As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been writing for a very long time. I remember writing stories with my close friend in his bedroom at the age of 8 or 9, and I never really stopped. I wrote short stories and attempted a novel all through high school. I remember bailing on parties in college to work on writing.
In 2016 I wrote a short story for a r/fantasywriters competition that spawned the College of the Gods. Every work since then has derived from that short, 2000 word tale. Now I have written well over 300,000 words in the world of Meridia and the College of the Gods.
In 2017 I wrote my first full novel draft exclusively on Scrivener for the iPhone called The Godkiller Conspiracy. I wrote during my commutes, and I was lucky to have a lot of down time at my job. I would furiously pound away for 30 minutes at a time whenever I had a chance, squinting at the screen and getting sore thumbs.
In 2018, I was assigned a project for 6 months where I worked in a dark room by myself for 8 hrs a day and I finished my first draft of The Heart of the Forest. I was so proud to have completed this, and used that momentum to begin the first proto-draft of Into the West. After a sputtering attempt at a first draft, I left Into the West alone for a while until I decided to do NaNoWriMo2019, and pushed through for a full draft of Into the West. Now, a year later, I have finished a second draft of Into the West and my NaNoWriMo2020 project, Dark Waters.
I am so proud of these works, though I know they are a far cry from publishability. I hope to use 2021 to refine and prepare Into the West for the SPFBO competition in 2022.
I have already begun Draft 3, starting with an editing read through and waiting for Beta Reader feedback. There is so much work to do, and editing a 500 page book will be painful but I am so excited for it.
I also want to drop a little plug for anyone else looking to print their work, I have loved lulu.com for printing my novel drafts. I have printed 3 different novels now and love the ability to see my work printed and bound. It’s really easy, and I have a physical copy of my work that was something I never fully expected to see.
As always, let me know if you’re interested in reading my work! I am looking specifically for people who would like to receive an advanced reader copy of a novel some time in 2021.
Best,
JL
writerlarkin@gmail.com
Home of (eventual) author Josh Larkin 
Into the West beta reader here—I enjoyed draft #2 and can’t wait to read the final version in 2021/2022! Best magic and religious systems I’ve encountered in fantasy writing for a long time.
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