Novel Idea - Young Author’s Debut Book Available At Area Libraries, On Amazon

At an age when many teens are still finding their voice, Joslyn Fisher has already shared hers with the world.

Fisher’s debut young adult novel “Unfortunately” was published last year under her pen name, Finx A. Fisher. It is available to readers to buy now on Amazon and check out at the Glenwood Community High School and Middle School libraries.

The novel follows the adventures of 14-year-old outsider Travis, his fractured memory and an undiscovered world where secrets and mysteries abound. There’s teleportation, tenuous alliances, hard truths and unexpected friendships along the way.

Fisher, 15, is home schooled. The idea for her 366-page novel that is the first in a proposed four-part series, was born at least partially, out of a dream she had as a 12-year-old.

“It struck me as odd, it was unusual,” Fisher said of the dream she had the summer before seventh grade. “I woke up – at this time I was really into writing short stories – and I started to write down what happened in the dream and I got really obsessed with the story just because how strange the dream was to me. Eventually it spiraled into a whole novel.”

Fisher started to jot down fragments and pieces of the dream she said was so vivid they stayed with her for months. She never set out to write a novel; in fact, she wasn’t sure she’d even turn it into a story at all. She was writing it down simply to preserve it for maybe some future story.

Fisher had tried her hand at short stories before but never anything of the magnitude of a novel filled with mythology and dozens of characters spanning fantasy universes.

A longtime fan of science fiction, she counts the popular “Keeper of the Lost Cities,” “Wings of Fire” and “Shadow and Bone” series among her favorites. They’ve all influenced her in at least some way, she said. All are epic in scope and featuring characters coming of age in strange worlds not of their making.

It was while in seventh grade that Fisher set to writing the story as a novel. She spent a year and a half drafting it and then the next year re-writing. She had never tackled anything of a novel’s scope. It was daunting but she loved the process.

“I never intended it to be that long, but I was hoping it would be that long but didn’t realistically think I would get to it,” she said.

Fisher doesn’t shy away from admitting Travis is a stand in for her and the isolation he feels being semi-autobiographical in tone.

“When I first started writing it, I didn’t really have a lot of friends and didn’t really feel like I fit in at school, because it was middle school and that’s a time you feel like you don’t really fit in anywhere,” she said. “I kind of projected that on to him (Travis),” she said.

The writing, the feedback and the conversations about her novel served as her way of coming out of her shell and creating connection.

During the last round of edits, when the story was basically in its present form, minus a few plot twists, she said, she thought her novel was good enough to send it out and let others read it.

“My mom, my sister, some of my friends, tons of teachers; my ELA (English language arts) teachers and some history teachers – anybody that was willing to listen.”

She said reviews were favorable and she was encouraged to publish it. Fisher did send it to one professional publishing agency but withdrew the manuscript after the publisher asked for money.

“Unfortunately” was self-published through Kindle Direct Publishing, a division of Amazon, last Summer. That was a process in itself, Fisher said.

“It was definitely a bit difficult,” she added.

She was required to acquire an ISBN (International Standard Book Number), which comes with a barcode, design the cover and fit the manuscript chapters into the prescribed dimensions.

Fisher, who is also an accomplished artist, designed and illustrated the cover herself. It features her protagonist, Travis, rendered in the western animation style with maybe a hint of semi-realism.

The final image was first of four versions she drew for the cover. In the end she went with her original idea.

She dedicated the book to her mom, Jaimie for her constant support.

Sales have been good on Amazon, she said. She hosted a pop-up book signing event at the Glenwood Public Library last Fall. The middle school and then the high school library added the book to their collections this year.

It makes her a little nervous knowing her book is there in the library but she’s excited about it as well.

Fisher is hard at work on book two in the series. She anticipates “Souls of Craft” will come out later this year or early in 2027.

“I’m really not writing many short stories anymore,” she said. “I’m just more kind of committing myself to the bigger project now.”