Short stories were my path to writing novels.

I tried to write a novel a handful of times. The first was in middle school, and my “novel” was 32 pages of size-14 font starring all of my classmates. It was pretty successful for a book that never saw the light of day—it spawned two sequels! Maybe I’ll share it someday.

I tried NaNoWriMo one year. I started projects with misplaced boldness all through high school and college. And in 2018, I began what I thought would be The One™, a dystopian story about a boy who finds a key in the desert. I made it 38,000 words before running out of steam.

But in November 2021, I joined a little platform called Vocal. After writing a handful of stories on there, I saw they were running a contest called The Fantasy Prologue. Writers could submit the first chapter of a fantasy story using the following sentence as the beginning: “There weren’t always dragons in the Valley.”

So I wrote a story about dragons, appropriately titled “Stories of Dragons,” and submitted it. And I won a Runner-Up prize—and $50.

My interest was piqued. So I wrote more stories for more contests. By the time I won eight prizes on the site, I’d gained a small gaggle of loyal readers and the confidence to write a novel. And thus Marrow and Soul was born.

Now it’s time for the sequel, Threads of Light. And I’m excited to offer some fun stretch goals for Kickstarter backers!

The first is The Sun and the Shade, a story I wrote for last year’s Kickstarter. It’s about a desert nomad who loves baking and the ghost hunt he’s forced to join as a rite of passage. I’ll edit and update this story as one of the early stretch goals.

The second is a brand-new story called One Who Remains! If you’ve read Marrow and Soul, you know Faenu, the teenage acolyte who helps Safran and her friends in the story’s climax. He deserves his own story, and now he’s getting one. And it’s a murder mystery.

I’ll say no more for now. But when you back the Kickstarter, you’ll help us unlock this story and more exciting rewards for all of our backers! Follow the Kickstarter today to help us reach our goal when we launch.

Books

Don’t forget to check out Marrow and Soul wherever books are sold!

Kindle | Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Goodreads

Gram Jam

addisonhornerauthor

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