HAPPY ONE YEAR BLOGGING!!!

Oh. My. WORD. I totally would’ve forgotten about this if not for a very lovely follower of my blog, Arisole, who reminded me!!!!! This blog, Spring Falls Chronicle, is officially one year old!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Eee, oh my goodness!!!!!!!!!! 😄😮

If you’d told me that one year later, I’d be celebrating Spring Falls Chronicle’s one year anniversary with people ACTUALLY FOLLOWING MY BLOG…. I never would’ve believed you. XD

Eee, oh my goodness! I can hardly believe it!!! Ack! Where has the time gone?! A YEAR! A WHOLE YEAR HAS PASSED!!!!! And a lot has happened in that one year… A LOT. Isn’t it odd how much one’s life can change in just one year?

But eeep, I am so excited to be able to share this anniversary with y’all!!!! And on top of all that, it’s almost TWO YEARS since I started writing!!! Two whole years! Never before have I ever stuck with a passion/dream for so long — and I’ve had a LOT of dreams and things I’ve wanted to be when I was older. Ballerina, pop star, actress, DJ, author, professional skateboarder, and voice actor at Walt Disney Studios (yes, that last one is very specific. XD)

And to celebrate my one year of blogging, I have decided to share my writing journey with you!!!!! A lil like a ‘year in writing’, but it’s two years in writing, I guess. So a whole recap of my writing journey!!! O.O Which is, er, going to be quite hectic, so do bear with me here!

June, 2023

Started writing the first draft of Enchantria: Guardian’s Heir. I was most obsessed with Warriors and Percy Jackson at the time, and so Enchantria was a bit of a ripoff of those two books at that time!! Kept working on the book every morning during my summer vacation in a Google doc.

July, 2023

Discovered something called LibreOffice which is a writing processor and doesn’t need Wi-Fi!!!! Switched to using that to write instead. Still plodding through the first draft. Was getting stuck A LOT. Got really stuck on a certain forest scene, and so that was put off for quite some time!

August, 2023

Was deep in the messy middle of my first draft. I literally flopped down on my parent’s bed and announced quite dramatically, “I’M GIVING UP!!!!” Decided not to give up after all and marched on through with that forest scene

September – October 2023

Got ZERO writing done (except for two pages) for 45 days because my family was in Thailand. Was pretty sure I was gonna give up – AGAIN.

November 2023

MARCHED THROUGH THE MESSY MIDDLE AND TYPED “THE END”!!!!!!!! THE FIRST NOVEL I’D EVER TRULY COMPLETED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CELEBRATED!!!!! Naively thought my first draft was amazing and published it with KDP, waiting to become a bestseller…….

December 2023

Started the first draft of Enchantria book two because book one ended on quite a DREADFUL cliffhanger and I decided to continue the journey!!!!!

January 2024

Completed the first draft of Enchantria book two because I ACTUALLY KNEW what was happening in the book!!! Also naively self published it thinking my first draft was utterly amazing.

February 2024

Got my parents to get me a craft book on writing, Writing Magic by Gail Carson Levine, which actually changed my life!!! It was full of helpful advice and it gave me a look into what being a writer was like!!!! For the first time in my life, I realized that maybe I could actually be a real writer and write even more books after Enchantria!!!!

Finally dragged myself to work on Enchantria: Guardian’s Heir and revise it.

March – April 2024

COMPLETED REVISIONS!!!!!!!!! The book was quite a bit better – the middle had been revised, and my writing was ever so much better!

May 2024

STARTED THIS BLOG!!!!! Started revising book three (naively thought that book two didn’t need any work at all…). FINISHED revising book three!!! Started writing book four’s first draft!!!!!

June 2024

ONE YEAR WRITER ANNIVERSARY!!!! 🎉🎉🎊🎊🥳🥳🎈 Started dabbling a bit in poetry. Realized that book two needed to be revised, so I dragged myself to the desk to do THAT… Did a few line/copy edits for Enchantria: Guardian’s Heir.

July 2024

Got stuck in a messy, muddy hole with book two. What else is there to say?

August 2024

Deleted the first published, first draft of Enchantria: Guardian’s Heir and uploaded the new one to KDP… Which meant that…. MY VERY FIRST BOOK WAS ACTUALLY OFFICIALLY PUBLISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sometime during August, I must’ve completed revisions for book two, as that was published on October 5, 2024!!!!

September 2024

SCHEDULED A RELEASE DATE FOR ENCHANTRIA BOOK TWO AND DID A COVER REVEAL!!!!! Eeeeek!!!!!! My family also left for Thailand again this year. I decided to start preparing for NaNoWriMo and all that.

October 2024

Started doing Preptober for a new book I was planning to work on for NaNoWriMo. A book that turned out to be a HUGE mess. My mental health also took a hit while I was in Thailand, and so I was dealing with a lot of stress along with several undiagnosed mental health issues. (I’m fine now, so please don’t worry!)

November 2024

NANOWRIMO HAS ARRIVED!!!! The month was a mix of good and bad — my book was an absolute mess, my mental health was severely low, and everything was just SO HECTIC. But I also made a lot of writer friends and did a bunch of writing sprints with other writers (FIRST TIME MEETING OTHER WRITERS!!!!), and I was also finally able to figure out some marketing for my book!

Made a few sales!!! Hoorah! Also got the proof copies for the paperback editions of my books!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

December 2024

Got back from Thailand. Mental health was still pretty low, but it was getting a tad bit better. Started a fantasy anthology with a bunch of other writers, and we were all scrambling about to get that done! Book three in the Enchantria series was released, and I got a lovely review from my ARC reader!!!!!!!

Sometime during the end of December, I also got the idea to do several author interviews!!!

January 2025

Abandoned my NaNoWriMo project because it was written in a time of great stress and WAS A HUGE MESS. Decided to work on Island Keepers instead!!! Completed the first draft in three weeks, and started book two!!!!

Did my first few author interviews with Victoria Williamson and my first ever author interview on video call with Valinora Troy!!!

February 2025

Continued working on the Island Keepers series!!!! Also did a few more author interviews and joined MMGM to share book reviews of middle-grade books!!!! Eventually decided to go back and try and revise book one in the Island Keepers series.

March 2025

Realized that I needed to wait and let book one in Island Keepers sit for a bit. Decided to work on making BIG changes to Enchantria book four instead!!! Nearly gave up, but a wonderful fantasy author talked me out of it! 🙂 Also did a few more author interviews and started ARC reading for publishers and authors!!!!

Found out that Enchantria was also being sold in other bookstores!!!!!

April 2025

Sat down and started revising book one in lsland Keepers!!! …am still revising it…..

So that is basically what my two years in writing have looked like!!! Very exciting and chaotic!! Wow, to be honest, I can’t believe that it’s already been TWO WHOLE YEARS. And I’m only just realizing now how much effort and time really goes into being an author – patience is a requirement of this profession, I’m afraid.

Wow… Honestly, it’s kind of surreal to be sitting here and to really know that all this has really happened. So thank you all for supporting me along this journey and for not giving up on me even when I was so stressed I wanted to just fling my computer out the window!!!! Major thanks to my dear friends Lillian, Abbie, Madison, and Journey!!!! I never would’ve survived all this without you!!! And also huge thanks to Valinora Troy who convinced me not to give up on writing when I was just ever so stressed!! ^^

And hey, if any of you ever want to become an author… This is what the journey can look like. XD (but don’t get discouraged!!!!!!!! YOU WILL MAKE IT!!! I KNOW YOU WILL!! And once you do, it is very much worth it! ^^)

So yeah! Happy birthday to my dear blog, and thank you so much to all of you who’ve supported me along the way!! 🙂 Here’s to more happy writing and more happy blogging about middle-grade books!!

Isabelle