S.L. Hari is an young adult and adult urban fantasy author based in Cincinnati, Ohio.
I decided I wanted to write a book because honestly, I didn’t know any better.
I had been a rather successful academic writer while I pursued my undergraduate degree at UMBC and eventually my master’s at Columbia University, and I ever-so-humbly assumed that my academic writing skills would neatly transfer over into creative writing.
It was a shock for me when I discovered that they did not.
I started writing this book in the last few months of living abroad in Japan. The idea for this particular story was birthed from a dream that I vividly remembered long enough after waking to jot down some details. The finished product, of course, resembles nothing even remotely close to that early outline.
But it kept me company on flight after flight across the Pacific as I traveled back and forth between Japan and the U.S. I finished my first draft shortly after moving to San Diego and starting grad school. For nine long months I did not look at it or even think about it.
But the moment I took off my Columbia blue graduation gown I was right back at it — working on my second draft and then my third and fourth and fifth until I was satisfied enough to send it out for beta reading.
I was surprised by the enthusiasm it garnered, with such charming feedback as “You can give her some redeeming qualities” and “There was nothing cringey about it.”
To my friends who might be reading this, I love you and I understand that I have taken your quotes completely out of context for my own personal amusement. But this is my About Me section and I get to do what I want.
I never thought that I would ever attempt to write a book. If you ask my husband, he will confirm that my early days of writing were atrocious. I once dropped a class in my undergraduate years because it required a 25-page paper that was written in stages throughout the entire semester. And now I have more than 200 pages of extra material just from this one book.
But I am grateful to have gone on this journey and could not have done it without the support of my husband, my family, my friends, and my two overweight, internationally-traveling cats.