I’ve always been a writer. Long before I imagined holding a finished novel in my hands, I scribbled words into a little black notebook—just 12cm by 18cm. I must have been thirteen. Its pages, now browned with age, hold the very beginnings of my love for stories: poems, fragments, reflections on life that I didn’t yet know would shape me. The notebook still sits on the shelf next to my desk, a quiet witness to the journey. Sometimes I would fill a page with my own poetry, other times a few paragraphs of a story idea. Songs would inspire me, or words from authors I loved would spark something I needed to write down.
One poem in particular stands out—a piece I wrote as a teenager, full of raw emotion and wonder. At the time, it felt like just words on a page. But now, decades later, that same poem lives again, woven into the fabric of Eternal Echoes. It’s strange and beautiful to see a spark of my younger self living in the story I’ve spent my life building.
This little black notebook has held my words for decades and now, those same pages live again in Eternal Echoes. Every word, every scribble, has led me here.
– Michelle Smith
There were times along the way when I struggled to know where to take the story. The path forward wasn’t always clear, and I questioned whether it would ever become the story I had imagined. It wasn’t until I had my own experience with breast cancer that the story found its direction. That experience opened a door I hadn’t seen before, guiding me to the heart of the journey I wanted to tell.
This book has been in development for longer than I can fully count. Every notebook, every scribble, every idea—from those first pages to the final manuscript—has been a step along this journey. Holding the finished Eternal Echoes feels like holding all those years, all that growth, in my hands. And sharing it with you feels like finally opening that little black notebook and saying, “Here’s what we’ve become.”
