Did you actually think I was going to get around to publishing this book? I was planning to release it when I finished animating the trailer for it, but I felt like it was now or never - I finished the first draft, I finished the second draft, I edited it over and over until I got it as close to perfect as possible, I got the copyright...and now, I've got the book for sale on Amazon.
You can buy your copy here: goo.gl/t21st1
I wrote the first draft for NaNoWriMo 2016, when I was stressed about a whole bunch of things in life: bad relationships, spiritual duress, and a general sense of hopelessness that I was only able to overcome by doing what I always do in such scenarios: by using dissociation to project my misery into fiction. I guess it went in kind of a weird direction.
Outer Darkness follows the life of Lenore Kavaranian, a woman in her early twenties with shallow friends, an uncommitted boyfriend, and no future outside of pursuing a community college degree. After her friends and boyfriend abandon her, she meets Seth, a young man in her math class who shows her some kindness and takes an active interest in her. When they decide to take their relationship to the next level, though, Lenore's world is turned upside down when she becomes subject to the ire of Marnie – Seth's harridan of a mother – and begins to question the reality of the world around her. Seeking shelter from the storm, she turns to a new friend and a new church, hoping to find spiritual answers and the truth about where she is and why she is there.
I don't expect this book to become the next Hunger Games in terms of sensation (though you're welcome to prove me wrong!), but if you like Kafkaesque pulp fiction or metaphysical stories, why not take a look? If nothing else, buy a copy to send to someone you don't like and tell them that the book's antagonists remind you of them. I might do that myself. :)
~Sarah Elaine