9/11/25 Book Update

Hello! I haven't posted much in the past few months, but I have not been idle during this time.

Here's what I've been up to!

• Contacting Editors and Coming to a Deal

Getting an editor was the biggest thing that made me think, I'm really serious about this project. Not only because of the money, but also because it involved professionals, not just myself and those close to me. We began working with them and came to a deal, then I finished my self-edits to send it in. We chose copy-editing because, developmentally, we think the book is in good shape. However, as a high schooler, I don't fully understand everything about grammar mechanics and the importance of maintaining consistent types of quotation marks. (Who knew that curly and straight were that big of a deal?)

Editing has also revealed dozens of minor inconsistencies that went over my head (like the same word being repeated several times in a paragraph, or a character sitting down twice in one scene when they had never stood up).

• Severely Underestimating How Difficult the Junior Year of High School Would Be

I kind of knew I made a mistake going into this, knowing I'd have very little time for my project between Honors Chemistry, Honors US, Precalculus, AP Lang, and all the other responsibilities life throws at me. It seemed pretty daunting at first, and there were points where I worried about losing parts of my audience if I wasn't consistent enough, but I'm handling it a lot better than I thought I would, to be frank. I'm still determined to get my project published, and I'm pleased to say that I'm still on schedule according to the plan I wrote out in August. I've gotten a handle on the rhythm of school again, so it's full steam ahead from here!

• Enjoying Life as a Teenager While I Still Can

Apart from the business-y side of my life, I'm still sixteen, so I've been trying to enjoy this moment in my life before college, and eventually life catches up to me. I've been spending time with friends, getting back into drawing and painting, visiting the shopping centre, and enjoying lazy afternoons making bread or cooking, one of my hobbies. I went trick-or-treating for my penultimate time during Halloween, and earlier in October, I had a Japanese exchange student stay for about a week. I've gone through periods in my life where balancing workload pressures and my social life has been challenging, but as I've grown, I've become more effective at managing it.

Some pasta I made.

A pizza I made from scratch--with chipotle and capers. Odd combination, but surprisingly good.

A second pizza. The first one was finished too quickly.

So What's Next?

I've been preparing my manuscript to send back to the editors for a second round of editing. After this is done, I'll essentially have a finished manuscript, which is such a huge milestone that it almost brings a tear to my (and my parents') eyes. I will probably release the prologue and first chapter to all my email subscribers by the end of December at the latest. Stay tuned!

I also need to get started on cover design, which is something I'm not familiar with. I have some graphic design skills and artistic capabilities, and with the power of YouTube tutorials, I could probably create one that I'd be moderately satisfied with. I intend to start that way, at least for mock-ups, and possibly get a professional second opinion on it, and create the final rendering. This plan might change, since I'm...Really out of my depths here. I'd like to have that done, hopefully by February at the latest.

Looking further ahead, my release date (not preorder) is still looking to be around spring break. I'm very excited, and thank you for reading to the end and coming along the journey with me!