Today I am going to be writing about my story as a writer and my story in the publishing world specifically. This story takes place over the course of several recent years and is not finished yet! If you want to read about my humble beginnings as a writer, let me know and I will gladly share that!

But this story begins with the first COVID-19 quarantine in March of 2020.

My friend and I were bored. For the sake of my friend’s privacy, they will remain unnamed. Our school work was coming in once a week, all at once, so we’d be spending the whole day working to get it done, then all the rest of the week would be a mindless, repetitive routine of staying home, not being able to see anyone outside of your household, and worrying about the whole pandemic thing going on. 

So my friend suggests that maybe we should write a novel together. Something to keep us occupied and to keep our heads from turning into mush. 

Of course, I said yes. And soon it became a daily routine that every day, in the evening, for an hour or so, we would call each other on Skype and talk, and write, and joke, and we both got things done and grew closer as friends.

And over the course of six months, March to August, we had finished fifty thousand words. We were twelve at the time. It was a great achievement for the both of us.

That was when I suggested that maybe we should send it in to a publisher. My friend said ‘okay’, so we researched publishers until we found one that we both liked and that was local. We sent our cover letter and first three chapters to Nevermore Press, a small publishing company located in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. 

Now all we had to do was wait two months.

On schedule, two months later, on November 2nd, 2020, came our reply. We were super excited. This was our first experience with publishing, and this would be the first serious email that would determine the future of our novel. 

The email came from Ernest “Ernie” Hadley, the co-owner and editor from Nevermore Press. He congratulated us on completing our novel and told us that while he couldn’t publish our book just yet, he was willing to work with us on revising and editing our manuscript. 

We were ecstatic. You’d expect us to be disappointed that our book wouldn’t be published, but it was completely the opposite. These publishers, who had seen many adults send their work in, who had many more years of experience with writing than we did, still were willing to put effort into working with us! At this point we would’ve been thirteen years old. 

We accepted and were a hundred percent willing to work with these publishers. We knew very little about what was going to come out of it, but we were excited to see where it would take us. 

After the text was edited and all seemed to be in order, we were beginning to think more of where the book would go after that. Would it be published? Would the editing be the end of our correspondence? 

We were told that there was going to be a collection of stories published in a book, and the proceeds would go to support the SSPL (South Shore Public Libraries) Bookmobile project, which we were very excited about. A Bookmobile is basically a library on wheels for rural communities. It would be the first time our names would be in print next to our work!

Plans were put on hold when, in April 2021, Ernest, or “Ernie” as we called him, passed away. We were devastated. After months of work, and getting to build a relationship with him and Nevermore through our work, we were so, so upset to hear of his passing. 

At this point we understood that Nevermore was going to be going through some major changes. So we took a long, long break from writing together. It wasn’t until July 2021 that we decided to email Annie, Ernie’s wife and co-owner of Nevermore Press, to ask what our next steps would be. We learned that the ownership would be transferred to Jayme Spinks, who had been working as production manager before Ernie’s passing. 

So we emailed Jayme and were told that they wouldn’t be able to work with us to publish our book. However, the first chapter would still be published in the SSPL Bookmobile collection fundraiser, and we would be notified when it came out. 

That seemed to be the end of our correspondence. Me and my friend began a second book in the series, but our writing period was much more sporadic as we got busy with school and what meagre extracurriculars we could do as the pandemic went on. 

I kept writing. My friend unfortunately gave up the project last year. We agreed that I will take full ownership of the project, and I am grateful that I had the experience of working on it together. I love the characters we’ve created and I am still incredibly proud of what twelve-year-old me was able to accomplish with the time, resources, and experience I had. I am still working on it in hopes that it will eventually get published. 

I was sending my book to other publishers, trying to see who would pick up the project. I got very little replies, but was determined to get my debut novel out there. 

In October of 2022, the night of my school’s Haunted Halls Halloween event, I got another, unexpected email from Jayme. Turns out, the SSPL Bookmobile fundraiser book was finally out, and I was invited to the book launch! I could barely contain my excitement. 

The book is called ‘Inside’, and it is an anthology full of stories from Nova Scotian authors, specifically around the South Shore and Lunenburg area. There is really no feeling quite like seeing your name in print on a book cover, or inside one (get it?). I don’t think I can ever get used to that feeling. 

Now here we are in 2023. I have many plans for Scarred. To quote Ernie:

“”As an editor, you hope somewhere along the line you’ve helped save someone’s career. These two are writing at a level beyond their age and I really hope they stick with it.””

I’ve stuck with it. I’m still sticking with it. I don’t plan to stop writing, ever. Without Ernie’s and Nevermore’s help, I likely would not be where I am today. 

If Scarred does end up published, the first page will read: 

“For Ernest Hadley. Thank you for seeing the potential in Scarred and thank you for your dedication to working on this project.”

Until next time,

Catherine Khaperska