Today I sent in the final edits for my third and last book of my YA paranormal romance trilogy – Whisper.
Sigh.
There’s a bitter sweetness to wrapping up a series.
On one hand, I feel accomplished. I did it! I wrote three consecutive books. I raised the stakes each time. I kept the romantic tension high. I wrote a satisfying ending.
On another hand, closing the door on characters you’ve developed for five years is not an easy feat. It’s gut-wrenching to say goodbye to these imaginary people who inspire you so deeply. Sounds a little crazy, but it’s true.
My critique group calls this phenomenon the “smiley face/frowny face.” We use this mark quite often in our edits. It absolutely shows the contradiction of feelings I’m at having at bringing this story to a close!
In a strange twist of events, I finished writing the very last page of War and Wonder in the very same place the idea for the story bloomed in my mind – my church. One fateful morning, five years ago, I was sitting in service, not paying close enough attention to the sermon (obviously,) when my daydreams carried me somewhere magical.
I envisioned a teenage angel, a girl who could save other teens like herself from the painful consequences of bad decisions. I let my mind wonder about why teens make harmful choices for themselves. Why do they experiment with drugs and unprotected sex? Furthermore, why do they hurt each other by cyber-bullying and excluding? Why are teenagers, especially girls, so mean to each other? Why is depression so common in kids, and how can the teen suicide rate be so high?
The terrible truth is that, just before I started writing Whisper, a local high school was featured in the news because of a student’s suicide. My heart ached for the family and friends of this sixteen-year-old who couldn’t find a reason to want to live anymore, even though he had his whole life ahead of him. I asked myself what could possibly make a young person feel like they weren’t worth the trouble of a second chance?
Why do kids do the things that they do?
The answer I came up with might surprise some people.
Evil.
A sneaky yet powerful evil that could whisper its way into the psyches of regular kids.
An evil that feeds kids a dangerous message – the message that they aren’t worthy.
My fictional teen angel/drama queen could clear up that misunderstanding for her peers, at least.
In fact, she would have to be badass enough to squash the demon minions who were feeding the gospel of worthlessness to her peers and gentle enough to talk down each and every victim. She’d even be able to seal them from further susceptibility to nasty whispers from the Dark side.
This is how Callie Evans and Whisper came to be. The story was a cathartic reaction to the grief I felt over destructive teen behavior. My friends’ sons and daughters were depressed, were drinking themselves into oblivion and starving themselves to near-death. Writing Whisper was a way to emote after coming home to find my babysitter’s tearful face staring at a screen full of hateful Instagram pics and Tweets that were targeted at her. I took these situations and funneled the heartbreak they caused into the writing of Whisper. I couldn’t understand the cruelty or the self-loathing. The only explanation I could come up with was the age old adage – the devil made them do it.
In truth, for all of its whimsical drama and fairytale-like characters, Whisper is really about spiritual warfare. The battlefield just happens to be the teenage social scene. Heavy theme for a young adult book? Maybe, but once I wove in a mysterious and heady romance, added some comic relief and enough fight scenes to keep an action junkie hungry enough to turn the page, it really worked.
I will admit, as my fingers danced over the keyboard, and the last words of the final Whisper book jumped onto my screen, my eyes were anything but dry.
Bittersweet.
I’m thrilled to announce that War and Wonder, Book 3 of The Whisper Trilogy, will be released this December, 2015.
My prayer is that my story will provide hope to someone who thinks she’s a hopeless case and that it will spread the message that there’s always room and reason for another chance.