I've started writing this about a hundred times now and nothing ever comes out right. So here it is, raw and unedited...
When I started writing Violet's story, it was just for fun. Something to keep my mind occupied while I sat in boring college classes. Something to do on those warm summer nights, when it was too hot to venture outside.
I never meant for anyone to read my story, other than a few friends and maybe a few family members. I never meant to find pieces of myself in Robert's words. I never meant to push myself outside of my comfort zone like Violet.
I just wanted to write the story I wanted to hear.
I've changed so much in the course of writing this series, I'm not longer in college, I've traveled the world, I'm no longer single or living in my family home. I grew up with these books in a way. And though I wasn't a child when I started writing Violet's story, I was still so young at heart and wide-eyed to the world.
Writing these books altered me forever. They pushed me and made me stronger. Sometimes writing was the escape I needed and other times, it was all I could do to escape the blank page. It's been said so many times, so many ways, by so many people, that writing is hard.
Writing takes pieces of you. Each character is a shade of who I am. Every setting is a slice of the world I live in. When I started writing, I didn't realize so much of me would end up on the page. My life, my sadness, my heartbreak, my loves. The things I've seen, experienced and fallen in love with, live in my books forever now.
It's incredible really. When I look at where I started and where we are now. When I first started writing, Violet didn't have Magic. She was never going to have Magic and what a shame that would have been. Her Magic is what made this story special and changed her in impossible ways through out the series.
Her Magic changed her for the better, much likes these books have changed me for the better. It hasn't always been easy and everyday hasn't been a picnic. But if Violet and I have anything in common, it's that we never gave up, no matter how difficult the road ahead seemed.
I've thanked many people over the years in my books. The ones who stood by and encouraged me, helped me and supported me. But there's one person I've yet to thank until now.
Violet Evans.
She jumped into my head all those years ago with a story to tell and it's been a privilege building this world with her for the better part of a decade. The Soothsayer Series has become such a big part of who I am now. I've learned so much, grown so much and it all started with her.
So thank you, Violet. Thank you for choosing me, trusting me with your story. I've carried you all over the world, in manuscript form, in notebooks, in my laptop and in my heart. Thank you for the adventure and thank you for being the story I wanted to hear.
Until we meet again my friend...