Daughter of Kings: My Novel

     I was 13 and in the eighth grade, taking a writing class with the local grade school. My classmates and I were told that we would write a story in this class. In November 2016, directly after I finished the Tauriel cosplay, I participated in NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. The writing class called for students to write a 10,000 word story over the course of the month.
     I had been planning the story since August, when I had decided to join the writing class, and it was so exciting to finally begin writing on November 1. As I worked, I had no shortage of words for my beloved characters and plot. By the end of the first day, I had around 2,000 words on my document. I wondered how I was going to sum up the entire story in only 10,000 words. My teacher, however, commented on my progress and said that I could try for the adult NaNoWriMo goal of 50,000 words. So, I did just that.
     As a homeschooler, I was able to finish most of my school day before lunch and declare my story-writing as mandatory schoolwork. It was an assignment for the class, after all. I still remember how I couldn't believe my luck. I got to write part of a story every day for school. I worked fast. Less than a month and around ninety pages later, I found myself typing the final words of this story.
     Needless to say, I had the longest project out of my classmates. Most of them stayed within a reasonable word count. My best friend in the class, however, also went above and beyond with the assignment. Although it had been promised before the whole endeavor, peer-editing did not happen with my project. The peers were intimidated, I think.
     Anyway, my parents read the story and loved it. They suggested that I do something with it. Being a stubborn teenager, I was convinced that there was no way the story could be any good. I spent the next 2 years trying to re-write it and make more suitable to my standards. Last summer, I got around 50 pages completed before I burned out entirely. At that point, I decided it would be in my best interest to pursue another story idea.
     Last February, my younger brother convinced me to let him read the original. He sat in front of the desktop computer reading it for so long that he got in trouble for not getting on with his day in a timely fashion. (We homeschool, so yeah, he was reading about elves and goblins when he really should have been doing math...)
     Anyway, he insisted that it was good and that something really should be done with it. So, we looked into self-publishing, and I went through this whole phase where I read it 2 or 3 times and edited everything I could. Then, I got tired of reading it and trying to screen the text for errors. So, I called it quits and decided that I was really, truly just going to move onto the newer story idea.
     This May, I was faced with some health difficulties. For whatever reason, I immediately decided that my parents and brother were right, after all. Something should be done with the story and fast. My mom and I did one last read-through for me. She read the story aloud to me, as I was really not feeling well/up to reading. Then, on Memorial Day, we finished the read-through; threw together a digital cover that my grandpa and I had designed on paper; obtained a copyright; filled out everything on Amazon KDP; and self-published as an E-book. By the end of the week, my family had also arranged for there to be a paperback version on Amazon.
     I am amazed by the number of readers there have been for this book. Self-publishing has always been a dream and a goal of mine. In 2017, on the idea of self-publishing a novel, I had written, "I hope to accomplish this within the next year with a story I wrote in 2016. By doing so, I would be taking a step into the real world and allowing the real world to come into my version of it. Through this, I would be taking a step towards becoming an author.  This event would define me as it would be the first step on a path I greatly desire to follow."


Anyway, onto the actual story itself. The novel, Daughter of Kings, follows the footsteps of a family from earth after they wind up in a fantasy world. On Amazon, the synopsis states, "A family is separated through a series of unexpected events. Their only hope of reunion is in a battle. As that would mean pain and death, is it safe to hope? Follow Eleanor to see just what happens, and if there really is any hope for this Daughter of Kings and her loved ones."

The link: https://www.amazon.com/Daughter-Kings-Isabella-Auer-ebook/dp/B07S7T9ZBN/ref=sr_1_1?crid=20HH7W9LDDET2&keywords=daughter+of+kings+auer&qid=1560518259&s=gateway&sprefix=daughter+of+ki%2Caps%2C175&sr=8-1