A Byron, Illinois teacher released her first book this year. It hit number one on Amazon’s new release and young adult dark fantasy lists and is now in the top one hundred for the fantasy category. But her publishing journey was a long one.
Logan Karlie is an English teacher. She said she’s been writing most of her life. Karlie carried around ideas for a story that is now in book form, "Dream by the Shadows," since she was in high school. She said she was always fascinated by her dreams.
“I kind of had the idea for this book," she explained, "when I thought, you know, what, what kind of power do dreams hold? And what happens if we can't dream? What if that ability to dream was taken away from us? And that became sort of this cursed and haunted thing to dream."
The book is set in a faraway kingdom. Its residents must take an elixir to protect them from their own dreams. It starts in tragedy. Karlie said she knew she had to set the stakes high to draw readers in.
“And oftentimes, when you're trying to set stakes and really make that emotional push at the beginning,” she said, “sometimes that coincides with the death of a character. So, for our main character, Esmer, she's living this life, sort of without purpose, it's a very dark start to her life.”
Karlie said although she had the story in her mind for years, something was nagging on her to get it out. So, two years ago, she started that journey. She spent most of her evening hours writing. She did this for months and said if you really want something, you make the time for it. Karlie said this could mean sacrificing sleep and maybe a little of your sanity.
She originally thought about publishing the traditional way. She went through the query process for a few months but wasn’t satisfied with the results. After that she began researching the concept of self-publishing.
“How could I do that successfully?” she questioned. “What are successful self-published authors doing? And I started kind of building a social platform, started kind of trying my hand at Social Media Marketing for this book. And I decided, ‘you know what, I think I could maybe do this.’”
And in September of this year, she did. Karlie did her own line editing and worked with a developmental editor to ensure the stories structure was up to par. She decided to use Amazon as the portal to distribute her book and said she’s happy with how things are turning out.
Karlie teaches literature and says her students are excited about her becoming a published author. She also let them choose the cover art for the book.
She said because she made her dream come true, some of her students are now inspired to create more.
“A lot of student writers who think, ‘hey, I have this, I love to write or I'm creative, but I don't know if I could turn that into something one day,’" she said. "I've had a lot of students sharing with me like their poetry or books they're working on. And that's been super cool.”
Karlie said those who want to write should read often. She’s recommending that people develop a habit of consuming all types of media.
“I just really want to encourage people to chase their dreams and don’t give up,” she said. “You know, write the book, if you have the book idea in your head. It is so doable in today's day and age. There are so many tools available to writers.”
The author said she would love to have the story animated. She has received fan art based on the story.
Karlie is now writing the sequel to "Dream by the Shadows." She said she also has another book in her head and she’s excited to meet some of those new characters.
