With several electronic reading devices on the market, the future of e-publishing looks bright.
Author Isobael Liu may benefit from this, since her debut novel “Moonlight and Magick” is available for download from Lyrical Press.
Until now, only her closest friends were allowed to read her work, but many more may read her writing, which is a romance with supernatural elements mixed in and set in the fictitious town of Hawk’s Point, Wash. Liu currently lives in Puyallup, but attended Bonney Lake Elementary, Lakeridge Middle School and graduated from Sumner High School, so she made sure to include references to some areas familiar to her, including Enumclaw, in the novel.
“I’m trying to put Bonney Lake and Sumner out there,” Liu said.
The Bonney Lake Library is mentioned in the novel, although she said it’s her own version of it.
It was during her junior high years she began writing and she isn’t the first in her family to be published.
Her father wrote poetry and had a work published in the vastly popular “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series.
Liu finds inspiration for her stories from several sources, including dreams, her daughter and her daughter’s friends. Sometimes it takes no more than hearing something her daughter or friends may say on the playground to inspire Liu to construct a story idea around it.
“Moonlight and Magick” is a novel which is the expanded version of a story she created out of her inspirations.
“I had already written a novella of about 40,000 words,” she said.
She rewrote the novella and expanded it over the months of April through July. Liu mailed one query letter, something similar to an application, and hoped for the best.
“I fully expected a rejection,” she said.
Instead she got a very welcome surprise one morning.
“I was on my way out the door to eastern Washington to trap my bird,” said.
By that she is referring to her hobby of falconry, and every year from Sept. 1 through Jan. 31 apprentices catch and train their raptors.
She was about to leave the door and get an early start when she checked her e-mail and received the news.
“That was quite a shock at 4 in the morning,” she said. “I couldn’t stop grinning.”
Liu didn’t manage to trap a falcon the same day, but learning of the impending publication probably helped ease any disappointment.
After having the novel accepted, the challenging road to completion was yet to reach the most turbulent stretch.
It’s frustrating to send a version of the book she is pleased with and then having to make changes, she said.
“It’s the way you want it and then it goes to your editor with a fine-tooth comb,” she said.
The process of editing it into a final version requires a balance of meeting the editor’s requests and being true to the original vision, she said.
“There’s a fine line between fixing what they want and not changing the integrity for a story.”
For all the pratfalls of the editing process, she said it is very rewarding because it allows her to learn and become a better writer.
Liu is working on three new pieces now, one of which may continue the story of “Moonlight and Magick.”
Reach Chaz Holmes at cholmes@courierherald.com.