Once upon a time, there was a six-year-old girl who dreamt of becoming a published author.
She spent Summer holidays locked indoors writing stories, and school terms forcing her friends to act out plays that she’d made. Even in her darkest moments – through discouraging English teachers, puberty, and the struggles of university – she always came back to the stories in her heart. Writing made her feel whole. Fuelled her like no other. And today, she gets to share that writing with the world.
“How do you even begin to process achieving the only thing you’ve ever consistently wanted?”
As weird as it is to talk about myself in the third person, there is a part of it that feels necessary. After the last couple of years and the whirlwind of my publication journey, I feel like a completely different person most of the time.
The closer the release day has loomed, the more people have asked how I feel about becoming a published author. I don’t quite know how I feel yet, because literally none of this feels real. I’ve written the book, I’ve signed the book deal, but I haven’t processed a thing. Because how do you even begin to process acheiving the only thing you’ve ever consistently wanted?
This book has been a journey, a lesson, a labour of love, a collection of tears and laughter and everything in between. I have changed as a person, I have gained and lost people in my life, and I have been through three different jobs, all in the space of the process. I have grown with this book in ways I cannot even fathom, let alone put into coherent words. So to have it out in the world, ready for people to pick up off bookshelves is absolutely surreal.
I just hope that through the chaos of this release week I am able to keep perspective, find some moments of peace among the noise and remember why I do this. Why I hope to continue to do this for as long as I possibly can.
Welcome to the world, Quarter-Love Crisis.
I hope you all love reading her as much as I did writing.
Quarter-Love Crisis is officially out in the UK! Find it at any of your fav bookstores including Waterstones, Amazon, Foyles and bookshop.org.
Lots of love,
Jas xx
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