The Story Behind My First Book

September 7, 2019. November 17, 2019. January 2020. March 1, 2022.

These are the dates that lead to the beginning of my very first book.

Now, all of these dates hold great significance to me personally, so I'm not going to go into all of the details about these particular dates. However, I can tell you one of the many ways they have impacted my life. My novel, My Country Roots was born from the challenging times that happened from September 2019 to March 2020.

During this time, I had my heart broken by a guy I deeply cared for. A guy I had cared about for years. (Maybe a slightly embarrassing number of years) I cared for him so much, despite us never being in a relationship with one another. We used to see each other all of the time, but then we didn't because of certain circumstances that took place in early 2019. Even though we only saw each other on occasion we were still pretty close. And then September 7th hit. And I started to notice things. I noticed how he ignored me unless we were alone and he never really texted me back. I was having a hard time with this and I ended up having a very good friend/role model of mine tell me that if a man really cares about you he will pursue you. He will be the one to make the effort. I battled with this for weeks before realizing it was true. So I did an experiment to see if I stopped making the effort if he would start doing it instead.

Long story short, he didn't. And now we have fallen apart. (Granted, in the past 2 years, much healing has been done and we are on better terms) But at the time I was having a very hard time dealing with this. The guy I had cared about for years was no longer in my life. I no longer had a special guy.

So what did I do? I decided to write a story. I thought if I could write a story where the main character fell in love with a sweet guy (maybe my idea of a perfect guy) then I would be able to heal faster. (Let me just say, I was wrong. It still took forever to heal, but that's the beside the point)

So I started creating the beginning idea of my novel. MC has a terrible boyfriend who puts no effort into their relationship. She breaks up with him confronts him and he says he's doing nothing wrong. Then somehow she meets this new wonderful guy who is her Mr. Right in every way.

So, that is the initial story of my first novel, My Country Roots. But there was also one other factor that lead to my book being the way it is. And that just so happens to be a book series that I absolutely adored. This particular book series had thirteen books, all companion novels that followed the stories of 7 different couples. I had never read any series like this but now it is one of my favorite types of series to read. This series is the reason I have structured my book the way I have. And why my book is the beginning of a companion novel series.

So yes, that is the brief inside view of the story behind my story (haha!). I hope you enjoyed it!

What are the stories behind your works? I'd love to know!

With Love, Kathryn Hawke