Write. Publish. Repeat. Well...trying to, anyway.

I'm trying hard to jump start my indie writing career. Of all the advice I've heard, the advice that has stuck with me the most is for new indie writers to continue to write, write, write, as much as possible, and self-publish as much good writing as they can.

That's what I'm trying to do.

It's hard.

Just so you know.

But, I love it. I love the writing. The revising. The sending off of the manuscript to beta readers and editors for their critiques. I even love spending hours perusing the internet for reviewers and sending hundreds of emails out to potential readers for their reviews.

I love it all.

Except the wait.

The wait sucks.

There's nothing about publishing - traditional or self-publishing - that moves terribly fast.
I can move fast, as the author and publisher, but I can't force other people to move fast. Not my reviewers, or beta readers, or people who find and buy my book. They don't move as fast as I would like. :) Imagine that.

But, that's okay, because it's giving me time to write some more.
Today, I put final (hopefully!) revision touches on two novellas. One is being entered into a writing contest. The other is about to be published on Amazon, and other self-publishing platforms like Smashwords (once I've figured out just how to do that).

By tomorrow, if all goes well, Ai of the Mountain will be my newest ebook for sell on Amazon.com. I'm super excited to have the 2nd story in my Fairy Retelling series coming out! I have ideas for the next two books in the series as well, but let me tell you about this one first.

Ai of the Mountain is a fairy retelling of Beauty and the Beast, set in the southern mountains of feudal Japan.

Ai, a peasant girl, is torn between her sense of duty and honor, and her longing for a future of freedom. Placed into impossible circumstances by the lord of her region, the daimyo, Lord Nakaguchi,  Ai must choose between her family's safety and her own heart.

Ai's nightly dreams of Kaito, a handsome samurai warrior she has fallen in love with, and her friendship with an ancient, talking koi, further complicate her situation. Can Ai leave the mountain to escape Lord Nakaguchi's nefarious plan for her life, even if it means leaving her family and the man she loves?

Uggh, I hate summaries. They're so hard. There's so much more to the book than what is written here. Sigh. I guess you'll just have to read it to find out who is truly the beast in this story.

The next few stories I have in mind are also fairy tale retellings. The next is going to be a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin, but set in ancient Egypt.

After that, I'm thinking of doing a retelling of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, where the bears are shape-shifters. I'm not sure where to place the setting of that story yet...I'm leaning towards Scotland.

And then, I have in mind the bare bones for a retelling of Snow White, but making it a ghost story. What happens if Snow White truly does die after biting the poisoned apple?  Again, not sure where to put the setting of the story...maybe an African tribe, or something more traditionally spooky, like the mountains of Transylvania. Oooh, maybe Snow White's prince is actually a vampire? Hmmm...who knows at this point.

So many stories are swirling around inside my head, but until I start writing down the outline, and actually putting words on paper, they're very vague and formless. I'm going to try to actually outline my entire next book with a very detailed outline, so I really know what I'm writing before I write it. I think this will really help with my writing speed.

You'll see in my next post all about my writing goals for 2015. They're pretty lofty. I have a lot of writing that I want to do, so I need to make sure that I make the most of my time, and write as quickly as possible.

So, here I go...