This past week has felt like riding a dragon: terrifying, dizzying, and bloody magical.

When I published Modern Magic back in July, I never imagined I’d be writing a post like this so soon.

Thanks to an incredible BookBub Featured Deal (something I never expected to land), Modern Magic shot up the charts and became an Amazon International Bestseller. It reached the Top 300 Kindle Store overall in the UK, US, Australia, and Canada and hit #1 in Contemporary Fantasy and Coming of Age Fantasy. For a debut indie novel to be sitting alongside authors like Terry Pratchett, Sarah J. Maas, Stephen King, and Brandon Sanderson is… well, it’s still a bit surreal.

And in the middle of it all, I did something more incomprehensible than riding a dragon: I shared the news on LinkedIn. Hitting “post” on the revelation that I’d secretly published a fantasy story echoing some of the more idiosyncratic aspects of the professional world I usually inhabit was terrifying. And possibly career-imperilling. However, the reaction from colleagues and contacts was incredible, and I’ve never felt so supported.

What made it even more meaningful is that all this came after so many fears and false starts. Just like any debut author, I had moments of doubt, the voice that said: “this idea will never work”.

But this week has been proof that persistence pays off. It has reminded me how important it is to have courage and conviction in your writing. And to believe that an impossible story might just find its readers.

So thank you to everyone who picked up the book, left a review, or told a friend.

Here’s to dragons, doubts, and maybe, just maybe, daring to believe in magic…