The Box, an Introduction
Read below or watch/listen to the video at the bottom of the page:
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to share “The Box,” which was the short story I wrote originally that inspired my second novel, Can You Be.
It started as a short story because I didn’t think I had enough substance to make it into something bigger. I like writing short stories. They are short snapshots of a person’s life or a person’s circumstances.
However, when I presented this short story to an editor she suggested I had enough material to take a deeper dive and extend it into a novel. I did. I wrote the short story in October 2020, and the novel came out in August 2023.
It took time before I was able to convert the story into a novel because I didn’t dedicate the time to it. I went on a trip to the Baltics, and that’s when it all came together in my head. The protagonist in “The Box” doesn’t travel, but in the novel, she goes to The Baltics and it’s quite a transformative experience for her; it’s a pivotal moment. I had this clarity while I was there, and I realized I had enough material to convert the short story into a novel.
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to share the original short story. I’ll do it in these posts, but you can also watch or listen along on my YouTube channel at the link below.
