Shameless plug post
And the thing is done.
So, hi! I don't know how well-traveled LJ is these days, which is a shame. But if anyone comes by, here's a plug for a thing I've been working on for a long time. It's also the first writing I've ever had for sale. I'm not going to shame anyone or whine about sales; I'm just saying, here's a thing, and if you're interested, there it is.
The Healers' Road - Amazon Kindle edition (KDP, yes, self-published)
I hope to have it on Smashwords (i.e. more formats) once the Amazon-exclusive period runs out in January.
It's a low-fantasy / slice-of-life story about a pair of healers - one magical, one mundane - who are thrown together on a humanitarian mission to provide medical aid to rural communities. Both of them are resentful at first at having been sent on this trip, and feuding ensues. But travel expands the horizons, as they say. Eventually they will see that each has a lot to offer the other.
So now that I'm posting on my "home turf" (it still feels like home turf, anyway), I'll be a bit less formal:
I worked on this project halfassedly for a long time, easing back into writing after not writing any fiction for several years. It was my toe-into-the-water project, zealously guarded. I told nobody what I was doing and told myself that nobody would ever see it, so it was OK that I sucked.
HA.
For a couple of years I poked around in circles, making up a bunch of characters and writing bits of all of their stories. A couple of years ago, though, I started to get into the idea of improving my writing, and started reading about the publishing business and the ~writing process~. I cut the string of random scenes apart into the stubs of several stories and began to shape the longest one into a more cohesive whole. I didn't crumble when I put myself under the expectation of not-sucking. It was fun to try to make the story better.
Despite my ongoing massive inferiority complex, I caved and let my husband read the first few chapters. When he didn't immediately divorce me for crimes against art and humanity, I kept going. Several writing binges, one complete overhaul/rewrite and two rounds of beta-reading later, here we are. It's out there. It's finished, and that's enough. If people love it or hate it or buy it or don't, it's still finished. I still finished something. And if somebody comes across it and likes it, if it entertains them for a few hours and/or makes them feel something - then that's all I'm going to ask from the world.
I'm not going to wax philosophical that everyone can achieve great things. I'm not sure whether that's true. Happenstance and connections still mean a lot. But I've wanted to write books since I was a small child. And yeah, sure, I'm not on the bestseller lists. I'm not doing signings. Literally anyone can upload anything that is vaguely book-shaped to KDP. Not much of a bar to clear on that end.
But I worked hard and I finished something that I never thought I could. That's something I do want to pass along. It's long and difficult and scary; I was terrified to let anyone read this thing at first. But it's still worth it. That goal, whatever it is, is worth it. And for me, the goal wasn't making a million dollars. The goal was to step up onto a platform, however small, and tell a story there - to let the story stand, however good it is, instead of hiding in a dark corner.
So the story has been told. The goal has been met. I'm satisfied with that. I'm just looking forward to the next one. It's in the works now.
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These days I post a bit on Tumblr, about books that I've read, mostly (and the angst leading up to this thing's release, which is now a nonissue). That's about it.