I am super excited about my book. It should come out within the next couple of weeks. Today, I thought I would share the journey of my first complete, unpublished novel - The King's Heart in the LORD's Hands. So here goes...
On a Sunday morning in January 2019, I was showering and getting ready for church when a book idea started running through my head. As soon as I was done with my shower, I hurried to write down my thoughts in a small notebook before rushing to finish getting ready for church. That was when King's Heart was born.
Two different books were already in the works by this point, but this one really came together. Like any typical girl, I have watched Princess movies and even some Hallmarks (the good ones, at least). You know, the ones where a prince will leave to travel to the States and fall in love with a waitress or another young "peasant" girl with no royal blood or rich family. Yeah, I've watched a few of those. And yes, they end up being pretty much the same, but what girl doesn't love a cheesy romance? Not only did I watch all the clean princess movies, but my favorite female character in the Old Testament is Esther. I started wondering what I would do if I were taken from my home today to go to a new country and meet a handsome Prince. Since I am a Christian, it was interesting to imagine how my life would play out if I were in one of the princess movies I had watched. Thus came the story of Elaina. [I had first named her Bethany but decided I wanted to do a different name since I already knew a few girls named Bethany. It is kind of fun yet daunting at the same time to come up with character names. I liked the name Bentley from my favorite book series growing up - The Knights of Arrethtrae. Edward Bentley Monroe sounded cool, so I went with that. (I put the two and two together afterward that my Grandpa's middle name is Edward, so that makes it special.) Elaina becomes good friends with a girl named Josephine. I wrote of her with an old friend in mind - a young lady I was pen-pals with for a time. Not all the names I choose have a special meaning behind them, though.]
I wanted a story with a girl like me - a girl with flaws and not drop-dead gorgeous in my eyes. Too many books and movies make the heroine so perfectly beautiful that you feel you can never measure up. Also, living with brothers, I have learned that guys can be gross. Even though the hero would be a king, I did not want him to be perfect either. As a side note, though you may meet God's best for you, it does not mean that he will be Mr. Perfect; he will have flaws just like you. Hopefully, the characters will be ones you can relate to. I would also like to note that even though the heroine, Elaina, will share some of the traits as me or like some of the same things as me, the events, names, places, etc., are fictional.
I wrote the Prologue at the beginning of writing King's Heart, so I would read it over and over to make sure it was well-written. I finished the first draft in early 2022 and asked my parents to read it. My mom had read it as I wrote it, but I wanted her to read it out loud to Dad. It took them almost a year, life can get busy, but anyways, I had other books to work on, like the next book I am hoping to publish before Christmas. I adjusted the parts they pointed out to make my story better and brought out my antagonist more. To save money, I started editing it through Grammarly. When I first started, I got a three-month discount for being a first-time user. I keep forgetting to cancel it, but I have been using it, so it is not going to waste. In fact, as I am writing this post, it has red underlining the grammar errors pointing out what I need to fix, so it has been very helpful.
I made a PowerPoint slide in June to show my family what else I needed to do to finish my book, and we also talked about ISBN numbers. In April or May, our church ladies went to a conference. They had a Christian author set up a booth. I was able to meet her and ask her about publishing through Amazon, which I decided to do after talking to Krista Zarn, author of the Frontier Avenger series, and her sister Hannah Danford who also published a book through Amazon. When I asked about ISBN numbers, she advised that I purchase my own. When I showed my family my PowerPoint, I also talked to them about that. My dad offered to do one final read-through and help edit it, promising to do so faster than he and Mom were able to read it the first time. It took him two months. I am so glad he read it, too. He really helped me in bringing out the conflict. One of the sweetest compliments he gave me was, "Beth, you are a good writer." We will see what the rest of y'all think when you read my published book. :)
Well, I noticed this post is starting to get long, so I will go ahead and end it here. This post will have to be in two pieces as there is too much involved in the process of writing and self-publishing a book. When I come back with another post, I will tell you about the formatting stage, who is doing my cover for me, and finally, I will "announce" (It seems so cool to say that:) ) what the name of my fiction line will be. So, until next time...
May you keep your heart while enjoying the wait
Elisabeth Kristine
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