Origin: Antebellum is the first novel I ever wrote. The inspiration came from an idea I had at the age of 14: What would a society ruled by women truly look like? Would it be utopian? What would they do with the men? At the time I bought into the stereotype of women in that they are inherent nurterers – more peaceful, kind, and wiser than men, who are violent, cruel, sex-obsessed, and ultimately disposable. I thought it would be interesting to create a world where women were dominant and men fought for their equality, in an ironic reversal of feminism.

Since then I’ve been educated about the true potential of both genders, and no longer consider myself a feminist, but an equalist. My heroine travels this same route, from accepting and participating in a society based on misandry (hatred of men, as opposed to misogyny, which is a hatred of women), to realizing the true nature of both genders and becoming an advocate for equalism.

Equalism, as it applies in this story, is the tenet that neither gender is greater or more important than the other. It recognizes and honors the differences in the physical and mental makeup of each gender, instead of attempting to create androgyny or propagate the myth that the difference in the genders is created by nurture rather than nature. Equalism promotes harmony and partnership between the genders, instead of power struggles and ‘traditional’ roles. Equalism is freedom for both genders to be allowed to create their own definition of ‘masculinity’ or ‘femininity’.

After I wrote the first chapter, which detailed the selection of the Nameless slave, I quickly saved the document, slapping the name ‘Woman’s World’ on it, because that’s all I had at that point – a world dominated by women. Unfortunately, weeks later it was still my working title, and that’s what it became known as when it was published on Fictionpress.com.

Fictionpress.com: Before I wrote Antebellum the primary writing medium I was working in was fan fiction, published online at FanFiction.net (What’s Fan Fiction?). Fictionpress.com is a sister site of FanFiction.net, and one day I saw an advertisement for their site. I got an account, uploaded the first few chapters of ‘Woman’s World’, as it was known then, and the rest is history. My audience grew and I accumulated thousands of reviews and hundreds of ‘favorites’. This experience was very positive in two ways: 1) It created almost a complete emotional immunity to criticism of my work, and 2) bolstered my insecurities about the worth of my stories to the point where I no longer fear that my writing isn’t up to par. The Antebellum series was completed not only for love of the story and its characters, but because getting positive feedback is an addictive experience. I would recommend Fictionpress to any aspiring writer who wants feedback and is capable of handling criticism.