Wintersong: A Retrospective

Revisiting my debut novel five years later

Sometimes makeup can be art.

I am afraid of my backlist.

I blame a lot of things on the fact that I have ADHD/an Aries moon/am enneagram Type 7/the Wizard Howl/a slither-outer, but the honest truth is, I run from discomfort. And my backlist makes me uncomfortable.

I don’t know why, not really. This discomfort doesn’t come from a place of shame; I’m proud of my work. I’m proud that I did the best I could with the skills I had at the time, and I was also rewarded with external markers of success. Wintersong hit the New York Times bestseller list, I earned out my advance before it even published, I sold translation rights in multiple countries, and I still receive regular royalty checks, etc. But the one thing I’ve never really considered was whether or not my debut is good. And by good, what I really mean is whether or not Wintersong succeeds as a piece of art.