Our Company of Fools by Madelynn Orion is now available on Amazon here.

For more information about the book, see here.

*

It’s here, it’s here! On the day of its fifth anniversary, Our Company of Fools is released to the world! When I first held the proof copy of my book, I cried, “It’s my book in a book!” I feel similar excitement today as I send it out to be read by others.

Our Company of Fools is a love letter to my late teen self, a personal reminder to be courageous and that I have a mission to spread the Light of Christ in this dark world. I’m captured by this book every time I begin to read it again. No matter how many times I read the first chapter, it never gets old to me.  

During my final read-through of the book, I picked it apart, made it even better, edited more than I thought I would. But I still know it is time, time to release and move on, release even when more flaws may remain. Should I be aiming for perfection? No—nothing I do in this fallen world will be perfect. Do I promise a polished book that is solid in a technical, grammatical sense, with a story told as best as it can be? Sure. But you will never hear me call it perfect. The amount of errors I caught in my proof version (pre-final edits) was enough to assure me of that and keep me humble about my craft.

The end of this book is still beautiful to me. I cry (or nearly cry) every time I reach it, even after at least a dozen (likely more) reads through it. I feel encouraged by this story, despite how much more weary than Leah I am of the fight in this world. This book is my heart and soul on paper and ink. I am still moved by its message of compassion and the necessity of community in our lives. We can’t fight our demons on our own. We weren’t created to be alone, to do life alone, to persevere alone. How often I need that reminder in my own life.

Our Company of Fools is now free to roam the world, to be enjoyed and liked (or to be hated and disliked) by people all over the world. It is surreal, it is terrifying, and it is exciting all at once. I do not know how far it will go, but I am content if it remains simply a side indie-published book of mine while I pursue potentially bigger things with future works. Even if it remains small to the world, it is a giant to me, making a lasting impact on my writing and my beginnings as a writer. Its shadow will not leave my future writing in the coming days as I finally move on, free from the joyful burden of this project, to work on the stories to come.

I thank God for this book that hit me out of nowhere five years ago. How it has shaped me, and how I hope it shapes those who need it to shape them too, who need this story as much as I did.