I stood in the middle of the hallway, my bare feet digging into the carpet as I zoned out, watching my baby brother play. I had just emerged from the intriguing world of Frank and Joe Hardy in Bayport, Massachusetts, where no mystery remained unsolved so long as they were on the case.
Theirs wasn’t the only world I’d gotten lost in. Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden in their boxcar in Greenfield. Nancy Drew in River Heights. Poppy the Mouse in the Dimwood Forest. Diggory and Polly in the Wood Between the Worlds.
Story after story after story had drawn me in, but at that moment, I was drawing them out. Each book had a pattern, a set of rules, ingredients combined in different variations that all produced a satisfying result. It was a formula that could be figured out: put the right pieces in the correct order and voila!
My mom walked by right as I concluded.
“Mom. I could do that. I could write a book.”
How My Childhood Prepared Me
I had no idea what kind of book I would end up publishing one day; I didn’t get that far when the epiphany first hit me in the hallway.
A lot of the preparation for this book happened unconsciously. I wasn’t always a great writer as a kid, but I was always great at playing pretend and building my own storyworlds.
Spinning a storyline and building a world was as easy as breathing to me. Set up a toy table and dishes, and boom, my sister and I were elegant English ladies having tea and a good gossip session. Assemble an entire wagon train in the living room, and suddenly my siblings and I were trailblazing to the Western frontier, always trying to stay one step ahead of bandits!
I even had an entire town-sized collection of Sweet Streets (best toys EVER), with detailed personality profiles, families, and ongoing storylines for every character. Every time I set up the town, I would pick up the story again. It was a Sweet Street-sized soap opera, right there in my living room.
I didn’t know it then, but I see now that I was training to be a professional worldbuilder. And the same skills that I used to play I have since used to build a rich and detailed world for Willomina Tip, from big-picture concepts like opposing cultural ideologies to in-depth flora and fauna such as the Esmeerian moss gems Willomina’s people are known for.
From playtime to real time, I have been a worldbuilder, and the whimsical, steam-powered world of Willomina Tip is my biggest story yet.
The Story Behind Willomina Tip
I tossed around different ideas for my first book for years. Should I write one in my beloved mystery genre? Historical fiction? A fairytale?
A middle-grade steampunk novel wasn’t even on my radar. I didn’t even know what steampunk was until my teenage years. But better late than never, right?
The actual idea for Willomina Tip came from a larger collaboration.
In 2020, a friend called me with a pitch for a TV show set in a world of floating islands called Wandering Skies. We spent a week developing the concept with a small team, and something inside of me just came alive.
Over the next year, I wrote the first season, designed cultures and characters, and built an extensive world history and timeline. The world got richer and more exciting by the day, but getting the show off the ground was a different challenge, one that continues to this day.
As the years piled up, I realized I didn’t want people to wait forever to experience this world I’d fallen completely in love with.
What could I do to let people enjoy my story right here, right now?
Willomina Tip suddenly appeared. Her name, personality, and story arrived almost all at once, and I immediately loved her.
Willomina Tip is a book born at the intersection of creativity, community, and years of preparation.
What 21 Years of Writing Actually Looks Like
Ever seen someone become an overnight success? Most aren’t. It only appears that way because there are countless sleepless nights behind-the-scenes that you never witnessed.
I had big ambitions as a kid. I was going to be the best writer I knew. I was going to publish a book by the time I was 18, and I was going to make a name for myself. Oh, dear little me.
I had talent, I’ll give myself that, but it was raw and unformed. I would blush with embarrassment if you were to read my earliest book ideas and drafts.
The road to this beautiful book is paved with thousands of hours of writing, dozens of ugly or unfinished drafts, multiple rejections, and a lot of self-doubt.
Perseverance has been my faithful friend throughout the journey, and God has continued to prompt me so sweetly the whole way through.
Hang in there, baby girl, I’ve got stories for you to tell. Just keep writing.
So I did. Over time, people took notice.
I got hired to write some plays for an elementary class. I finally got a flash fiction story published in an online magazine. I was hired to work on some scripts here and there, and I had an editing gig now and then. Sometimes, I was a writing coach for someone else’s story. I sold my first children’s story a few years ago and couldn’t believe it. I even ended up working in a copywriting and digital advertising role that was a whole new side of storytelling.
Piece by piece, word by word, my path to my dream was paved.
Holding My Book for the First Time
I have often imagined what it would feel like to pour my heart, soul, and efforts into a story that I could finally hold in my hands. What would it be like to glance over at the shelf and see my book sitting alongside other books? You know, the ones written by “real authors.”
Well, here I am.
It took forever.
It took no time at all.
I am here, holding a book that little Grace would have read and then made her entire personality for at least a year. A core memory book. The book I always dreamed of writing but never imagined I was capable of.
Sometimes it’s hard to believe it’s even mine; it’s that wondrous and strange to me. I know most of it by heart, and yet, it’s like meeting a new person every time I look at it.
This book was worth the wait.
Middle Grade Fantasy: A Gift for Younger Me
I look at this book in my hand, and I think back to that 8-year-old version of me.
This is not the book I knew I was going to write, but this is exactly the kind of book I needed.
Life had a lot in store for little Grace. Much of it was going to be painful and confusing. I would face battles I did not anticipate, my identity and sense of belonging would be under attack, and I would have to find my way through my own version of the Imperial City…just like Willomina.
It was going to be hard, and there would be scars from the journey. But in the end, I would emerge as Willomina does. Hopeful, her identity and purpose intact.
The stories we read as children have the power to shape the rest of our lives. My favorite stories as a kid were the ones that inspired me to believe, to try, and build something from nothing. God used those stories as a beacon of light to direct me through some of my darkest hours.
I wrote the very story I needed as an 8-year-old girl who first believed she could be a writer. Because in this world there are other little boys and girls, some of them I already know and love, and they need Willomina Tip to be their beacon of light and hope.
So, to little me.
You did it, baby girl. God got you here. It wasn’t what you thought it would be; it’s actually better.
And you are just getting started. 21 years may have been the preparation period, but the real work is just beginning.
Who’s ready to join the adventure with me?