Taking charge of 2021, two of NSU’s communication majors have recently self-published their own books. Junior, digital media concentration KaliVictoria Wilson published her fantasy novel “The Shadows of Heaven,” book one of the “Trials of Fate” series, and senior, journalism concentration Flor Ana Mireles published her poetry book “Perspective (and other poems).”
Wilson’s novel was born out of a desire for stronger stories.
“I ultimately started writing to get out of a reading slump. I grew tired of the young-adult fantasy novel trends I had seen in 2020, which typically lacked diverse characters. So, I decided to write my own story,” said Wilson
After showing some of her chapters to her friends, she was encouraged to publish the book. Her plans for the book involve expanding the story over three or more sequels.
“‘The Shadows of Heaven’ is the first installment of the ‘Trials of Fate’ series. It tackles themes such as loss, romanticized trauma bonding, elitism and much more,” said Wilson.
This tremendous feat and the advantage of getting it done all by herself pushed her far. Wilson plans on utilizing this creative push to her advantage and continue working towards getting her stories out there.
“I’ve recently hit the milestone of 100 sold copies and I can’t wait to keep writing for the people who’ve supported me thus far,” said Wilson.
Mireles wanted to “Perspective (and other poems)” under Andrews McMeel Publishing, but she never heard back from them, given publishing with a known company is difficult.
“I decided to self-publish and I did so with Kindle Direct Publishing through Amazon. They made the self-publishing process really easy, and it was very hands-on for the writer, which I really appreciated,” said Mireles.
Mireles’s journey with this piece was a long one; she started at 19, writing poems that came to her. Eventually, she decided it would be good to get these poems into the reader’s hands.
“I thought to myself, ‘I want this out, and I think people can relate to these poems and maybe they can help them on their life journey or something,” said Mireles.
She then hired Naomi, an illustrator on Fiverr, to illustrate a portion of the poems.
“Naomi was awesome, and I gave her total creative freedom to interpret the poems however she did. I’m 22 now and ‘Perspective’ just published, so it really was a long process — but so worth it,” said Mireles.
Both Wilson and Mireles are now self-published authors and strive to continue writing. That is one way to start a new year, and an inspiring one to boot.
Note: Mireles works for The Current as the paper’s copy editor.
