On many afternoons, while her son practiced ice hockey, Sonja Marcus sat in the stands with a laptop balanced on her knees. Around her, parents chatted and the sound of skates scraped the ice, but her inspiration kept her trying. Amid the pendulum of motherhood, work, and carpools, those quiet pockets of time became the unlikely birthplace of her debut novel, “Invisible Strings”.
The Inside Press had the opportunity to sit down with Marcus as we immersed ourselves in the origin and creation of such a novel. Although writing from the rink, Marcus brings us back to a story in Barcelona, where she studied abroad in the 2000s. It was there that she discovered independence amid life changing scenery. These memories resurfaced during the stillness of COVID-19, when Marcus began piecing them into a novel focused on a message of female empowerment.
While the novel itself is largely fictional, many of its settings and emotions are rooted in Marcus’s own experiences abroad. Traveling through Europe with a Eurail pass, she visited cities that would later influence the atmosphere and locations within the book. Arriving in Barcelona without close friends pushed her to become independent in ways she never had experienced before. The unfamiliar environment, different culture, and sense of freedom all left a lasting impact that would later become the foundation of “Invisible Strings”.
The protagonist reflects a younger, more fearless version of herself, confident in her sexuality, body image and an adventurous spirit. She wanted to create a narrative that emphasized female empowerment, and confidence in one’s own identity. She hopes that when her daughter eventually reads the book, she will see a strong female role model and a world where she can feel confident and independent.
While the ideas behind “Invisible Strings” had lived in the back of Marcus’s mind for years, finding the time to write them down required patience and persistence. Balancing a full-time job and motherhood, she often wrote late at night or during the quiet moments of her children’s sports practices, slowly piecing together scattered memories into a cinematic narrative. Throughout the process, music became a key part. She frequently listened to Taylor Swift, using her songs as an emotional backdrop while developing scenes. These musical pieces often shaped the mood of the story and the emotional tone readers experience.
During the editing process, Marcus faced one of the most difficult parts that many writers have to overcome. She had to cut nearly 20,000 words from the manuscript. Scenes she enjoyed writing, including detailed travel moments and side characters, had to be removed to keep the narrative centered. After completing the manuscript, Marcus worked with Blackstone Publishing to bring “Invisible Strings” to print and reach an audience greater than the quiet spaces where it was first written.
Marcus encourages aspiring writers to start small, noting that “writing even 100 words each day can build momentum”, which can turn simple ideas into a finished manuscript. Throughout the book, readers can see a parallel to Marcus’s own life, persistence. It takes persistence to sit down for ten minutes and force yourself to write, and she captured the theme of persistence in the book.
While “Invisible Strings” marks Marcus’s debut novel, she has already begun working on her next project, a young adult story, taking place at a boarding school, that explores identity and belonging through a new group of characters.
Just as Marcus persisted through long nights on the laptop and countless revisions, that same determination echoes through “Invisible Strings”. What began as scattered memories and sentences typed from the hockey stands, eventually led to Marcus carving out small moments to craft something personal and creative. In the midst, she not only wrote a novel but also set an example for her children that passions are worth pursuing, no matter how busy life gets.
