Hello readers!

Welcome to my first blog post!

If you’ve checked out my About page, then you already know a fair amount about me, but I’d like to take this opportunity to formally introduce myself. My name is Natalie, and I have a wide array of interests, so not every post will likely be your cup of tea. It is my hope, however, that you will find something within my blogs, vlogs, and social media posts that you may find useful or entertaining!

Due to the obvious fact that I am new to blogging, please be kind of the many mistakes I am likely to make on this journey. I’m not new to writing, though.

I’ve been an aspiring author since I was eight years old. It was a couple of years later that I discovered my passion for history. Eventually, I’d like to write a non-fiction history book about my area of focus, but that will undoubtedly require years of research to be well enough versed to begin writing. So, for now, I am working within fiction.

There are two projects that are ongoing: Tomorrow, Oblivion and Justice Gone Awry (both working titles as I am in the early stages of research and drafting).

I have spent the last year conducting research for J.G.A. as it is based on a true story. I expect that it will take me well into 2026 before I am at a point in my research that I feel comfortable setting about drafting the manuscript.

As for T.O., I have a zero-draft completed and am taking a step away from it for a week or so before I dive into revisions. You will learn more about T.O. in future blog posts. I’ll dive into my writing process, revision hell, and eventually I’ll enter the query trenches!

It is my intention to have T.O. published traditionally. That’s not in any way to discount independent publishing. It’s simply my desire to be agented and have my manuscript picked up by a traditional publisher.

Three years ago, I was in the query trenches on a manuscript that was doomed to fail. I feared that going in, and when the form rejections (and some personal rejections) started rolling in, I knew that book would never see the light of day on a shelf at Barnes & Noble. I accepted that the subject matter of that book was too dark for traditional publishing and wouldn’t be appropriate for most readers.

I will say this though, writing that book was essential to the development of my writing skills both in a practical way and in a psychological way.

Writing is hard. I’d argue that anyone who says writing is easy is either lying or not trying hard enough. There’s nothing quite like the mental struggle looking at a sentence you know reads poorly and aimlessly attempting to make the words work only to delete an entire paragraph and start over.

Aside from coming up with a solid enough idea that you can write an entire story around it and aside from the actual mechanics of story and sentence structure, writing is challenging because it forces you to second guess yourself.

We’ve all heard of imposter syndrome and it’s real. You work so hard to get your next 10,000 words written then find yourself going from feeling proud and confident to feeling utterly ridiculous. If only I had a nickel for every time I’ve questioned, what was I even doing, or worse, why was I doing it.

There have been many meltdowns over the years where I’ve told myself I’m not good enough, that no one will care, that no one will ever read my book. And maybe that’s true, but I’ll never improve, I’ll never give a reader the chance to enjoy something I’ve written if I talk myself into giving up on my goals, my dreams.

So this is me, giving the dream another shot with something I think will fit within the world of traditional publishing while still remaining true to myself and my voice because not everything is about trends on TikTok.