- Cristine Courcy
- May 27, 2024
The (long) Short Story of How a Little Liar Beame a Brave Writer *Feel free to skip the story & scroll down to the secret ✨ This is a rambling mess and probably full of grammatical errors...apologies in advance 😇
So—once upon a time, there was this little girl who liked to lie. She'd make up ridiculous stories about her life on an island and tell all her friends on the mainland. They weren't sneaky lies, of course. They were clearly all made-up nonsense due to an over-active imagination. (Believe me, everybody in her kindergarten class knew that the reason my her dad was gone was not because he was Aladdin hiding from the government...)
Then...one day her grandmother told her that she should be a writer. She told her to write the stories down and share them that way.
So, like all writers...she wrote story after story after story. Never finishing any of them. Because, while writer's write, they also don't-write. (It's a whole thing)
But then, finally, in sixth grade...she had a new teacher. And this teacher inspired the little girl to finally finish a short story—about a shark and a surfer with red hair named Cheryl...(please tell me you smiled at that Grey Sisters Saga wink*wink)
Then in seventh grade...she got a REALLY cool teacher. And this time...the girl really wanted to impress him with her writing. She wanted to write something depressing and edgy and trendy—packed with adult themes that her entire class of thirteen-year-olds would love.
And she tried...and tried...to write it...but she couldn't get it out.
She didn't like it.
Because it wasn't what she loved to write.
She loved fantasy and history and romance and adventure.
So...the night before it was due...she stayed up way past midnight and rewrote the entire story. A The Patriot inspired romance. And she loved it.
And her teacher did, too. The teacher was so impressed by the story, he pulled her aside to make sure she didn't have help. She didn't. She had the eye-bags to prove it.
And the teacher gave her such praise and such confidence, he asked if she'd written anything else...heh. Well, she'd started a ton of things...
Then he said, if she ever had any other work she wanted him to look at, he was there.
So, now she had to finish something. Something important to her! So, she pulled out her favorite story, the one she'd been not-writing and daydreaming about all summer—a dark fantasy Snow White retelling—and started to finish it. And she finished a whole chapter...and a half...maybe? Hmm.. I have She has it somewhere, she'll have to check...anyway—the only other person who'd read it was her grandmother...it was a huge deal to give anyone else something so important to her.
And she gave it to him...
But he never read it.
Or he did...and decided it wasn't worth pulling me her aside over.
That hurt her.
And then...a lot of other things hurt her.
And she went to high school…and a lot more things hurt her.
And she struggled to finish any of her stories. She didn't feel like they'd ever be good enough.
It took her decades before she ever wrote a story all the way through to the final draft.
And yes…okay…that girl was me.
But thankfully, I never stopped trying. (I still am working on that Snow White retelling 20+ years later 😉)
And back in 2022, I finished the (10th) first draft of Summons a Demon...but I was still too insecure and riddled with self-hate to finish it, feeling completely unworthy of asking people to pay for my words. So, I wrote another book with the complete intention of giving it away for free...which lifted the pressure...and set me free.
And I finally finished a book.
From first draft to final.
Finally.
It was a side story...a Nile ghost story...starring Hannah Green. And her story?...oh my gosh. I love it so much. Hah! And not only is it technically the first book I've written start to finish...it is the book that helped me see that my words, my stories, are good enough.
And Hannah's story helped me finish Seraphina's.
So, I'd have to say—just because of that—Hannah's story will always be my favorite. 🤣
The end.
Now...the secret—
Because the story turned out twice as long as I'd intended (it was supposed to be a novella) and because I loved the characters so much:
Hannah needed her own series. A trilogy to follow this prequel book.
But I didn't—and still don't—have the time available to write her series along side the Grey Sisters Saga (which will always be my priority)...so I was going to hold her book back until maybe next year...buttttt...last night I made the mistake of reading it for the first time in almost two years...and I just have to release it now.
So—I'm working on the final edits on Hannah's book—and hope to have it out very soon! This book will be a Courcy Camp exclusive early release, so if you want a free eBook copy of this book before it is available for purchase by the public, don't forget to subscribe to my newsletter! cristinecourcy.com/newsletter
How the story relates to the Grey Sisters Saga:
The Nile Universe timeline places Hannah's story a month prior to the start of Seraphina Grey Summons a Demon.
A few of the Summons a Demon Nile Universe characters (either seen or referenced) that will make at least a cameo in Hannah's story are:
Lacey McGregor
Elijah Grunvald
Zan (Nile historian)
Peter and Courtney Blanchard
Charlotte Grey
Aubrey LaMothe
Maddison Rose
Desiree
Kaitlyn
Morgan
Rachel and Cole St. Claire
Cheryl
Damien Barrow
Michael Barrow
Edwin and Catherine Martin
Mrs. Molley (the librarian) and her daughter Portia (pig-faced girl on the bus)
