book and told me I needed to do something else it only made me want it more.  Once you step your feet in the water you can't jump out, and for me that's exactly what the publishing industry was.  Now that I had a feel of it, I didn't want to run away just because it was scary.  (And oh was it scary!)
But then how is it that after four years I gave up on Trisha and Keith, and ended up writing a story about a totally different world with Celestria and Alaire?  What happened during those fours years that changed?  Well, for one, I changed a lot and matured during those years.  Even now I'm still maturing and growing into a stronger writer, and if there's anything I learned during the time I spent on The Magic of Light it's that you don't give up on something you love.  You perfect it, make it better, give it your full heart....and then try again.

   

There have definitely been a lot of changes through the years, but I'm really happy that seven years down the road this is where we have ended up.  There is so much more to come in the Magicians series, and Celestria's story was only the beginning.

Here's to many more years of writing! And as always a huge thank you and many hugs to all of you out there who support me :)

Lindsey R. Sablowski