8.1.25 – CEDAR MILLS – Available Now
CEDAR MILLS is out today! I feel grateful, and ecstatic, at this culmination of nearly 3-and-a-half years of work. I can’t express my gratitude enough, from my publisher, editors, to my early ARC reviewers—I am full of appreciation for those who helped this novel find its breath of life.
Here’s a little bit about how this novel came to be…
CEDAR MILLS began in October of 2022. The novel had been floating around in my head since the Summer of 2021, so I knew exactly what I wanted to do once the act of physically writing it began. It was just about making the time and writing it (which with a full-time job and personal life, wasn’t always straight sailing).
Working my 9 to 5 in those early days of the first draft, I’d come home after work and write as much as possible. My dog Bo kept me company as I did so. He’d sprawl out on my feet as I typed, and when I’d hit a mental block or just need a break, we’d go outside and play fetch, just enjoying the fresh air together. Bo truly saw this novel through with me. He’s the best boy ever.
(Bo, the jolliest dog around)
My amazing partner, Madison, was pivotal to my writing process as well, encouraging me always with her feedback. She lit my fuse and kept me going, right down to the lazy weekends where we’d stay in and enjoy the quiet together (aka, the best weekends). I love her deeply and I can’t express my gratitude for her enough.
Slowly but surely, over about 12 months of initial writes, CEDAR MILLS was in full form. Fast forward another 12 months, the final draft was completed. Not long after, CEDAR MILLS found its publisher in Savage Realms Press (who believed in it just as much as I did).
The rest is history.
(Views from the fabled lake house)
Throughout my college years, my friend group and I would go to our pal John’s family’s lake house, just having fun there while enjoying the outdoors and scenery. These trips served as the spiritual beginnings of CEDAR MILLS. Late at night while out on the balcony facing the lake, my imagination ran vivid. I knew that I had a story to tell involving a lake or a river. I didn’t know what it was exactly until a few years later when the idea came back around in CEDAR MILLS with greater substance. Those trips with my friends truly got the ball rolling.
Upon completing the final touch-ups for CEDAR MILLS and getting it into its final state to be published, I hit up my longtime tattoo artist Eric and got a traditional tat done in homage to the biker gang front and center in the story. The tattoo was a celebration of the completion of a project that I put my all into.
(See more of Eric’s work on Instagram @ejamestattoo)
Writing a novel is mad, mad stuff! It’s alchemy. It’s a spider weaving a psychic web. In my humble opinion, you write day in and out because you love it and feel compelled to. I’m proud of CEDAR MILLS and all that it stands for, more than words can express.
Most perfectly, this story is no longer mine. It’s all yours.
I hope you enjoy it.
-Dylan
(PS: Find CEDAR MILLS on Amazon and Goodreads. Reviews here truly, truly mean the world to both myself and my publisher—cheers!)
Dylan James 