By Joy Oh
One of Great Valley’s own alumni, Jenna Bradley, published her own novel called I Am Void in September 2020. Bradley’s contemporary fiction details the mental health journey of multiple high school students and the ramifications of their unhealthy coping mechanisms.
Growing up, Bradley was surrounded by a family of writers; her mother and her older sister always wrote for fun. “I’ve been writing my entire life,” said Bradley. “I’ve kept a journal since I was 10 years old of all of my ideas and stories, and it was undeniable from that age that I would carry on my mom’s love for writing.”
“And all three of my high school English teachers, Mrs. Iannucci, Dr. Mozzone, and Ms. Daney, deserve some credit for how much they each helped me grow as a writer and as a person,” added Bradley. “But the teacher who inspired me the most throughout my entire student career would be my fifth-grade teacher Mr. Cliffel.”
“And I first began writing I Am Void when I was 13,” said Bradley. “I began writing it as an outlet for my emotions as I was trapped in an abusive relationship, and when I was 14, I eventually found my way out of that relationship and I decided to create this book from what I had already written.”
In I am Void, the protagonist is a young girl named Cadence who turns to self-harm to cope with her mental health. “Cadence is originally inspired by my own experiences and she’s based on concepts of self-worth and self-consciousness,” said Bradley. “As the book progresses, Cadence becomes the embodiment of the person that I strive to be: someone who is certainly not perfect but doesn’t expect herself to be either.”
“Cadence also has elements of myself, but I can’t say she is me at all,” added Bradley. “Bold, sarcastic, and a little awkward, Cadence has her own personality that I created in order to spark relatability while also being the epitome of individuality.”
“Cadence isn’t inspired by one person, but rather concepts,” said Bradley. “In contrast, her friends and enemies are based on real people in my life, and some of the characters, like Alex and Nathan, are based on combinations of people.”
The people in Bradley’s life as her source of inspiration is not only limited to the characters in her book. She often turned to her stepsister for support throughout the process. “Throughout the process of creating the plot line, I ran each idea by my stepsister, who is also a huge reader like me,” said Bradley. “Whether I included a specific scene or background detail was purely up to her, as she was my only critic in the early stages of my writing.”
In addition to her stepsister’s critique, Bradley also credits her whole family for helping publish her book.
“My mom edited my manuscript, and my sister illustrated the cover of my book,” said Bradley. “The rest of my family helped me create and publish my book through the support and love that they gave me with my own struggles with anxiety and depression.”
“Then I talked to a few of my mom’s friends that have published books before and got my manuscript copyrighted,” said Bradley. “After that, I was contacted by four publishing companies within the first week of my book being copyrighted.”
Bradley appreciates the time and efforts the different publishing agents went through to read previews of her manuscript and create teams of editors, distributors, and marketing teams. However, she experienced a change of heart.
“When I looked at the price of publishing and how much I was going to be putting into this, I realized I didn’t want this book to be owned by a corporation,” said Bradley. “I wanted the profits to directly to a charity, and to do that, I had to gain more control over the finances.”
As a result, Bradley decided to publish I Am Void with Amazon KDP Publishing so that she could donate 100% of her royalties to a local women’s shelter in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
“It was fairly simple to publish with Amazon,” said Bradley. “I uploaded my manuscript and my book cover, and then I chose how I wanted it to be formatted out of options such as text size, book dimensions, page numbers, and more.”
“I also chose not to put page numbers in my book because I want the reader to focus on the chapter numbers instead,” added Bradley. “Every tenth chapter is flashback, and therefore the chapter numbers are important so as not to completely disorient the reader.”
For Bradley, the most difficult part of publishing her book was making the creative decisions on how to format her novel. “I think anyone can publish their book if they set their mind to it, no matter what kind of budget they have,” said Bradley.
The release of Bradley’s first book does not merely stop there. She plans on publishing another book soon and has been spending time writing short stories and short film scripts.
“My future goal for my book and as a writer is to make a difference in mentality for my readers,” said Bradley.
The Great Valley community is excited to read and explore more of Bradley’s future writing endeavors. Her book can be purchased through a Kindle or paperback version, and it is available on amazon.com.