Mastodon The Writing Desk: Guest Post by Amelia Thorn, Author of The Dawn Thief

30 April 2020

Guest Post by Amelia Thorn, Author of The Dawn Thief


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Between him and salvation, a war torn country and a rebellion desperate to wreak havoc. Will Silas earn his freedom once and for all, or will he only turn out to be the monster his kingdom have always feared him to be.


Good Morning! [/relevant equivalent depending on the time zone that you guys find yourselves in.] and thanks so much for the opportunity to write this, and to whoever is reading this for taking the chance to even give me the time of day.

My name is Amelia, and I’ve been given the opportunity to tell you about how my dream recently came true. I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember – one of my genuine first memories is deciding an episode of the Little Mermaid I had watched wasn’t satisfactory enough, and electing to rewrite it, I’ve since gone on to write 6 books in total [most of which aren’t going to ever see the light of day.] But boredom stemming from the current pandemic and a frustrating bought of writers block left me picking up a new project. What I originally doubted would never get beyond 10,000 words and would be dropped after a couple of days, turned out to become a complete dream come true.

The Dawn Thief was published on the 9th April 2020, and that is a fact which makes me squeal to this very day. I’m pretty sure you could check back in a decade, and I will still be in a similar state. The story centres around a character named Silas, who following an attack during his youth was cursed with lycanthropy, left alive by virtue of his mother’s determination, he has spent the better part of two decades in chains. When a tragedy offers him the chance at salvation, the opportunity to prove that he is not the monster everyone thinks he is. However, between Silas and redemption is a kingdom at war.

My writing routine is nothing to be proud of admittedly, I gave myself a timeline to be finished within and that was nearly the death of me. Towards the end of that target, I ended up writing 20,000 words over two days. I recommend editing along the way as well as at the end, for once I finished I found out the important detail that I would rather remove a limb with an unripe avocado than I would edit. Admittedly had I been more efficient to that degree, The Dawn Thief would likely have been published at least a week earlier than it was.

As cliché as it sounds, but the best advice I can offer for new writers is to just stop hesitating, and that’s coming from the self-proclaimed queen of uncertainty. Just write, if necessary you can be the only one who ever reads what you’ve written, so in truth there is no downside to the process. It will build your skills and confidence, and is oh so much fun.

The Dawn Thief isn’t even a month old, so raising awareness is still quite new to me. At present it’s a mix between begging/bribing family and friends to check it out, and shouting to the skies about what I’ve done. [I’d like to say that’s figurative, my neighbours would disagree.] I don’t expect to be the next JK Rowling, and the fact that I’m published is more than enough for me, though I am delighted by every sale I’m able to make.

There is two scenes I had difficulty writing, both of which I’d been planning all along but I hated and loved writing them all the same. The first was early on, the death of a character which catalyses the plot, but I ended up having so much fun with that particular person that it really hurt when push came to shove. I think that affection helped me write an all the more compelling scene [some may disagree] but gosh it hurt. The second is in the latter part of the books, and one of the parts that I ended up rewriting several times with hopes to make it better. I loved the way it turned out, but I’d built up my own expectations so much that I couldn’t make myself content with what was written. I loved the way that particular scene turned out, and is a great example of just how much fun it is to hurt your own characters.

Presently I’m still at uni, and finishing coursework and stuff. So I’ll be finishing that before I begin writing again, however, I do have intentions for a sequel or two. Silas’ adventures are far from over.

Amelia Thorn

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About the Author

Amelia Thorn is an English writer from West Yorkshire who found writing as a hobby during one of the most boring times of her life, when she was stuck on bed rest following an accident which left her with a broken back, which she since fully recovered from. She was able to fulfil her dream of becoming a published author following the second most boring time of her life, quarantine during the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic, in which she wrote her debut novel of The Dawn Thief. Amelia currently studies at the University of Salford, where she takes Law with Criminology and spent much of 2019 working abroad in Africa. Outside of the legal and writing industry, she also works as a stand up comedian on the Manchester Circuit, loves to horse ride despite the fact that the hobby seems to hate her, and generally thinks she's far funnier than she actually is. You can find Amelia on Twitter @TheNasalCavity

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