The Light of Hope by Stevie Hostetter

The Light of Hope is a new book by Stevie Hostetter. This book is my debut novel. For my first novel, I chose to write a poetry book. I wanted to get a feel for self-publishing and see if poetry books would bring success. I put poems in the book that dealt with awareness, hope, and God. I wanted people to have hope and to restore their happiness. For the paperback, I wrote fifty poems, and for my hardcover, I wrote seventy-five. The writing process took me some time. I started on the 1st of February. I wrote all of the poems on paper then I copied them to Google Docs, where I started the revision process. The whole publishing process took the month of February, and I was pleased with the end result. In the book, I dedicated a poem to my friend John Jr. The poem is titled Ode to Jr. I put that poem in there because a few days before the publication, he had passed away. I wanted to honor his memory, and putting him in the book was the best way I knew how. 

Since I was a little child, I have always wanted to be a writer and a publisher. I wanted people to have happiness from the words I put on the pages, and I wanted them to immerse themselves in my passion. I did not care if I became rich or famous I just wanted to make other people smile. Words are a powerful weapon when used by the right person. I began writing because of the inspiration Stephen King gave me. His books inspired me to become a writer. I will always cherish the fact that I am an author now. All the years I have spent working to become a writer finally paid off this year. I wrote this poetry book as a way to show people that in the darkest of times, there is always hope. No matter if you lose someone, if you feel alone, If you are scared, If you have a mental illness, if you have an autoimmune disease. There is always hope. I have asked people that have gone through these trials what gives them hope, and I have constructed the poems around their answers. 

Since I wrote this book for people who have lost hope, that is my target audience. I want people to feel comforted, so anyone who has lost hope is a target. I know that with everything going on in the world right now, a lot of people do not have hope to make it through another day I want those people to know that there is hope to rise up. I do not have a specific age group, however, because the subjects in the poems are good for children to seniors. 

As stated before, I hope readers can get hope. I also want them to have happiness, joy, and the will to go on even more. I want people to know that even the small things in life can bring immense beauty. I want them to find a smile even when they are in the depths of despair. I want them to let go of hatred, anger, and grief and make it their own. The book was specifically designed to bring joy to people all over the world. 

At this time, I am content with the book just being published. That brings me happiness to know I can call myself an author. I also love thinking that each person who buys my book will remember my friend Jr. and his name will live on. However, if I do get more sales of my book in the future, I will consider myself blessed to reach out to so many people. 

I plan to keep writing books. I am going to write a psychological thriller next, and perhaps I will do another poetry book down the road. I have my associate’s degree, and I want to continue my education up to a master’s degree however, I do not know if I will be able to do that. I was recently diagnosed with arthritis, and it has made doing simple tasks excruciating. I do have hope, though, that I will be able to go back eventually.