A bit of NINECROW news & behind-the-scenes chit-chat... (Patreon)

"What was the lowest point in your career so far?"

Someone asked me this recently, and at first I felt like I didn’t have an answer…maybe because I try not to focus on disappointments…maybe because I haven’t had many high points to compare to :) But then it hit me: I know exactly what my career low was...

When the publisher of The Haunted Serpent turned down the sequel.

It hurt on a lot of levels. Besides the obvious financial disappointment of not selling a book, it also meant saying goodbye to characters I cared about. It meant letting down kids who’d written to me about how much they loved the first book. And it meant that the writing career I’d thought was finally, finally taking off…wasn’t.

I’d thought getting my debut book published meant the hard part was over. But no – I was back at square one.

Or maybe worse, because now I didn’t have the excitement of being a debut author to get publishers interested. Now I was a once-published author with disappointing sales (apparently – one of the weird things about publishing is that no one directly tells you what kind of sales numbers are good enough to be considered “successful”).

That was about three years ago. I can’t say I’m where I pictured myself back in 2018 when Haunted Serpent came out – my goal was to have a couple more books out by now, and secretly I hoped I’d be making my living as a writer/illustrator full-time.

On the other hand, I never imagined NINECROW back then, or THE PUZZLING FATE OF MILLICENT GRAVES (the graphic novel I’m writing & illustrating for Algonquin Young Readers, slated for 2024).

What I learned from this low point is that although it’s important to have clear goals mapped out (seriously, sit down and write them out! There’s plenty of research showing that people who write out their goals are much more likely to achieve them)...

You need to be okay with it if your goals don’t happen on the timeline you envisioned.

Maybe they won’t even happen at all. And that’s fine – because something you never pictured will happen instead.

If I’d written that Haunted Serpent sequel, I wouldn’t have started NINECROW, one of the creations I’m most proud of.

And with NINECROW close to complete, I’m super excited about creating a printed hardback book collecting the full story! I'm launching a Kickstarter next month to raise funds for it -- more news on that in the next few weeks...

NINECROW updates will resume Feb. 21st!

Meanwhile, if you've had a low point in your life or career that put you on a different path than you'd planned, comment and tell me about it! I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Take care,
Dora