Why I wrote Oriana's Eyes.

The view from my family home after moving
to New England from NY.

I wanted to share with you why I wrote Oriana's Eyes and also what it means to me. I am currently writing the sequel to Oriana's Eyes, (yes there is much of it already written!) and the truth is, it's difficult to make time for writing when I have so many other life projects going on! But, believe me, I seriously want to make it a priority.

It's seems like forever ago that I first started writing Oriana's Eyes. I was still in junior high school when I started writing the first draft of a concept I had come up with about yin and yang people in a dystopian world. I had this idea of opposite species, both equal, but being separated because of their race. I was greatly inspired at the time by famous novels like 1984 and Farenheit 451.

I started writing chapters and building a world that reflected a lot of the feelings I was having at the time. Feeling trapped in a school system where peers formed cliques based on wealth and popularity, and other shallow ideals, but also where it felt that having unique thoughts was frowned upon. I was sick of the monotony of everyday routine, and being stuck in the same boring lectures over and over. 

My beagle Lucy. RIP.

My first draft of my story was about 50 pages long and I had an overall picture of beginning to end, but I knew there was a lot I had left out. Much of the beginning of the novel remained true to the original draft. I had my two main characters: Oriana and Dorian, but the middle and end need a lot more elaborating.

Throughout high school I continue to write and rewrite. When I'd reach a point of writer's block, I would start from the beginning and reread it over and over until the next step became clear. During the summers in between school and throughout college, I would take long walks with my beagle, Lucy and just think about the characters. How did they feel? What were their motives? What would be their next move?

This book became more than just my first attempt at writing a novel, it became an escape. I was connected to the characters and their unique world. I wanted to learn more about it and understand every aspect of their lives.

Every day I would share a new chapter with my best friends who continued to encourage me to write. Seeing their excitement about what would happen next was motivation enough to continue. I didn't know how many people would actually end up reading my novel, but even having just one avid reader to share my inner world with has always been enough. 

I connected with Oriana as a character and related to her, but she was in many ways unlike me and I didn't always agree with her decisions. I had to inhabit her situation to really understand her weaknesses and how she might grow throughout her story. In many ways, all the characters in Oriana's Eyes reflect different sides and aspects of myself. 

Zelda and Gatsby continue to inspire me.

It wasn't until I was 24 years old that I decided to self-publish Oriana's Eyes. I had graduated from college with my BA in English with a writing concentration and was working for Equine Journal, and all-breed, all-discipline equestrian magazine. It was a struggle to keep my passion for writing alive while I was just trying to get my career started and be on my own during one of the most difficult economic years in our nation's history, 2008. The stock market was plummeting and I kept hearing over and over again from every media outlet around me, "There are no jobs." I watched as my friends struggled to find jobs related to their majors, and the news was a constant stream of doomsday proclamations. 

I lucked out when I applied for an assistant editor position with the magazine, and was able to move into an apartment for the very first time with my boyfriend, Jordan (still my greatest love of 11 years!) and eventually our two cats Gatsby and Zelda. 

Self-publishing was no easy task, and if you thought reading a novel about a thousand times over was enough, you'd be wrong. I read it many more times and went through many more drafts. I paid to have it professionally edited and then went through several more drafts. By the end, I felt my work was by no means perfect, but I felt it was complete and I was proud of what I'd achieved.

So why did I write Oriana's Eyes? I was compelled to. I wrote it for myself, I was a quiet child and writing was my greatest form of self expression. I wrote it for my best friends, who I will forever be grateful to (find their names at the front of the book), and finally I wrote it for my deep love of fantasy and the infinite places it can take us. I will always have a special place in my heart for the fantasy genre and how it saved me from even my darkest of days.