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Spiritus Dei is my debut novel. I have already written about how it all began, yet this time I would like to share a few more details.
This project was crucial for me — through it, I learned what it truly means to become a writer.
It was December, just before Christmas, when fate pushed me — almost against my will — to take the first step.
But how does one begin? How do you shape a story that feels worth reading?It was my first real book. True, I had some experience with writing — I had studied journalism to some extent — but creating a novel was a completely different world.
With a mentor as influential as J. K. Rowling, whose Harry Potter series had shaped much of my imagination, I felt a great responsibility.

The first sentences came slowly. I didn’t know how to start — what style to choose, which technical standards to follow, or even what paper size to use.
Fortunately, I was familiar with Microsoft Word, so I began by studying the physical design of books.
I measured the pages of Harry Potter with a ruler to find the right proportions for page size, font, and margins.
After a few hours of adjustments, the template was ready.

The first lines arrived hesitantly, but I kept going.
I wrote sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, and soon chapter by chapter.
I am still unsure what drove me — fear of disappointing my professor if she discovered my small lie, or the growing excitement of a story revealing itself before me.
Whatever it was, I wrote not only at night but in my dreams.
The pages filled effortlessly.
I paid little attention to names — I simply wrote down what came to mind.
That is how Timothy, Dorian, Elizabeth, Samuel, Marta, and the others were born.At the time, I was deeply inspired by the English author Neil Gaiman, particularly by his Graveyard Book.
His witch, Liza, fascinated me so much that I created my own version of a dreamlike heroine — a twenty-five-year-old librarian who was far more than she appeared.
At first, the story began to lean towards romance, but I stopped myself. That was not my genre.
So I added stronger fantasy elements, and soon Timothy, Dorian, and their company found themselves in adventures that would challenge even James Bond.The story seemed to write itself.
I lived through every line, often dreaming entire scenes before setting them down.
The whole book was finished in less than a month.
Of course, proofreading followed — a task that demanded more skill than I had at the time, since I was still inexperienced and far from a master of grammar.

That first novel was followed by a second, then a third, and today the fourth is complete.
This spring I will finish the Spiritus Dei collection — the final volume in the series.
After that, I will move on to writing stand-alone books.

Whatever comes next, Spiritus Dei will always remain my first — the story that came from my heart and marked the beginning of my life as a writer.

Which book first inspired you to create something of your own?