Dearest Elsians,

I have some good news and some bad news…the good news is that Lonely Roads has been accepted for publication and should be available for purchase sometime in October if all goes well with the publishing house. The bad news is that it cannot continue to be run as a series for legal reason (plus if you all know how it ends, who will buy my book) 😀 . Elsieisy’s blog and the Elsians have been like an extended family to me. Some of you I have met in person, some online, some I have simply admired from afar. Whatever category you fall under, please know that you have nothing but my eternal gratitude. Without your encouragement there is a very big chance I would never had tried to even get published.

Very few people know I actually wrote Lonely Roads when I was 18, that is seven years ago (I’m sure the laziest mathematicians amongst you can work out my age from this). Through the years I have battled my insecurities as an artist jumping from one unfinished work to another, constantly feeling not good enough. In fact Lonely Roads is actually my fourth novel (the first three I wrote in my earlier teens…they are truly terrible). When I moved back from the UK I decided to send my work to Elsieisy’s blog mainly because I wanted to see how acceptable it would be to readers that didn’t know me personally. Before then only my friends, girl friends, and dad had read it. Needless to say, their reviews would always been sugar coated.

Following positive feedback from readers on Elsieisy’s blog I garnered the courage to send out the book for consideration with publishers, and what do you know, two days later I got an acceptance e-mail. Previous to that I had only sent it to one other house where I got a letter from the chief editor informing me that the book made it to their ‘special attention’ pile but it was not a genre they could represent. Again, without your encouragement, I would never have been brave enough to do this.

I will keep you all abreast with the progress, and when it is finally a hardcopy I hope everyone can make it to the book launch (I can’t promise a free copy, but I will promise a signed one lol). I am currently working on my second book and a collection of short stories. I also have a collection of essays and poems I hope to be releasing for free because Nigerians would never pay a kobo for that kind of work. I just might debut it on here as a token of my gratitude for your gift of courage you gave to me.

As a closing remark I will like to tell anyone reading this that the only enemy of your dream is yourself. Sometimes I sit and regret the fear that kept me shackled to hugging Lonely Roads too tightly. It would have been awesome to be published at 18, but all things in good time. Maybe I needed some more maturity, maybe I needed to see more of the world, and maybe I needed you to tell me it was okay…it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that I am here now and this is happening. There is no time like now. Whoever you are reading this, and wherever you may be, it is my greatest wish that you too find that which your heart seeks.

Again, thank you. This is not a goodbye letter, perhaps it is just the beginning.

Yours truly,

William Ifeanyi Moore

Follow me on: @willifmoore (instagram and twitter)

www.willifmoore.com (website)

P.S I suck at posting, but I promise, it will always be worth your while.