I’m a somewhat average 30-something female with your typical atypical brain. I’ve had a lot of interests in my life–so many that I’d have to live a hundred lifetimes to fully experience them all. I’ve been a librarian, a yoga instructor, a video producer, a baker, a barista, an ER tech, a farmer, and a professional cleaner. Those are just the jobs I’ve had. I won’t even get into my hobbies. There’s one interest, however, that has lasted my entire life. That’s writing. It’s part of what grounds me and makes me, me.

When I take off my Wend Raven cloak, you’ll find another writer under there. Though, you might find the writing I do for my day job a bit less exciting. I write for magazines, and I also create press releases and such for businesses.

As a child, I was deeply impacted by high fantasy writers like J.R.R. Tolkein and C.S. Lewis. They wrote worlds that I could lose myself in time and time again. They wrote characters that came alive to me. I couldn’t bear to leave Frodo dying in a cave while I did something as meaningless as eating a bologna sandwich, so I’d heroically bring my books to the dinner table. As I got older, I came to love the intricate weaving of Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan. When I read Kel Kade’s books and realized they had been self published, it lit a fire under me. She was a real person who was doing what I had dreamed of doing and had found success. It was after reading her series that I decided to dust off my notes for Master of the Void and give this self-publishing thing a try.

The hope behind my writing style is that it will be accessible to anyone. When I committed to writing Master of the Void, my son was eight. I wanted to write something that he could digest and enjoy, but that would also be appealing to older audiences. I’ve had readers from eight to eighty tell me they loved Master of the Void, and that makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something special.

Master of the Void isn’t a trendy book. It’s also not a short book. I knew it would face a lot of obstacles in traditional publishing. I also wanted to retain the creative liberty that self-publishing affords. But more than anything else, it was a challenge that I wanted to undertake for the sake of my own growth as a person and as a writer.

One of the biggest advantages, in my opinion, is the freedom to publish your book exactly as you envision it. The other, and this was something I only realized once I had already self-published, is the community of indie writers that exists. It’s been such an amazing experience to become a part of this group of hard-working creators who continuously lift one another up.

Free marketing. On my worst days of second-guessing social media posts or trying to wrap my head around the business side of self-publishing, I can often be heard saying, “I thought writers were allowed to be reclusive hermits who live in a cabin and do nothing but write! I didn’t sign up for all this other stuff.” I’m sure traditional authors have their own struggles, but marketing your self-published book can quickly become a full time job. For most of us, that is in addition to our existing full time jobs and other responsibilities, prioritizing friends and family, and trying to find time somewhere in there to continue to write. For me, it’s a constant state of trying to find balance.

My husband and I followed previous competitions, and were really impressed by the way the community brought positive exposure to authors who might struggle to be seen in the quagmire of modern self-publishing. Along with wanting to be a part of something so exciting, I entered SPFBO with the hope that someone along the way who might never have picked up Master of the Void otherwise might read it and find something special.

Well, I fell on the floor when I was announced as a finalist, so I’m a little bit concerned about what the shock of winning might do to me…

Jokes aside, I would keep writing! I think we all look for ways to find worth in what we do, and putting my book into SPFBO felt like bearing my soul to a bunch of strangers and hoping they found me worthy. That sounds a bit dramatic, but I think most authors would say that their writing is a piece of themselves that they bravely show to others, hoping that someone will find value in it. Making it this far in the competition has taught me to value my work and have a little faith in myself. I can keep writing because others want to keep reading.

Master of the Void is a book about choices. We aren’t slaves to our circumstances, and we can forge our own paths if we are willing to be brave.

I hate to say this, because I don’t want to come across as criticizing Harry Potter (I love the series). But, during a reread of Harry Potter, I was a little bothered by the way the Slytherins were portrayed (as a Slytherin myself, this is understandable). As mere children, they’re sorted into a house that automatically makes them the bad guys. Where’s the element of choice? That got me thinking about how so often in literature, the villains are portrayed as someone who basically had the path of villainy laid out for them from the beginning. The heroes are the same way: miracles or destiny laying out a path of success for them or giving them special gifts or tools. My inspiration was to write a book where each character chooses their path for themselves.

Unfortunately, I started the story in 2018 and shelved it for several years. I picked it back up in 2022 with renewed vigor and having grown a bit as a writer, and was able to finish it to be published in 2023. I promise the sequel won’t take as long to be published!

The story did evolve a bit, but I believe it stayed true to its original purpose.

Oh, that’s really hard. I guess I would say: relatable, endearing, timeless.

Master of the Void is part one of a planned three-part series.

Master of the Void has a pretty large cast, but the two main characters are Derrius Mendi and Orimund Laetus. Orimund is a child who has grown up with privilege and expectation. Derrius has only his hopes and dreams for the future. These two have a bit of a parallel journey, but respond to the obstacles and trials in their lives quite differently. The antagonist spends much of the story in the shadows, so I won’t say much and risk spoiling things for potential readers.

Master of the Void takes place in the Seven Lands, a world where every person has magic. Each person’s magical type is determined by a testing that takes place on their 13th birth moment. The magic system is an elemental-style magic linked to colors and the stars, and is what I like to call “scientifically plausible” magic with rules and costs.

I went into this a bit earlier, but my ultimate dream was for Master of the Void to be a demographic-breaking book in the style of Tolkein or Lewis that could appeal to audiences of all ages. The main characters are in their teens, so Master of the Void often gets classified as YA. I think it fits well in that category, but shouldn’t necessarily be limited by it. More than an age-specific audience, I wrote Master of the Void for people who love magic, love characters, and love journeys–both in a physical sense and in a personal sense.

The first thing I did when I finished each chapter was to read it aloud to my husband and son. Believe it or not, this is where I caught a lot of errors and inconsistencies, or realized a sentence just didn’t work well. My husband and son are particularly good with continuity, and their excitement to hear the chapters kept me motivated to write. I had several beta readers, some of whom I mention in my acknowledgements, who were also fantastic about helping me catch issues. I did proofread and edit the entire manuscript myself, which was a huge undertaking that I don’t necessarily suggest to most authors. Having a degree in writing, I was well suited for the task, but it was a daunting responsibility (and I have no one to blame but myself for anything that slipped through the cracks!).

I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted for the cover of Master of the Void from day one. The Void was a must, and I wanted a cover that would make your imagination start to turn. What is this strange hole? Who’s the character? Did they make the Void? Are they going to travel through it? I wanted people to ask questions when they saw the cover. I found Brian Flores’s work online, and loved it immediately. I reached out to him with my idea for the art, and he brought it to life flawlessly. He was really great to work with, and I hope Master of the Void finds success so that it will help to bring him recognition in the art world.

I wish someone would ask me why I don’t have an audiobook. The honest answer is that I have this crazy dream of Nick Podehl narrating the series, and so I need a miracle or a whole slew of book sales to make that happen!

Book two: Creature of the Void is in progress, with a goal to complete the first draft by the end of November. If all goes well, the finished product will be released in the late spring of 2024.

I want to thank every person who takes a chance on Master of the Void, and especially those who have done so and said kind things. There’s no such thing as a perfect book, or a book that’s for everyone, so it is extremely special to me when someone finds my book and loves it. I often say that I live off the comments of my readers, not the royalties from book sales. I could spend hours talking about my magic system or discussing who my readers ‘ship together and why (seriously, please message me all your thoughts on this. I love it so much). Thank you all for supporting indie authors like me. We’ll do our best to write worlds you can live in for years to come!