Preface
My sister was a prolific writer who often shared her stories with me when I was growing up. Most of them were about vampires. I, too, wished to put my thoughts to paper. While several ideas came and went, mostly high fantasy romps, I rarely had the discipline or attention span to finish any one story. But in my late teenage years, this changed. I wrote my first manuscript, choosing a vampire story set on Earth in modern times, of which I was very proud of. I knew, as a teenager, I had a lot to learn about writing, but the accomplishment bolstered my flagging confidence.
In an attempt to improve at my craft and prepare my story for publication, for I had lofty dreams at this time, I sought out a beta reader. As I had written a story about vampires, I sought out someone else who was writing about vampires with an agreement to swap. The results was having the first few chapters torn apart line for line. While I found this fascinating and helpful, it was also daunting in realising how much more work I had to do. But I was open to the criticism. But then came the large wall of text telling me that my story was a meandering mess with an unrelatable and wooden protagonist, shaky plot, pointless characters, and too much purple prose. The finishing blow was when I was told my ending was disgusting. That word alone left me deflated. I decided the story might not be worth all the work that would go into fixing it, and abandoned it.
Fast forward to the end of 2023 and I, by some happenstance, came across the forsaken manuscript. It had been over a decade. Nearly two. I was going to just delete the file as the old bitterness came back, but instead I decided to give the book a read through a more mature lens and see if I saw what that beta reader saw. By the end, I was nearly in tears. There were themes in the story which hit me even harder now that I had lived a little than they would have back then. Feeling a call to arms, I set about proving this story's worth. In 2024 I began editing, and have since written two new drafts of Waiting For Sunrise. And here, today, you will see the results of someone picking themselves up out of the dust and getting back on the horse. it is by no means an opus, nor earth shattering with its original ideas. But it stands in defiance of defeatism.
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It has been a long night for this story. But it's wait for sunrise will, hopefully, soon be over and it can come into the light.
What to expect:
* Character driven story
* Third person limited point of view
* Infrequent action sequences
* Introspective narrative with psychological elements
* Everyday dramas intermingled with supernatural dangers
* Ethical protagonist
* A cat
Content Warnings
This fiction may contain scenes depicting subject matter that can be disturbing to some readers. The narration may include:
Depictions of violence, such as:
- Graphic descriptions of violence and injuries
- Gore
- Violence towards minors
- Torture
- Kidnapping
- Dismemberment
Substance abuse, such as:
- Alcohol
- Drugs
Sexual themes
- Sexually suggestive language
- Direct references to sexual acts
- Sexual humour
Sensitive content
- Human trafficking
- References to rape
- Death
