One of the most moving messages I’ve ever received about A Voice of Silver and Blood came from a reader who said the early chapters reminded them of difficult parts of their own childhood. The bleakness of Skye’s world—the emptiness, the hopelessness—echoed too closely, and they had to step away before they could finish the book.
That honesty humbled me. Because while I never want my books to hurt, I do believe stories are at their most powerful when they reflect something true.
The truth is, life doesn’t always begin in color. Sometimes it begins in gray. Sometimes it begins with loss, despair, and a world that feels drained of hope. And when I write those darker beginnings, it’s not because I want to weigh readers down—it’s because that darkness makes the light matter more.
Skye’s music is that light. It’s not just a plot device, not just a quirk. Her songs become a symbol of transformation, a thread of beauty in a world that feels broken. Through her, I wanted to capture the way art—whether it’s music, painting, writing, or even just telling stories—can reach into those shadowed places and remind us that healing is possible.
And when a reader tells me that it hit close to home—yes, it hurts to know it stirred up painful memories, but it also touches my heart in the deepest way. Because it means the story mattered. It reached beyond entertainment and brushed against something real. It meant enough to that reader that they paused, gave themselves the space they needed, and then came back to finish and find the hope on the other side.
That is one of the greatest gifts an author can receive: to know that words I wrote didn’t just fill pages, they resonated with a soul. It’s a reminder of why I tell stories in the first place.
When readers tell me they felt the bleakness, but also the shift—when they see how hope begins to bloom—I know the story has done what it was meant to do. Not just entertain but resonate. Not just pass the time, but create a moment of catharsis, a breath of I’m not alone in this.
Because at the heart of A Voice of Silver and Blood, that’s the message: even in the darkest places, even when the world feels gray, there is still music. There is still hope.
Is there a book, song, or piece of art that helped you through a hard time?