Valley of the Bees: The novel I wrote in 16 days—and the story that refused to end

Valley of the Bees is the book that taught me I could actually finish a novel—or at least something very close to one. I wrote it right after finishing my creative writing graduate program, at a moment when I had plenty of ideas, plenty of ambition, and absolutely no completed long-form fiction to show for it.

Up to that point, I considered myself a pantser. I wrote by instinct, followed my curiosity, and trusted the story to reveal itself as I went along. The problem was that nothing ever made it to the end. Clearly, my preferred method wasn’t getting me where I wanted to go.

So, I set myself a challenge.

I outlined a brand-new story from scratch—sixteen chapters, beginning to end—and committed to writing one chapter a day until it was finished. No tinkering. No looping back. Just forward momentum.

Sixteen days later, Valley of the Bees existed.

It wasn’t polished. It definitely wasn’t perfect. The draft was riddled with plot holes and rough edges, but for the first time, I had written an entire story from start to finish. That alone felt monumental.

Then I did what writers are supposed to do next: I revised. And revised. And revised again.

After several rounds of editing, I shared the manuscript with a workshop group made up of writers from my graduate program, along with one of our professors. The response surprised me. Everyone loved the story—but they all asked the same question.

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Where was the rest of it?

I had thought I’d brought the book to a dramatic and satisfying conclusion. They disagreed. They wanted to know what happened next. They wanted to stay with Valley longer.

Instead of expanding the book into a single longer novel, I made a different choice. I outlined Acts II and III and turned Valley of the Bees into a trilogy of connected novellas. Together, they tell the full arc of Valley’s story as I originally imagined it.

Today, you can read each novella individually or pick up the full omnibus edition, which collects all three in one volume. It’s available pretty much wherever books are sold—and if your local bookstore or library doesn’t already carry it, they should be able to order it for you.

The story itself is set in a near-future world where honeybees are nearly extinct and society has regressed in unsettling ways. Valley Bickerstaff has grown up in the river bottoms, one of the last places bees can survive, raised in relative isolation by her family. On her sixteenth birthday, she learns her future is no longer her own.

What follows is a story about autonomy, environmental collapse, family loyalty, and the quiet ways girls learn to resist the lives chosen for them.

Readers have connected deeply with Valley and her world. One reviewer wrote that the book was “difficult to put down,” praising its “disturbingly realistic dystopia” and fast-paced plot. Another simply said, “Five stars and more!!!” Kirkus Reviews called it “a richly detailed work whose world feels legitimate and lived-in,” highlighting Valley as an empathetic, fully realized protagonist.

And still—people ask me for more.

My cousin’s teenage daughter insists Valley of the Bees is the best book she’s ever read, but she wants to know what happens next. Others have said the same. For now, I’ve chosen to leave Valley’s story where it ends, because I like the space it leaves for readers to imagine what could come after—and why that possibility matters.

Maybe I’ll change my mind someday. Writers are allowed to do that.

If you’ve read Valley of the Bees, I’d love to know what you think happens next for Valley. Where do you imagine her future leads? Share your thoughts in the comments—I’m genuinely curious.

This post is part of a series where I pull back the curtain on the novels I’ve written, beginning with Valley of the Bees, a dystopian YA novel about survival, freedom, and growing up in a near-future world where girls have little control over their own lives. Each post looks at how a story took shape and what it taught me about finishing the work I start.

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Now that Jack has been forced to reflect on everything he has to lose, he resolves to do better. He’s determined to spend more time at home with his family and repair the relationships that have suffered over the years while he’s been so focused on work. But as Callie’s behavior becomes increasingly bizarre, Jack realizes he has a lot more room to improve than he realized – and it might be too late to save his daughter after all.

For fans of We Need to Talk About Kevin, The Push, and Baby Teeth.