My name is Florence, and I write fantasy.

The stories I remember writing when I was little were fantastical. There was the one about the talking chicken. The one about living in the constellations. The one about the time traveling group of kids. I was young and unafraid. I never intended anyone to see them for the most part, so I just wrote about what I was into at the moment. I clearly remember going through phases of being into constellations and time travel, and what do you know — I wrote stories about both of those.

But as an adult, I stuck to contemporary. I don’t know if it was the whole “write what you know” thing, which I tried to do. I don’t know if it’s because writing a novel became a bigger deal for me, and writing something that felt comfortable to me felt easier. But I wrote poetry and stories in the here and now. And they are fun stories, and good stories, and I hope that someday you will see them in some form.

Then I had the idea for my manuscript VICKY NABATANZI AND THE RISE OF THREE. And it terrified and exhilarated me. That was how I knew I needed to do it. So I did. And VICKY was the one that caught fire. One of the first things I told my fellow Pitch Wars Class of 2019 mentees about the story was something along the lines of, “I’ve never written fantasy, and I’m scared!”

Jump to the present. VICKY is on her own journey, which is another story for another time. But now I am brainstorming my next manuscript…and it’s fantasy. And I’m terrified all over again. I wonder if I will always feel this sense of fear whenever I start writing a fantasy novel? I feel like it’s too much for me to make up, and what if it doesn’t make any sense, or isn’t exciting, or just plain sucks? It feels like I’ve been given the sacred duty of creating an entire world, and I don’t want to fail at it.

I have no answers. I only have my determination, my enthusiasm, my dedication to craft, my drive to share the very best story I can. I can do this. It starts with me being brave, with me taking a deep breath and saying with confidence, “My name is Florence, and I write fantasy.”

Wish me luck!