Hartselle native self publishes book series

Story by Hope Thompson
Photos by Sam Roberts

Writing and publishing her own three-book series was never a dream of Hartselle native M.J. Boshers – until a few years ago while passing time at work.

“I was working second shift at my job and had a lot of free time,” Boshers explained. “I began reading a lot to pass the time, and then I decided I wanted to write my own book.”

Boshers, who said she never loved to read when she was younger, began reading books such as the Twilight series, the Harry Potter series and the Percy Jackson novels. Gathering inspiration from several young adult fiction/fantasy novels, Boshers began scribbling down ideas for her own story.

“It sort of started as a joke with my friends,” Boshers said. “I was just writing to pass the time. I never thought I would write a book and publish it.”

Although reading has become a recent favorite pastime for Boshers, writing has always been something she enjoyed. As a teen, Boshers wrote poetry and songs. Writing songs is still something she enjoys doing today.

“I always really loved writing my thoughts down in poetry or a song,” Boshers said. “When I started writing down ideas for a story, though, I really fell in love with it.”

When Boshers began writing down ideas for a potential story, she first had the idea to write a children’s book involving fairies and make believe worlds. The more she wrote, however, the more she fell in love with her characters and telling their stories. This love for the world she was creating on paper evolved into a full novel.

It was the love for her characters and their story that convinced Boshers to publish her work.

“As I was writing about these characters, I just fell in love with them, and I thought if I was in love with them, then maybe other people would love them too,” she said. “Just as soon as I wrote the last word on the last page, I knew I wanted to publish it.”

The process of writing her first novel took Boshers six months to complete. Writing down notes at work and coming home in the evenings to type up the scenes on her computer was the easy part for Boshers. The difficult part of the process was trying to get her book published.

“It was a difficult process for sure,” Boshers said. “I sent my manuscript to several publishing companies, and I received some rejection of course, but I kept sending it to different companies until one accepted it.”

A year into the long, drawn-out process of finding a publisher, Boshers decided the best way to get her book published was to do it herself instead of going through a third party. Using her own resources, Boshers’ saw her first novel, “The Faewitch,” land on book retailers’ websites in a matter of a week.

In “The Faewitch,” main character Sophie is a seemingly average teenage girl. She goes to high school and has a small group of friends she hangs out with daily. Everything in Sophie’s life seems normal – that is, until a new kid shows up to school and strange things begin to happen.

As the story unfolds, the reader learns Sophie is far from normal. In fact, Sophie is immortal, being half fairy and half witch. Ripped from her normal life in suburbia, Sophie is whisked into a dreamland of extraordinary creatures who posses immortal powers. She is then faced with an evil force that wishes to do her and her family harm – and it is up to Sophie to protect her family and conquer the evil force against her.

Incorporating characters such as giants, wizards and fairies was something about which Boshers was adamant.

“It isn’t often that you see a book that incorporates wizards, giants and fairies,” Boshers explained. “I wanted to write a book that incorporated all three of these characters, and I wanted my main character to be relatable.”

Included in The Faewitch series are two other tiles, “Ancient Blood” and “Guardian of the Queen,” which take readers on a journey with Sophie through enchanted worlds where good takes on evil and Sophie is faced with the difficult task of saving the ones she loves.

For her Faewitch series, Boshers has been nominated for an Author Academy Award with nine other finalists in the young adult fiction/fantasy genre.

“I’m so excited about this,” Boshers said. “It’s very much like the Actor Academy Awards on TV – which means I will get to be all gussied up for the big event.”

The ceremony, which will be held in Columbus, Ohio, will allow authors from all over the country to join together and give presentations of their novels. First-place winners are presented with the Academy Boon of Merit Award, along with several opportunities to gain recognition of their work through podcasts and specialized reading lists for their genre.

Becoming a finalist for the award is a great honor for Boshers, but she said this is only the beginning for her writing career. “I want to continue writing for sure,” she said. “I would really love to make this my career path one day.”

One of the projects Boshers has in mind for her future career is making her book series into screenplays for movies.

“It’s definitely a possibility,” Boshers said. “I have already been trying to contact some of the right people for this, so we will see what happens.”

Boshers said the process to write and publish her first novel was not an easy one, and between negative feedback and rejection from publishers, at times she felt like quitting – but her family was the support she needed the whole time. “My family has been a great support system that believed me and kept pushing me forward.”

To show her gratitude for their love and support, Boshers dedicated her first novel to her family with the inscription, “For all who believed in me when I didn’t have the strength to believe in myself.”

The key to success, Boshers said, is to never give up on yourself or your dreams. Her encouragement to those who are struggling with following their own dreams and career paths is to keep pushing forward and keep believing they can accomplish their goals.

What inspires Boshers each and every day with her writing – and what inspired her to follow through with publishing her first book – was her daughter.

“I just kept thinking that I wanted my daughter to see me going after my dreams, and if I could do it, then she could do it,” she said. “I didn’t want her to be scared or see me quit because then she would think she could quit too.”

To see what new projects Boshers is working on, follow her on her social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter or visit her website at mjboshers.com. To read “The Faewitch,” “Ancient Blood” and “Guardian of the Queen,” check out Barnes & Noble’s website or Amazon.