This blog and my website mark a turning point in my writing venture. Before, I would just putz around on the internet and write stuff that only I would read and enjoy. But a friend convinced me to move away from hobby and into the realm of laying my work out bare to either be flayed or loved by the general public, which can be a bit intimidating.
So Ascendant: Chronicles of the Red Lion is out. And I rushed a terrible cover because I wanted to free up space in my brain for Nanowrimo 2020, which I handily failed, by the way. Just look at it!!! Abso-posi-lutely amateur. But it pushed me over the ‘just publish already!’ hump, which I needed. Otherwise I’d still be sitting on it like I had been for the previous year.
After publishing to KDP, I quickly realized I had to recover with something a little more professional looking, which took away from my participation in Nanowrimo. Then came the inevitability of social media and self promotion. This is hard for me because I am not of the generation that grew up snapping pictures of my food, or my mood, or other aspects of my everyday life. We had beepers… lol. For me the social media tango is like tensing a muscle. A conscious effort. Having said that, I have molded into mainstream a little. Still figuring things out.
Right now, I’m going to put my title series away for a bit so I can work on something new and less complicated but still quite related – the first in a smattering of what I’m calling Red Lion Side Hustles. These novellas (meh… 65k words or so) will be a good way for me to unclutter the density of the first, and subsequent novels, which, I must admit, can sometimes seem like you’re chewing on gravel. It needs a lot of unpacking, for sure. So the purpose of the Side Hustles are to infuse history and lore and a bit of understanding into what has already been established and flesh out other minor characters. We’ll see how it works out. I already have several planned and I am energized by the time I’ve spent so far connecting to fresh ideas.
Lots of new starts to lots of new things.
Ugh. I still need maps, and a coherent timeline, and ideas on wtf to post to instagram, and coffee.
So. Shall we begin?