About Me, Alexa Shay
Hi, I'm Alexa Shay, a giant nerd from the Pacific Northwestern part of the USA. Batman is my favorite superhero and yes, he can beat Superman. I'm vegan because I found out that cows have best friends and I feel like that tells you a lot about me.
About My Writing
When I was in the second grade, I said I wanted to be a writer when I grew up and I never let go of that. I now work in technical writing by day and am an independently published author by night,
My favorite genre has always been fantasy (not sci-fi, fantasy). I've always loved the idea of magic and other worlds and have spent many hours lost in places of my own making. I love having the freedom to create my own universe and to see how my characters interact with it and each other.
If you're curious about what kinds of books I like, I keep track of my personal library (physical. Kindle, and audiobooks) on LibraryThing. I'll warn you, I'm eclectic by nature.
The Timeline of My Authorial Debut
I share this to show that writing and publishing a book can take any length of time. I originally came up with the idea for what would become The Shield in 2003. Do things at your own pace and in your own time.
- 11/26/2017 - Successfully won my first (and last) NaNoWriMo competition by working on The Shield
- 02/17/2021 - Began pushing out chapters of my book, The Shield, to my test readers
- 05/17/2021 - Finished the first draft of The Shield
- 01/13/2023 - Finished the second draft of The Shield and sent it to test readers for review
- 02/27/2023 - Art by Karri finished the art for the The Shield's book cover
- 10/29/2023 - Manuscript of The Shield sent to beta readers through E&A Editing Services
- 12/11/2023 - Mini manuscript edit submitted to Brittany at E&A Editing Services
- 12/20/2023 - Received mini manuscript evaluation back from E&A Editing Services, began edits
- 05/05/2024 - Manuscript submitted for a full developmental/copy edit by Brittany at E&A Editing Services
- 06/06/2024 - Edited manuscript received back from Brittany at E&A Editing Services
- 07/26/2024 - Blurb finalized with editing help from Enchanted Ink Publishing
- 09/22/2024 - Total rebrand to only an author. Etsy and Zazzle shops were shut down
- 10/07/2024 - Final manuscript sent to Enchanted Ink Publishing for formatting
- 10/28/2024 - Formatted manuscript sent to the proofreader at E&A Editing Service
- 11/11/2024 - Final edits from proofreader sent to the formatter at Enchanted Ink Publishing
- 11/27/2024 - Submitted files to KDP and Ingramspark and ordered proofs
- 12/30/2025 - ARCs became live on NetGalley
- 01/04/2025 - Pre-orders for The Shield went live
- 02/08/2025 - The Shield was published!
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Have a great day!