Cover with author's eyes?

Hey there!

I didn’t write on my website for quite some time, as I was all over the place. It’s hard to coordinate my job as a professional photographer and a writer. My busiest season is starting with fall and holiday mini sessions and it’s just insane. I’m writing the second book, “Luna’s Crossroads,” from the trilogy. By the way, today I hit 100,000 words, and this story is just crazy. I have no idea how to categorize it.

I felt a little frustrated with my ARC, as so many signed up, and only a few responded. I spent hours creating content: posts, reels, stories, and still couldn’t get my book out there. Then I posted on TikTok that I needed ARCs and was giving away physical and digital copies of the book. It went viral. I have two cover variations: one created by the illustrator and one that I had in mind even before starting to write. It’s a porcelain doll with a cracked face, representing Luna and her trauma and how she is trying to break free. But once I created that, it was missing something. It needed depth, and what could be better than adding real human eyes to the doll? Rather than taking some image from the internet, I remembered that a few years ago, I took a photo of my eye. I decided to compose the two images together, and here you go: creepy and beautifully disturbing, but it already tells a story, and I think that’s great.

So, as I was saying, I posted a video looking for ARCs, and it went viral. I started getting messages non-stop, and for the last two days, I spent all my time on my phone. I mailed out 25 physical copies, shared so many digital files I lost track of it, and got people to read “Before the Light” on Kindle Unlimited, which hit over 4,000 pages in two days. I know it might be nothing, but after all the hard work I put into this and all the time I neglected and am still neglecting my husband and my 9-year-old daughter, it was a huge achievement. I got some reviews, and I ugly cried. Then someone wrote, “I never cried over a book, but your book made me,” and that’s absolutely priceless. I can say I reached my goal. The thing is, it’s not about money or becoming famous; for me, it’s about leaving a legacy, hoping those books will be passed down for generations. I can’t wait for my daughter to grow up and read it. I wish to see her reaction.

I want to make people feel. I cried like a baby when I wrote certain things. I love beautiful and extraordinary stories that feel real. I read so many books that felt all the same or just lacked those emotions that I wish to have. I guess that’s my goal. I do understand that I’m a nobody, and maybe not everyone will understand what I write, but that’s okay. I have passion and patience, and I’m sure I will get there. As for now, I’m grateful for this start. I feel sorry for those readers that I damaged emotionally, but believe me, it’s worth it, because once you get to the last page of the trilogy, you will smile, and yes, cry—that’s a must. But you will cry from happiness, and you won’t just feel that it was a good read with great characters; no. You will feel like you knew Luna in real life, like you have been her friend and followed her through her lifetimes. Because this story is about the lifetime of a girl whose life was far from easy, but it was full of everything, both bad and good things, and it let her grow and learn from her mistakes. You will feel how much she loved; her heart will mirror your own. I can’t wait to finish this story. It’s so frustrating when it’s all in my head, and I mean everything—every dialogue, location, all events, everything is already written in my head. I just need time to type it all out.

Somehow, I feel that this series will be successful, maybe not today or tomorrow, next month or next year. Perhaps not even in ten years, but it will reach many one day. It’s already past midnight and will post this tomorrow. I can’t sleep from excitement, checking my phone every minute for a new review, so I can cry some more. So far, it has been a beautiful journey—rough, definitely, and I will not lie; sometimes, I got discouraged, but then I reread those few reviews, recharge, and try to do more. Because it’s all absofuckinglutely worth it.