I write novellas.  Most of my drafts ranges between 20-30 000 words.  But the story I am working on now is something new for me.  I haven’t decided if it is the first part of a longer serial or if it is the first in a series of short stories.  Considering that I rarely write short stories and that I am not  interested in serials as a reader ( I prefer to read the whole book)  this is a first for me.

But considering that I have wanted to write more short stories next year, this is a good way to do it. Then there is other things to consider. Like, what happens with my sales if I get the story ready for publication,  create covers, and then release the short stories rather close together?  And then bundle it later ( maybe around christmas)?

Or should I create a Patreon account and serialize it that way?  I have no idea if anyone would be interested, though.   And then there is the VATMoss ( aka the headache inducing new EU rules from  2015). Right now I don’t have to apply, but I have no idea if that is still the case if I create a Patreon.

So, yes. There are a lot of things going on in my brain right now. I’ll focus on the things I know:  that it is an interesting story and I am itching to write it all.   I mean, it contains witches, dragons, a teleporting wizard and a shady villain.

When I was in London in May visitng my brother, I had an idea for a short story. It was one of those idle musings ” I wonder how it would be to travel with a wizard?”

And then the idea popped up, fulfledged.  That there was a wizard with the gift of Teleportation. And he liked to use it.  His daughters were exasperated.  The Wizards Council as well as the Witches Council was furious.

I also knew that the story would be about mollifying the Council.  I wasn’t certain how they would manage that, though, so I let it sit.

In November I was reaching the end of Cauldron Bound. As a result I was thinking about what to write next. I dismissed Frosthold, the prequel to Brownie Liason, a prequel to a historical fantasy I wrote a while ago. Finally, I settled on this story since it wasn’t a prequel, and it was slightly different from what I have written the last year. Most of all, it will be fun. After the very grey November I needed fun.  Less than five minutes after  I decided that, I realised how they would convince the Council.

There are a lot of foggy details, but I am looking forward to share this story with you early next year.

Oh. I do have a series title, of sorts: The Shattered Ward, which is what the bundled up version will be called.

And, since it is Friday here is the opening paragraph:

Xenia leafed through the mail. Bill, political pamphlet, bill, letter from the Wizards Council and the Witches Council, bill. She froze, and leafed back to the letter. The letter was addressed to Xenia and Nike Philips. Not father, Xenia noted.
She grimaced. Considering how their Father had ignored the Councils previous summons, she wasn’t surprised that they tried a new angle. She dropped the rest of the letters on the table next to the door.

Warning: Rambles ahead.
Earlier this year Michelle Sagara told me in the war room that she thought it was better to have good betareaders and hire a copy editor. I was a bit skeptical, since we are at different places in our careers.
I have been thinking about it during the year, though. I have revised a lot this year, based on my notes and feed back from betareaders and editors. I have become a much better writer as other have read my things and pointed out all the places I have goofed up.
I’ll admit that I have looked at the feedback I have received and at the editorial letter and wondered if the editor was worth the money.
Oh, don’t get me wrong: I am glad I hired Storywonk. I got great feedback on the plot, and the plot is much more solid, but he opted to not give me any pointers on characters. Though he did mention something about character motivations. Once I was done, I sent the draft to Chrysoula to see if it made sense. Turns out it didn’t. Oops. The feedback Chrysoula gave me was almost only focused on characters. In that way they complemented each other.
I just have a feeling that my betareaders would have pointed out the same things. Since they are very thorough.
The main reason I am hesitant to depend solely on betareaders ( even though I love them), is that I don’t want to wear them out. Though all of my beta readers have been very encouraging.
Another factor is that betareaders read things in their spare time while an editor are more focused on my book. Though I am not certain how true that is, since editors have lives too. On the other hand, Book View Café uses somekind of betareader system for their books, so I should be able to do the same.
Maybe.

While I love reading Romance, I have always viewed myself as a Fantasy writer.  But last week I realised that isn’t entirely true.  While I have stories that are purely fantasy ( The Wild Hunt for example) a lot of my books contains a romantic element.  Which isn’t surprising, considering how much Romance I read. I like reading it, so why shouldn’t I write it?

I think part of it is that I suck at relationships in real life, so I don’t want to write straight romance. If that makes sense.

Obviously my brain disagrees, since I keep getting ideas that involves romance.  It will be interesting to see which ideas I get now that I have realised that I write romance.

I read a blogpost by Carrie Ryan about what she had done to promote her new MG ( which sounds really interesting!). One of the things was create an ad.  Which made me go ” Huh.”  Yesterday I decided to create my own ad. I am quite happy with it the result.  There might be some tweaks in the future, but overall it works.

Today I decided to tweet direct links to Kobo and Ibooks, w the ad attatched. And then I pinned the tweet, so that everyone that visit my profile sees it.  It will be interesting to see what happens.

Oh, and Exile is still climbing on Kobo. I expected Exile to drop in rankings after the free editions were removed.  So I am overjoyed that hasn’t happened.  The sales on Ibook are much lower than on Kobo which is a bit frustrating.   As a result, I am thinking of making it free on Ibooks over the holidays to see if that helps gain some momentum.

Maybe I should create a facebook page, too.

The last week have been… bad for my writing. An combination of health issues and social obligations have kept me away from the laptop. Then there is the fact that I am close to the end, and my brain have also been toying with what to work on next.  Bad, I know. I should finish the revision first.

I have 5000 words to go, and hopefully I will be done in the beginning of December. If life cooperates.

Once the revision is done? I am writing the first Xenia and Nike adventure. *glee* These are Fantasy adventures featuring Xenia, Nike and their wizard dad that likes to teleport to random places. Which both the Wizards Council and the Witches Council do not like.   The first is about Xenia and Nike figuring out how to mollify the Councils.  Set in the 1870’s. Or thereabouts.

The first will be a short story and a free read first on the blog, then on Kobo, iBooks etc.  The others… I have no idea. They should be rather short, though.

Since Robin D Owens asked when I would have a book out earlier this year, I sent her a copy of Exile a couple of months ago. She finally got around to read it. And she promoted Exile on her Facebook page.  Her followers saw it, some liked it on Facebook, some bought it, some added it to their wishlists.  I am happy, since that is all I can really ask for.

Her promotion got me thinking about word of mouth. It has a lot of power and often readers are more willing to give something that’s been recommended by someone they trust a try.

I’ll admit that I am bad about utilizing the contacts I have. I have been happy to let Exile just be there and see what happens.  I tweet about it, though I try to make it something more than “Buy my book!”  ( Like that it is available at Ibooks, the price has dropped etc.)

I did do an impromptu giveaway on Twitter, which was fun.  I am definitely planning on doing more giveaways in the future.  Both impromptu and more organized.

Next year, I will have to be more active, though.  I am already making my list of peole to send ARCs too, places to buy ads at.

The most important thing is to get my books on Amazon. I can live with Exile not being there, but I *really* want the novellas on Amazon.  It is just foolish to not be on the biggest retailer.  Actually. It isn’t foolish, it is career suicide.

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