Camp, Book One is out! & what inspires my writing.
After eight years of planning this series, the first Camp Chronicles is out. Only on Amazon.
Of course, it’s not doing well! I’ve sold a total of 18 copies in a week (and most of it is to my parents), but I never expected a huge rush when competing with all the noise of books in 2025. In the era of booktok, I am fighting against books that are promoted merely for “spice” value and not necessarily content. If I see one more hockey romance, I will lose it. And even though several people have suggested I try to get some booktoker to promote my book, I don’t really want that. So if only 18 people find Camp Chronicles, that’s fine with me. I just hope they love it as much as I do. I love to write, and if ANYONE at all likes what I am doing, then that is amazing.
That being said, marketing a book is actually very difficult. Marketing anything in the white noise that is 2025 is almost impossible because we are bombarded constantly with “stuff.” Why would Camp stick out to anyone? Not sure. But I am assuming it will find the right readers as they come. The only “promotion” I am doing is some Pinterest/Amazon ads and sticking them in Little Libraries in my area, hoping to find someone who might like it. Who knows, grassroots may pay off. But to anyone reading this who did buy it, you rock.
Most of what inspires my writing is different from what I see in modern books. The magic of Narnia, Harry Potter, and Percy Jackson feels lost in a tornado of smut and tropes that I feel are repetitive. All the covers look the same, a whirlwind of swords, wings, and fire or a splotchy, multi-colored print with a title in all capitals, LAST SUMMER AT LAKE SUNSET: A NOVEL by LUCY MILFORD-CROSSIANT. The industry sells a very specific look and vibe. I wanted Camp Chronicles to feel set apart. When we look at Harry Potter, we all know it’s an HP book, and I am hoping that when people look at Camp Chronicles, they know it immediately. I wanted my themes to be about choices we make, paranoia, darkness, light rising to meet it, mystery, and characters you just can’t quite shake. I wanted my readers to engage for different reasons than the average quick read and toss, but to engage beyond a one-book throwaway that you’ll forget in a week. I hope Camp lives forever in its readers. I know it does in me.
We live in a pretty dark world. So dark that I often regret going outside on a day-to-day basis, and while my books deal with darkness (how can they not?), they are not darkness themselves. At the end of the day, I write to inspire good in others and to wage my own war against what I see. That in the ultimate showdown between good and evil, good wins. Ronan and her gang are just that—good. And I will continue to write for light in a world that heralds darkness and welcomes it.
I hope you will join me. The new literary pushback is here.
