Discussing My Novel Castle, The Story Behind The Masterpiece!

I've been a published author with Amazon since 2019 when I first released Castle. It was an interesting journey, and I didn’t expect to actually be publishing anything. My journey began on Wattpad at 12 years old, writing ridiculous fanfiction and random stories for fun. It wouldn’t be until I was about 16 years old that I got the idea for Castle.

In 2018 my girlfriend at the time introduced me to Halsey, an American singer-songwriter. After hearing her first album, Badlands is when I got the idea to begin The Badlands Series. I played around with the idea for a while before settling on an intriguing thought, “what if an author fell into their own book and had to live out the tale?”

Now I bet you are wondering that same question yourself, aren’t you? Castle was born with this question in mind, and I wrote a prologue and a few chapters and then stopped. I blocked myself from continuing because of other projects, school maybe? It could have been anything, but I knew I was putting myself in a corner.

It wouldn’t be till later that year that I found myself following a friend to work. I went up to her house to spend the weekend, but she had to work on one of those days. I sat in McDonald’s for 8 hours and finished Castle. However, if you think it ended there, this adventure was far from over.

I received a scam email from someone asking me if I wanted to publish with them. After looking over the ridiculous contract, I, of course, rejected the idiocy. However, I ended up doubting myself of being worthy of publishing a book, so I turned to a dear friend. Her name is Chelcie Willingham; she is also a published author and my cover designer when her assistance is required. I also dedicate every book I publish to her.

She introduced me to amazon kdp and taught me the ropes, and helped me through the process of self-publishing. For this reason, everything is dedicated to her because without her, none of my books would be published, let alone Castle. I got a cover created and edited the book to the best of my ability, but I still didn’t publish it yet. Another friend and I began working on and discussing setting up the story on Episode Choose Your Story. For those who don’t know, this is an interactive story app.

Castle has not made it there yet, but it is in the process for it; what is important here is that we invented my absolute favorite character, Bob. Bob is my comedy character, and that’s all his intended purpose was originally; however, this character quickly began a major hit for me and is now one of the main characters.

A short time after this, some very traumatic events happened in my life, and my writing was pushed aside. It wouldn’t be till I was 17, almost 18, in October 2019 that Castle would become available on amazon. People tried to get in the way, claiming they knew better and I should “ask a lawyer” before publishing to amazon. I ignored everyone; I’d waited a long time for this moment.

I published the book, and it quickly has become my most popular book to this day. Pulling in almost all 5-star reviews (ones a 4-star). I’ve intended the series to be 16 books in total; currently, 3 are available on Amazon, and number 4 is in the writing process. I ended up also combining a few of my other series and really expanding and creating what I feel will be a masterpiece. After The Badlands Series concludes, there will be a subseries to continue a story within a story. Trust me; you aren’t ready for what I have in store.

All of this stemmed from what I consider my masterpiece, Castle. I’ve lost love and friends, but the magic still stands. I hope you will give it a chance and read it on Amazon; please leave me a review; I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Yours Truly,

Author Emily Sawyer

https://www.amazon.com/Castle-They-Their-Queen-Badlands-ebook/dp/B08KRY48GS/ref=sr_1_1?crid=11MKBOWKCT5XT&keywords=castle+emily+sawyer&qid=1666212989&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIwLjczIiwicXNhIjoiMC4wMCIsInFzcCI6IjAuMDAifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=%2Caps%2C67&sr=8-1