About Me, Alexa Shay
Hi, I'm Alexa Shay (she/her), an author and giant nerd from the Pacific Northwestern part of the USA. Batman is my favorite superhero and yes, he can beat Superman.
I'm anti AI, anti racism, and fully support every letter in the LGBTQIA+ community. I believe the job of a YA author is to support, encourage, educate, and fight for the youth we write for.
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.
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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Thank you for your interest in my work! My newsletter comes out monthly, featuring short stories, fun pictures, and more. Sometimes there will be ad hoc announcement emails. I will never sell your information.
New subscribers will receive a free, unpublished chapter of my book, The Shield, called Chapter Zero.
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