My WIPs

This is where my precious WIPs will live on the blog.

My stories are dark. This is probably related to the fact that most of my stories are heavily influenced by the dystopian genre, but it’s deeper than that: I write stories with mature, dark elements and themes.

Nobody goes on a journey and arrives at their destination completely unscathed. Real people have pasts that are riddled with mistakes and wounds and baggage that they don’t want anybody to see. So, my characters are flawed and complicated because that is what makes them real; my characters come from dark places that gave them scars.

My stories are about people who fight because they don’t know how else to truly live.

But even amidst the darkness, there is light. The darkness in my stories is placed there with intention and purpose. I utilize the darkness so that the light can mean something. My characters ache and bleed because that is how they will discover truth. I don’t allow my characters to grieve purely for shock value: I let them grieve so that you may know why they must fight so hard to reach the light.

I write dark stories because sometimes it is the darkest stories that truly change people—that make people think and show why stories matter.

I write dark stories because it is during the darkest of nights that the stars shine the brightest.

“It’s like the great stories Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. Because they were holding on to something… That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.”

Samwise Gamgee

YA Beauty and The Beast Retelling

Non-magical fantasy + lots of knives + love healing broken pieces

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YA Dystopian Thriller

Five kids against the world + forbidden love + revolutions are built on hope

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YA Contemporary Romance

Summer bucket list + grief + finding hope again

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YA Dystopian Fantasy

Forbidden friendship + mythical protector + a corrupt council

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YA Urban Fantasy

Vampires with a twist + sibling loyalty + sparking a revolution

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Let’s Talk!

Which story are you the most pumped about? What stories are you working on? Let’s spread some writer encouragement and inspiration for all of the writers who are determined to take on such a daunting challenge!