Sahra's Archives

Well, I am sitting here at 9:41 AM on a Tuesday in which I should be studying, but I am here writing to you. Nerve-wracking, the fact that I am writing to an audience who is interested in reading my book that has yet to be published. I have not announced the title either, but in the coming weeks perhaps I will. You guys do not know anything about me, therefore I will introduce myself.

My name is Sahra (pronounced as Sarah). Yes, I know, interesting way to spell my name, but yes, that is what my parents called me. You can also call me Light, as it is my pseudonym. I have lived in Texas my whole life, coming from a Colombian mother and my father being born here but raised in Puerto Rico. My first language is Spanish, and my second is English. Pretty straightforward, right? Through my life, I have always preferred books over people. I wasn’t good with talking to others, coming off as extremely shy. I was not the most popular person in school either. That led to bullying and classmates picking on me, and even teachers during my early elementary years for what I liked to do that others didn’t. I developed a love for reading when I read Harry Potter when I was about seven; my favorite character was Hermione. From Grades 1 to 4, my parents enrolled me in a different school (private Montessori), and that is when I developed my love for History, Art, Culture, Writing, Music, Philosophy, Literature, and Theatre.

They made us read, explore music, took us on musical field trips to see the orchestra, and brought authors to the school who talked about themselves. We also went to the zoo and museums. It was a fun time, and those things were indeed my refuge. As time passed, I began to develop struggles with math. “Short-term memory” is what my mom and dad called it. Therefore, I had to move schools since their system was not working. This time it was a charter school. At the beginning, it was fun. I had friends, minor issues, crushes, you know, typical 5th-grade drama. Honestly, now that I think about it, it was probably one of my best years in school (if we exclude the bullying). It was something different I was not accustomed to; we had to follow a rigorous schedule. The teachers were kind of mean, but they demanded a lot from us during grades 6 to 8.

The summer I was shifting schools, I started writing my book, I believe. It was when I had read Wings of Fire by Tui T. Sutherland that it had become one of my sources of inspiration, right before going from 6th grade into 7th grade. This is where I started reading Eragon (The Inheritance Cycle) by Christopher Paolini, Harry Potter and The Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany, Land of Stories by Chris Colfer, and Warrior Cats by Erin Hunter. I started exploring more genres and started writing. Only a few close people knew, like my best friend at the time, with whom I also started writing a book for fun in a journal by hand. One of my rivals as well—he also liked writing, but he wrote fanfictions about The Hunger Games and Sci-Fi, which I liked.

Soon came 8th grade and 9th grade. That summer transition was when I told my parents I was done with my first book and started to write my second book. I wanted to finally publish it (note: I was 14 going on 15). Last year and this year, I started researching, and believe me, I did have expectations for my book; it was my first. We got the company, and since we did not have a literary agent, we went with this company who was “Amazon Publishing,” and I worked with them for about 4 to 7 months, until September, when I decided I did not want to work with them anymore. My parents invested money in it, and they weren’t giving us quality. I started researching and noticed I could just upload my book with Amazon Kindle directly without having to work with this so-called “Amazon.” My mom was pretty mad at me, and it felt like taking two steps forward and five back.

This year I was demotivated to my core. I did not want to write. I had writer’s block. Previously, I went to a camp in San Diego (Tony Robbins Camp this year). Continuing on to October and November, my mom and I had a conversation about my book. Then I started researching the people whom I wanted to work with. I started writing more and editing minor details that I wanted to include in it. And now, I am currently contacting the editors, the formatter, and the book cover artist. That is all I need, individually, of course. This year I also started writing poetry and discovered a lot of my emotions through it.

In March, I left my high school to be homeschooled. It was a little rocky at first. Now, I am resuming studying and working hard, as well as trying to balance my student life and author life. It hasn’t been easy, but my family has always supported me, and I am thankful for it. As for right now, I have to resume back to school, finish Iron Flame, and work on my book. I may not always have inspiration, but it comes one way or another.

See you until next time,

SMS