Seph is a girl that gives absolutely zero fucks.
It's March 22nd, 2018, at precisely 1541 hours and I can't believe that I'm publishing this story tomorrow. I started writing it exactly ten years ago, when I was a very different person, still wrapped up in a whole other bank of experiences that I have now.
I didn't finish it then, and when my world turned upside down (as it liked to do in my early twenties), it fell into obscurity on my external hard drive, never to be seen or heard from again. But that apparently wasn't Seph's fate.
I came to Wattpad in 2015, with fanfic on my lips and no care in the world. I just needed to get this deep dark shit out of my head and out, somewhere. When I was a teenager I was avid on fanfiction.net, and loved the community, the sharing of stories. Fangirling together over books and games and movies that we love. Extending the stories in fantastical ways, some that were even better than the source material.
Snowbird was born, then Trussed, then No Sanctuary for Old Men started to come out of me like a waterfall and I met all kinds of wonderful Negan fangirls (and we are vast), and I got brave. I entered the Open Novella Contest with an original novel, Mountain, and wrote 20k words in just over two months. It was intense and satisfying, and though I didn't make the shortlist it was still a wonderful experience. I made some great writer friends there too, and we fangirled over each other's stories like no tomorrow.
After joining the Rebel Elite Book Club and really finding the promised land of badass writers, I got really brave and signed up Mountain for public critiquing. I got a lot of great suggestions and useful advice, but also heartwarming positive comments, mostly on my characters. Readers love the banter, and I love that they love it because I also love it.
My quartet of quirky protags had captured some hearts, and there's something really special about strangers falling in love with characters and a world that you created from scratch. I'd forgotten how much fun I used to have writing dialogue. My business is centered around description and sex and steamy romance, but when a character really clicks for me, the banter that comes out makes me fist pump the air.
So during rounds with the Rebel Book Club, making friends with so many Walking Dead fans and us all sharing our awesome OCs and Neganisms alike, making Rebel Legend and nailing a huge ghostwriting job all in one month... there was this niggling in the back of my brain.
I realized it was Seph, jumping up and down going 'HEY CUNT! WHAT ABOUT ME?!'. And I thought; hey, whatever happened to her? So I dug out the old manuscript and dusted it off (metaphorically, it was totally a word doc), dumped it into google and reread it.
It was like coming home. I've written a lot of shit over the years that will never see the light of day, but I think Seph's story was always meant to be told. Reading her words made me feel 22 again and I was so overcome with her personality and style and experiences that I immediately fell back into her story again. I'd written 2/3 of it, the rest in point form notes, and now it's almost finished and I'm stoked to be able to share it with you guys.
Thanks to all of my writer/reader friends that have given me the balls to share my words. You're always an inspiration to me. Thank you for your readership, your sharing, your voting, your kind words of encouragement and your ruthless suggestions on how to improve. I am forever indebted to you for pulling me out of a life where I'd lost ambition and showing me that my dreams of writing for a living were achievable. I love you. <3
Seph isn't terribly lovable. Love her or hate her though, I'm fucking telling her story. Nobody's perfect.
Emily S Hurricane
xoxo