The Word Is Out: I’m Working on a Novel

Has it already been a year since I wrote the first draft? (Answer: almost a year, I finished the first draft in September 2020).

Sorry I didn’t tell y’all about it sooner. So, so, so many bloggers write novels and… I was self-conscious about being yet another blogger who wrote a novel (why? Looking back, I don’t understand why I felt that way). Since I didn’t tell y’all earlier, I’ve been waiting for the ‘right moment’ to mention it.

The moment has come, even if it’s the wrong moment.

I was originally planning to write the essay “Does Fiction Prevent Death” for this blog, but Medium just had a writing challenge. Since I was planning to write that essay anyway, I had nothing to lose by submitting it. Submitting it to the contest made it better, or at least better-edited (I wouldn’t have lathered so much time on revisions if I’d posted it here).

For the most part, I only want to write on Medium if I’m going to submit to publications. It’s nice that I ‘self-published’ that one essay so I can see what how ‘self-publishing’ on Medium compares to submitting to publications edited by people who aren’t me. I paywalled it to see how it interacts with Medium’s internal distribution algorithm, but in a couple months I might un-paywall it. You don’t have to wait since the link up there whisks you past the paywall.

So you read aloud your entire third draft, huh?

Now you know what inspired my recent series of blog posts about audiobooks. When I listen to the recordings of my third draft, I hear problems in my narration technique (I also hear how bad my recording equipment is, it’s fine for private Zoom calls but not fine to ask people to pay for such bad audio quality). The reason I’m planning to have an audiobook edition of my novel is that so many hikers listen to audiobooks while hiking that it’s much harder to reach them without that option. I intend to write another blog post about producing an audiobook.

What’s the title of your novel?

I’ve changed the title multiple times. The current title is The Meek Inherit Bloodthirst, but I might change it again.

Is it a vampire novel?

Hell no. No vampires. Though I can see how the title would give that impression. If I keep that title, I’m going to need a book cover with zero vampire vibes to prevent potential readers from getting the wrong idea.

So what is it about?

A few months ago, I stumbled on an online pitch workshop. I thought it was just going to be a lecture, so I was unprepared to jump in (and was too shy to turn on my microphone or camera). The video recording is on YouTube, and reveals what my novel is about. Amanda Cherry shocked me by having such a positive reaction to my pitch. The one sentence pitch is “a meek princess must control a bloodthirsty saber.” (One of the earlier titles was ‘Meek Princess, Bloodthirsty Saber‘). In the later portion of the video, I reveal more details about the story.

Is this novel a standalone?

No, I intend to make it part of a quartet. The tentative titles for the sequels are: The Orthodox Love Chaos, The Glorious Sing Despair, and The Loyal Surrender Dreams.

These novels don’t sound cheerful.

No, ‘cheerful’ is not an accurate description. Beta readers have described the first novel as ‘somber,’ ‘introspective,’ and ‘stoic,’ but not ‘cheerful.’ (Other beta readers have used words such as ‘adventure’ and ‘RPG’ so maybe it’s a somber RPG adventure?) The Orthodox Love Chaos will probably be the most cheerful book in the quartet, but that’s not saying much.

Are you going to tell us more about the novel?

Yes, now that I’ve admitted to being one of those flawed humans who writes novels, I’ll say more about it in future blog posts.