As an author, one of the most common things people ask me is “What is your book about?” It is a pretty legitimate question, yet almost every time I stumble through a response that does not really answer the person’s question. I’ll state that it is a young adult fantasy, the protagonist is female, and it is part of a series, but I’ve never been able to belt out a homemade synopsis on the spot.
As strange as this may sound, I don’t think it is all too uncommon for a writer or an artist or anyone else who creates for a living to have a hard time talking about their work. The reason for this? To us, this creative work is an incredibly intimate and personal aspect of ourselves. It is like a diary we are literally allowing the world to open it up and read. We are permitting you to see us naked, to take in every detail, and to judge us for both our strengths and weaknesses.
I write in the privacy of my own mind and I keep my creations close to me. I invest emotionally in my characters and the world they live in. I cry with them, I laugh with them. When one of them dies, I feel loss. They are very real to me and I am protective of them. It is a feeling akin to that I can imagine a mother feels. The first time one of my books becomes available to the public, I feel like I am watching my child board the school bus for the first time. I am full of pride, apprehension, dread, and joy all at once. I am terrified that it will fail, that people will laugh at it, yet I am beyond proud of my work and astonished that I was able to come this far with it.
I hope to overcome this hiccup in my publicity skills someday, but I pray that I will never lose that humility when it comes to my work. I pray that I will never fall to commercialism no matter how well my book does, and that my heart and soul will remain within my work. I hope I will always write for myself first and my audience second. Even though ultimately I want my audience to accept my work, I do not want to lose touch with what makes me a unique writer. So yes, I am shy when it comes to talking about my work, but that is because my work is so dear to me. Believe me, I will do my best to answer your questions! In the meantime, if you want to know more what my books are about than what I can tell you, I suggest you read them and find out for yourself!
Jessica’s book, The Book of Saivon, is young adult fantasy with a female protagonist, and is on sale at Classics! Follow Jessica on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Book_of_Siavon.
