Way back in 2015, I wrote a story on Wattpad called FlyGirl.
These are the various covers I made for it. Wattpad emphasizes bookcovers. At first, I used Canva, but eventually I started using Photoshop. The “first edition” sounds pretentious, but that’s because I changed the story so often, and people asked for the original version. The FlyGirl 2.0 cover was my attempt at transitioning to romance. By that point, I lost the thread and stopped working on it.
Here’s a blurb.
When quirky rich girl Siobhan McIver finds out she’s no longer rich, she turns to her lawyer brothers for help… and discovers some seriously dark secrets within her family’s multinational law firm. Doing the right thing, she calls them out… and is rewarded by getting blackballed by her family.
After all, there’s right, there’s wrong, and there’s the practice of law.
Fortunately, her much older boyfriend (and rumored Mob Boss) Alexander Cosetino is there to pick up the pieces. In a blink, Siobhan is living with Alex in his renovated New York City townhouse, wearing a honking diamond engagement ring, and touring the charity circuit with her soon-to-be sisters-in-law. It’s every girl’s dream? Right?
Except Siobhan’s not one who fancies being told what to do. Plus, she’s kind of crushing on this smart ass FBI agent investigating her beau, and who may or may not be using her to advance his own career. And then there’s Alex himself. Why is he wanting to get married so badly? And why is everyone pushing her to say yes?
Siobhan may be stuck, but she’s not trapped. Sometimes the way out is up.
Here’s the thing about FlyGirl. It’s a beach-read type of story told from the POV of an over-indulged but deeply neglected young woman trying to figure herself out in a world where nobody has her best interest at heart. After I wrote the first few chapters, I realized I needed feedback, so I started looking for a critique group. I wasn’t sure where to look, but then I stumbled onto Wattpad. At the time, it was still starting out (no paywalls), so I started posting there.
I got what I was looking for, which was feedback. I got a lot of feedback. In the end, I think Wattpad is a great place for meeting other writers and making connections, but for novice writers like me, it can be a little overwhelming. I ended up changing plot and characters based on reader suggestions so many times that I forgot my original story.
Eventually, I gave up.
But I kind of missed it, too.
I did manage to finish it. I even shopped it around a bit, and I have a nice stack of rejection letters for my efforts.
At the same time, readers on Wattpad seemed to like it. Currently, both editions combined have over a million views. I’m sure that the majority are bots, but I will take it as a win, regardless.
Here’s what is really amazing. Even though I pulled most of my content down before the pandemic, I still get asked about the FlyGirl stories I posted when I first started. These are the backstories, the short stories I wrote to help me with plotting and character development.
There’s enough interest in these stories that I’ve been encouraged to clean them up and self-publish. The thing is, self-publishing is a lot of work. So, I think I’ll just post them here for the time being. They will be unedited and spellchecked to the best of my ability, which is what it is.
I reserve the right to change my mind on that, btw.
Here’s one more thing: the times, they have changed. Back when I wrote Siobhan’s story in 2015/2016, the former guy hadn’t been elected, a repulsive Florida billionaire was still preying on teenagers, Harvey Weinstein was still untouchable, and #metoo hadn’t happened. We were still living in a #whydon’tyousmilebaby world.
Bottom line, these will be updated stories. Most of the original content doesn’t work for me anymore.
Below is the first chapter of FlyGirl. If you want to read more of her story, or see my attempt at a romance, both are still posted on my Wattpad page.
Thank you so much for reading.
Liz Charnes 