Wainikka Signs with Otherwords Press to Publish THE RESEMBLANCE
Yes, that's right! If you were a fan of THE RESEMBLANCE, my first book, you'll soon have the opportunity to get a new version of Louise Rickshaw's story: re-edited, re-covered, and published under Otherwords Press.
It took four years. I finished The Resemblance at the end of 2018 when I was stuck in a job that I hated. The benefit of that job though was that I had a tiny, private office to work in which meant nearly unlimited amount of writing hours when I wasn't busy. Sometimes when I was busy too because my priorities weren't always straight. Because I was miserable.
All I've ever wanted was to share my stories. All I've ever wanted is to provide readers a place to escape to, mysteries to solve and characters to root for and hate. And when I wasn't doing that or when I didn't have the opportunity to, there was this constant nattering voice at the back of my head telling me that I wasn't doing what I was meant to.
I thought it was going to be easy. Write a book. Get it published. Easy.
If you're considering becoming a writer/novelist/psychotic keyboard monkey, just know that my process was long and non-traditional. I was proud of what I had created in Gully, Georgia, but I had given up on getting it traditionally published until I withdrew an old query submission and was contacted by Otherwords press the next day telling me that they were still interested.
The Resemblance was written after my year stint living in Korea, and I finished the book in Morden, Manitoba. I recently did an interview with Lorne Steinbach (page 5) where I spoke a little bit more about my hometown and its effect on all of my books. But The Resemblance was my first novel that I wanted to do something with. I saw its potential, and I'm so absolutely ecstatic to say that Otherwords Press has seen that potential as well.
THE RESEMBLANCE will hit the shelves in Spring of 2022.