Recently, someone asked me about my inspiration for the trilogy. Although the question seemed simple, the answer was anything but straightforward. Here’s what I came up with, and I’ve decided to share it with all my readers. Enjoy!
When I was 8 years old, my reading comprehension, English, and grammar skills were assessed at a 12th grade level. The tester suggested that my mother consider enrolling me in an expensive special school until I was old enough to take advanced classes. The tester then stood up and said, “She’s going to write a book someday.”
I went home and started writing. My first publication came when I was nine; it was a review of a local book. From that point on, I began creating stories. By the time I turned twelve, I was writing for hours every day. Some of my work was poetry, but most of it consisted of short stories that I published on a fiction site dedicated to fantasy stories and artwork. Along with my stories, I also shared some of my personal artwork, which mostly featured elves, fairies, and vampires.
I published six newsletters online until spam regulations were put into effect. At one point, I even ran a business where I bartered handmade ads and advertising services in exchange for placing ads for my newsletters in other people’s publications. I built a subscriber base of 10,000 people! I was experiencing great success!
Feeling bored because I could no longer create my newsletters, I explored various activities, mainly writing songs, playing piano, singing, dancing, and roller skating. Eventually, I realized I needed to take a break from writing and get some exercise. With my newsletters no longer occupying my time and having read every book in my house and nearly every one in my local library, I searched for something new to engage in.
At the age of 14, I had a brilliant idea: I would write a novel. Not just short stories of 5,000 to 7,000 words, but an actual full-sized novel. And someday, I would turn it into a movie. I took scraps of paper I’d written scenes on when I was 9, and began typing it into a word processor.
Then the idea grew.
I had become completely obsessed with epic fantasy, fantasy, and dark fantasy genres. I constantly reread “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien, the “Vampire Chronicles” by Anne Rice, and many others. When all those movies were released, I watched them repeatedly—and I still do.
So I thought it could be fun to try writing books and turning them into movies. I had already taken all my favorite novels and rewritten them into screenplays just for fun. This should be easy, right?
At the age of 12, I won an online contest for the Baby-Sitters Club, which was the first and only contest I’ve ever won. Through this experience, I met and became pen pals with an editor for the Baby-Sitters Club series by Ann M. Martin. I had adored these books since I learned to read, and she encouraged me to share my own writing with her. She provided me with valuable writing and story-building tips and taught me how to edit my work effectively. Her honest and constructive critiques helped me become a much better writer.
She was my number one supporter and the reason I genuinely believed in myself. When I told her I wanted to write a novel, she urged me to “DO IT!” That encouraged me to think, “Hey, I CAN do this!” That was it; I decided to pursue writing. So, wherever you are now, thank you!
At the time, I was homeschooled, it was summer, and I was bored. This was before I got my guitars and pianos. My karaoke set was still heavily used in the evenings, but during the days, I had to find something else to do.
Writing seemed like the logical conclusion. So, I sat down at my computer and began. From August until Christmas, I wrote every day without pause. It started with a high school girl who loved crystals and tarot cards and could accidentally perform sorcery with her mind. I introduced her best friend and a love interest, but then I scrapped it all because it was terrible. For my first 50 pages, I rewrote those characters at least twenty times. I still have them in my current manuscripts, albeit in very different forms and identities. I realized the issue wasn’t with the story itself; it was that I knew how it was going to end, and I didn’t want to get there so quickly. So, I decided to make it a series.
The first book took me two years to write, the second took one year, and the third only six months. Eventually, I wrote a total of 13 books. However, I realized they still weren’t what I wanted, so I scrapped them all and started over. Each time I rewrote, I tried different formats, points of view, storylines, writing styles, and themes. Initially, I included vampires, but then I understood that what I really wanted was their immortality, so my characters could live throughout the entire story. I found a way to incorporate that immortality without relying on the fiendish vampire trope. By the time I turned 15, I began trying to publish early copies of my work, only to face rejection over and over. So, I continued rewriting.
When I hit my 20s, I chose not to pursue traditional publishing; instead, I wanted to self-publish to retain control of the process. My editor friend, who had retired by then, had been advising me on the pitfalls and politics of publishing. She mentioned how many authors were finding success through self-publishing in this day and age. Now, I felt even freer without the need to face rejection letters. Back then, and possibly still today, getting published typically required an agent, but no agent would consider you unless you had been published before, and local papers and websites didn’t count as legitimate publications. I wasn’t rejected for my stories; in fact, I received a lot of interest. The rejections came because I didn’t have an agent. When I tried to search for an agent, they wouldn’t even accept my submissions since I wasn’t a published author. I found myself confused and frustrated by the whole process.
So, self-publishing became my goal. I started this journey during the early days of Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, uploading my books and creating blogs and websites for marketing, but nothing seemed to be working out. I decided to take a break and focus on my acting, dancing, and modeling career instead, along with my other jobs that actually paid the bills. However, knowing that self-publishing would always be an option gave me great comfort. My self-esteem improved, and I stopped thinking my writing was at fault because it wasn’t—just the politics of the traditional publishing landscape.
When I was ready to write again, I returned to my original series. It went through many names and iterations. In 2017, I started printing pictures of people, places, and things that inspired me to build elaborate worlds with these characters. Fueled by my new acting career, I created biographies for each character and truly got to know them and their world.
In 2020, when the pandemic hit, I rewrote my 13 books after substantiating a plot- and turned them into three. In early 2023, when AI artwork began to bloom, I started creating pictures of how I envisioned my characters. Most of them are alive today through this process of realization.
Within the two years, I had taken thousands of AI photos, artistically rendered them, and created an entire internet empire revolving around my novels. So now, I have a place to publish, a place to play, and a place for people to make friends all in one.
Welcome To The Empire of Sangue
Learn about Skye’s AI art process here
All intellectual property, including but not limited to characters, bios, excerpts, artwork, photography, and written descriptions copyright Skye Kinsley. More info at SkyeKinsley.com
Skye Kinsley 