How Starless Sky Came to Be
It was Halloween. I remember that day clearly in my head. I remember coming home and immediately going into search for my dog, but finding him gone. Forever. Trying to sort out my feelings and make sense of situation that didn’t, I started writing. Nothing serious. Nothing, really, that I even finished. The first line of it stuck with me, though. He was gone, without my permission, or consent, just gone. Forever. Those words, in a nutshell, seemed to sum up everything I was feeling. Those words are the same words that begin Starless Sky.
I
am a proud bookworm. My room’s overflowing with literature of all kinds and I
think any avid reader thinks to themselves, at some point or another, about
creating their own story, whether they execute it, or not. Well, what I wanted
to do was create a story that could tackle a serious subject without being too
sad. A good cry is nice every once in awhile, but I’d rather enjoy a book with
a smile, than have a box of tissues next to me, while I sob. At the point when
I started writing Starless, over a
year past the death of my pet, I thought that I could incorporate
some of the feelings of loss and grief that I had felt before, but present it
in a way that was more hopeful than sad.
One
of the main focuses of the book is the metaphor of the earthquake and the
aftershock. Starless Sky takes place
during the aftershock. It’s the moments after the initial tragedy. Death, the
earthquake, is the easy part. It’s the aftershock, the learning process of living
without that loved one in your life, that’s the hardest. It’s an everyday
struggle. Starless Sky isn’t about
death. It’s about moving on from it and realizing that you need help along the
way.
My
inspiration for writing Starless Sky,
beyond desperately wanting to write a book of my own, was to create a story
that could shed some light and a topic that’s usually dark. More than anything
else, I think Starless Sky is a
journey, a coming of age, perhaps. Kahlen grows a lot through the course of the
story and I hope audiences will take away something as well.
To read more go to my website, http://paigeagnew.com/. Listen to my audio
excerpt or watch a video trailer, if you are intrigued to hear more, you can purchase my book there as
well.
