21 Years in Alteria
A reflection on the long and winding road of my trilogy's creative journey.
I love a good palindrome, especially a reflective one, so figuring out the lens through which to approach this post was easy—after years ago writing about the first 12 years I spent working on STILL THE STARS, this year, we’re celebrating 21 of them, even if a few days belated. (Was a little busy on the 9th, #GoBirds)
To say this series looks absolutely nothing like what I imagined then is an understatement. That was before I discovered my passion for poetry or my love of tarot. I was always so stressed trying to learn everything, and would myself up for shortcomings. Whereas a decade later, I’m resting rather peacefully in the knowledge that I will never know everything, but that doesn’t mean I know nothing. This isn’t something I say out of self deprecation either, but rather as a way of saying there is so much left to learn. Where once that intimidated me, now it enthralls me.
It also feels great to be celebrating the fact that I completed a second draft of the second book in December, which ICYMI, is titled TURN THE TIDES. I haven’t really touched or even opened the draft since finishing it, because enough years of doing this have taught me that once a project reaches a certain point, you have to let that baby rest a bit. It’s kind of like baking bread. Every story must be mixed together and carefully kneaded into existence, but then it needs time to sit in a soft, dark place, where it has the room to rise.
I’m so pleased with how this draft turned out, even though I know there is much to be fixed and polished. Finishing this one also helped me lock into place a lot of the plot points for the third and final book of the trilogy, which just makes brain go AHHH!!!!!
I am making no promises to myself or others about when I’ll actually get to seriously writing the third, or when the second will release, but I am hoping it won’t be a George R. R. Martin unit of time.
There have been some small wins recently that have tempted my to get back to it. I experienced a lovely and unparalleled moment at a queer meetup here in Philly. A large group of us went for a walk along the Schuylkill river, and when we made it to the coffee shop at the end of the journey, one of the strangers I’d met asked about my writing, because someone else had told her I’d published a few books. I offered the title, which she proceeded to punch into her phone, only to then exclaim, “I’VE SEEN THIS BOOK!”
For a few fractions of a second, I genuinely thought she was fucking with me, because how was that even possible? But when she continued, “I remember seeing it on the shelf at A Novel Idea and thinking the cover was GORGEOUS!” I had to try not to get teary eyed at both A) the compliment itself and B) the fact that my book had been Perceived by someone out in the wild at an indie booksellers.
While this story has been within me for two full decades, it is only been two since I cast out the finished first book into the water. It took time, but it appears the ripples are now reaching new people and new shores—both figurative and literal, seeing as I found out recently there is a copy available at a library in freakin New Zealand. This book has touched hemispheres I’ve never been in, and that feels so profound it’s a little hard to process sometimes.
As ever, I’ve no idea what comes next for this series—only that it will be unexpected and full of absolute magic. ✨🌉🌌
P.S! If you are someone who has read STILL THE STARS yourself, it would be extremely rad if you could leave it a review on Goodreads or Amazon. These reviews help indie authors reach new readers, so taking the 2 minutes to rate it and say a few things about what you thought of it goes a long way! 🤗 And if you haven’t read it at all yet, well, what are you waiting for? 👀😂
Featured Photo by Elayna Mae Darcy © 2025