Refocusing, Resetting and Re-centering
A pretty good rule of thumb when you’re publishing your first novella is to have a robust marketing plan. Have a ton of resources ready to go, be ready to talk about your book until your voice is raw and scratchy and champion your new work on every social media platform imaginable. It is not a time to disappear from the face of the earth, make major life changes or re-evaluate a huge component of your identity.
But who am I to do things the right way?
Lessons In Publishing a Novella
It’s been a little over a month since the release of The Light Keeper; the short story that became a novella that sort of swept me up and demanded to be published. I started writing in July, and expected it to be about six thousand words. By the end it was about three times as long, was being edited by a team of three and was being released on Amazon Kindle. Somehow, this story rooted itself into my heart and grew as an entity of its own.
Building Veridys
Since I was a kid I’ve been a huge fan of tabletop role playing games. One of my favorite parts of the game was world building and telling stories, so I’ve been what’s called a “Perma GM” (permanent Game Master) for probably about fifteen years.
Back in 2017, I created a fantasy world that became the setting for over five years of RPG adventures. My players sailed the high seas, dug deep in mines and in late 2019 they released an apocalyptic plague. The intention was to then begin a secondary campaign where a new slate of characters would contend with the plague that the original party had released onto Andromara.
Aaaaand then March of 2020 happened.
Am I a Writer?
For almost twenty years, I’ve talked about how badly I wanted to write a novel. Somewhere in my office closet is a box with dozens of papery skeletons that lived to hit a few thousands words. I have piles of half-finished notebooks with handwritten outlines and character arcs and settings. No matter how hard I tried, I never seemed to be able to finish a novel. I would get to thirty or forty thousand words and run out of steam. I’d binder clip the unfinished fragments I’d written and set it on a shelf. Just within reach. Just in case I wanted to pick it up again. Eventually though, enough time would pass that I’d pull out the box of expired drafts from the closet and unceremoniously lay the latest incomplete pages to rest with the others. Then I’d close the lid, re-bury it in the closet and move on to the next idea that was definitely, absolutely going to work.
Spoiler alert: they never did.
Book Release & the Emotional Turmoil of Being Seen.
Some thoughts about my upcoming novella release and the truly terrifying realization that when you write a book someone will inevitably read it.
The Terror of Editors
Sometimes I forget that being a writer means that, inevitably, people are going to actually read what I’m writing. The last few weeks I’ve been working through the final draft edits for The Light Keeper, which has meant many rounds of what’s called “beta edits” (i.e. editing). I’m lucky to have many generous, brilliant friends who took the time out of their busy lives to be advanced readers for the novella. They patiently engaged in debates with me over whether a crab “tunneled” or “burrowed” under the sand (before I finally just nixed the troublesome line altogether) or the levels of anachronism involved in wine glass technology.
Hello and Goodbye to Summer
Summer is not my season. It’s humid and hot. I hate shaving my legs. My toes do not look cute no matter how many pedicures I get. I am one of those people who instead of getting normal mosquito bites I get those awful blisters that scar even if you don’t itch them. Summertime is just not for me. In contrast, my wonderful partner is essentially a lizard. He is perfectly content to lay out in the hot sun for hours and slowly roast in a meditative trance. It’s honestly amazing to watch. I have tried to be that person. I want to be that person.
I am not that person.