Since I was a teenager, I’ve always had a secret project going in the background. I mean project in the broadest sense of the word. A blog. A stationery line. An elaborate craft project. A book.
I like making things without having the pressure of an audience. (I think it’s an enneagram five thing). No Child of Mine was my secret project for much of 2021. I wrote the novel alone, in my bedroom, in stolen moments late into the night and first thing in the morning.
Essie, Isabel, and Anna haunted me, much like they haunted each other in the book. Whole paragraphs would come to me while I was driving, and I would frantically type them into my notes app in once I pulled into a parking space. I was constantly thinking about them and where their story might go next. I would spend hours tucked into their world, telling their stories.
Pretty soon after I finished No Child of Mine, my novel got picked up from Twitter (this part of the story still feels surreal). My now publisher offered me a book deal, and I, very quickly, had a whole team of people helping me make this secret story I had crafted in my bedroom into a book.
Today is No Child of Mine’s one-year publishing anniversary. It is very much no longer my secret project. It’s been read or at least purchased (I don’t know what people do with the books after they buy them) by thousands of people. I have gotten messages from people who found it on a shelf at their bookstore and loved it. People who found Essie’s story relatable. Who fell in love with Anna and Isabel’s romance.
My dedication for this book is: “This first one is for me.” It’s an ode to the book’s beginnings, a secret project I wrote because I had a story I coudn’t get out of my head. A story I wanted to tell about what it means to be woman and the complicated and often fraught relationships we have with our bodies. A story about ghosts, but mostly about the lengths we’ll go to protect the people we love.
But this story isn’t just for me for any more. And I am so grateful to share it with everyone who has given it a few hours of their time.
Thank you to everyone who has supported my debut novel over the last year, by reading it, talking about it, or buying it. I am constantly overwhelmed with gratitude by the generosity the people of who have taken their time to share a review or recommend it to a friend or just to add it to their bookshelves.
Thank you.
Nichelle