Hannah Pennington

My Writing Origins

I’ve been writing stories since I was around 7. From stapling together hand-written and illustrated stories to give my siblings on Christmas, to a fantasy collab with my best friend where we alternated writing chapters and put them in each other’s mailboxes, to Star Wars: Clone Wars fanfiction, which featured my first original character: a bug-eyed alien named Chihuahua Huffus.

When I was twelve, the beginning foundations of what would later become The Tindoria Chronicles began to form in my imagination and thus began the very first draft. At first, I wasn’t taking it too seriously; it was a pastime I enjoyed, and I was mainly writing for myself. As my world and story grew, however, I realized I had something really special and dreamed of sharing it with others in the world. So, I began to tackle my writing journey with this new end goal in mind of being a real author. While it took me over 10 years to finish Prisoners of Thornbrill (book 1 of The Tindoria Chronicles), it was all in God’s perfect timing, and I couldn’t be happier than where I am now!

After The Tindoria Chronicles, I have plans for a stand-alone novel set in a post-apocalyptic dystopia, currently code-named Project Justice.

My Inspiration

As a very influential child, pretty much anything and everything inspired me to some degree: books, movies, art, quotes, prompts, and sometimes even music/film soundtracks!

I went through a fangirl phase for the How to Train Your Dragon movies (2010, 2014, 2019) and The Water Horse (2007). They were the real kick-off for my story. Inspired by the films’ plots, I started writing my own dragon story mixed with the high epic fantasy elements from books like Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia. After making notes, concept art, and character/world building, I had created an original story that took off!

While my first book was being edited by my parents, someone told me about a “famous 15-year-old author.” This author’s name was Christopher Paolini, and he wrote a book called Eragon. As a new teen myself, I was fascinated that an author so young became so successful, and that inspired me. Now, I ended up seeing the movie Eragon (eesh) before having a chance to read the book, and was so upset to find that our opening sequences—by crazy coincidence—were almost identical. Now, once I read the book, I was more relieved in the actual differences, but still. During that stretch of time between seeing the movie and reading the book, I was salty with Paolini. I got over it, don’t worry lol!

My Publishing Journey (first try)

After I had finished the first draft of my Prisoners of Thornbrill manuscript at the age of 15, I passed it off to my parents to edit, where, ultimately, it sat in limbo for a few years. During that time, in addition to writing the sequel, Spire of Tavnir, I was looking at self vs traditional publishing, and honestly, the thing that sold me on being an indie author was the higher royalty rates—because, you know, I wanted money—and the fact I had control over every little thing—book cover, content, deadlines, marketing—so as a perfectionist, that was extremely appealing. That’s why I picked KDP. I was 18 by the time I revisited the manuscript, recoiled at the clinginess that glared back at me, and gave my story a major overhaul, where I renamed the trilogy and the books themselves:

From The Legend of Scalaed to The Tindoria Chronicles (because there never actually was a legend at all in the story lol!)
From On the Road of Danger (so cliché) to Prisoners of Thornbrill
From Quest for Answers (again, so generic haha) to Spire of Tavnir

From League of Wings (there didn’t end up being enough “wings” for a league) to Shadows of Phoenix

I then set up the books’ profiles on KDP. I designed the covers and interior formatting myself thanks to my background in graphic design and printed a proof copy. Unboxing that very first proof was magical! I was thinking, “Wow, I can’t believe it’s here, and it looks like an actual real book!” Having a physical copy was so much more convenient for editing, and I think seeing how close I was to publishing helped spur my efforts to get them edited. Finally, when I was 21, I published Prisoners of Thornbrill on December 27, 2019.

Challenges I Faced

I say I clicked published, and that’s literally the only thing I did. I just expected Prisoners of Thornbrill would kinda just...market and take care of itself? Needless to say, I had done zero research on this thing called a “Book Launch,” so when I didn’t sell any copies, it discouraged me in a huge way and stalled my writing to where I didn’t touch my trilogy for a year. One day, I mentioned my books in passing to my catering manager, who showed great interest. That kind of got me thinking to try the whole trilogy thing again. Because Spire of Tavnir’s original manuscript’s plot and story were no longer cohesive with its revamped predecessor, it also needed a huge rewrite. Amidst the rewrite, I got married, moved to North Carolina for my husband’s job at the Marine Corps, and had my first baby. Spire of Tavnir, after being edited by my parents, ended up being published two years after Prisoners of Thornbrill on January 31, 2022.

Sales were still practically nonexistent, so I started an author Instagram account in hopes of changing that. I also watched YouTube videos, read articles, and followed other indie authors. That was when I realized there was this whole world of marketing I completely missed: ARCs, beta readers, types of editors, ISBNs, publishing imprints, pre-orders, street teams, social media growth, book boxes, marketing, and more. With two books out, I felt like I missed the boat twice.

I was trying to find my place on Instagram. I finished my draft of book 3 and again, sent it off to my mom and dad to edit. My mom was a huge help editing the story as usual, but this time, however, my dad just didn’t have the time to edit the grammar like he did before. I completely understood, but now I was faced with a new problem: who was going to edit my final book? I revealed the title and cover of book 3, but I still had no plan. A real editor would be so expensive! Now that I was married and a stay-at-home mom, where the heck was I going to get that kind of money?

Visit her website:

HannahPenningtonauthor.com