A Dream Come True - T.A. Nieman

A Dream Come True

A Dream Come True
TANieman
TANieman
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11/8/2023
How do you put into words something that you have done that you wanted to do your whole life? Well, I'm definitely going to give it a try!

Since I was in fourth grade, I have wanted to publish a novel. I read Romeo and Juliet and I thought "Oh man, I could write something sweeter than that romance!" - I had no concept of tragedy vs romance back then. All I wanted was to write something with a happy ending. Something where you could feel the love, and could follow them through their lives without worry about stress while reading. I was a big ball of stress reading Romeo and Juliet. That's when I started to branch out and read other things, things that had adventure, suspense, and then finally, love.

The first love story I read was Norma Fox Mazer's When We First Met, and I realized that you could add a little angst and still have a beautiful love story. I feel like that is when I really got the idea to do something...but I never saw it through. I enjoyed Shakespeare's sonnets so I chose to start with poetry first, thinking the novel was so far outside of my reach.

At one point, I was majoring in English in college (I went through a few different majors before deciding on business later in life) and I thought, ok, I'll figure this novel thing out. But, as it does, life got in the way. I focused on my growing family and my career.

Somehow, I found my way back to writing seriously. I always wrote. Always. Nothing could pull me away from the written word. I was reading everything I could consume, and writing things when I had ideas for stories. But they never really went anywhere.

Until now.

For the last three years, I've worked to perfect this new world I was diving into. Because I couldn't just choose an "easy" story to tell...I had to dive into fantasy. Why did I put that on myself? Because I was absolutely obsessed with mermaids. Since I watched Splash as a child, and then the Little Mermaid came out and I wore out the first VHS (yes, folks, I'm THAT old)...I consumed anything I could find relating to mer-people.

When I found Shira Anthony's Mermen of EA series, I began to realize that there may actually be a market out there for this type of story! So I decided that was that. I had to write it.

This book was such a labor of love. I have a world building document that is somewhere around 31 pages just talking about the logistics of how things would work underwater vs on dry land. I didn't want to ignore the obvious differences - when you throw something underwater vs on dry land, it moves differently. It lands differently. Things had to be something new. So I went through everything I could think of before I even started writing the story itself.

Fortunately, my best friend was along the ride with me and helped me so much. HK really helped me think logically about this world I was building. Helped me to determine how my mer would look, act, speak, etc. But I also had to create the plot - thankfully, I had her to bounce ideas off!

As of this week, my debut novel is available for preorder! This is an absolute dream come through, and expressing into words how I feel right now is so hard - and I'm an actual author now, I should be able to formulate what to say! I can never again claim I can't write anything lol. My heart is full to bursting, and things just seem so beautiful and tranquil this morning. Amid the chaos of normal life, I'm just over here standing with a stupid grin on my face, dancing around to music, thinking that the birds are chirping and the sun is shining for ME.

But why can't they be? I'll live at least this one day with the joy of knowing my ultimate dream has finally come true. Whether this book sells well means absolutely nothing to me - I'll take it if it does, but I'm realistic in knowing that a gay romance isn't everyone's cup of tea - I just wanted this journey to finally come into port. I have finished something I've wanted since I was ten years old. That is enough for me.

What's next? MORE WRITING OF COURSE! I have more novels that are in the works now, and I'll get those out soon. I'm positive I will be excited for those books, too, but this one will always be special. Always. He is my first book, and everything I had in me was poured into the worldbuilding and words of the novel itself.

A little piece of me is in this story. If you read gay romance books, I hope you try this book out - and if you do, thank you! I hope you enjoy it!

Feeling overwhelmed and beyond happy right now. That's the mood that will carry me through the next month!
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