Beauty of Ares

Hi Ink Drinkers,

Did you love reading Rose Red and Sleeping Prince?  If you did, you're in luck because I wrote another Sleeping Beauty Inc. book.  This is book three.  The Sleeping Beauty Inc. books are only mildly connected and it is my opinion that they could be read in any order, but the best order is the order in which they were delivered with Rose Red first, then Sleeping Prince, and then Beauty of Ares.

Here's the synopsis:

Tired of hiring temporary models?  Why not try an arranged marriage through Sleeping Beauty Inc.'s Gold Edition catalog?  Look no further than Lisbet.  She's the daughter of an 'old money' diamond merchant.  She'll dazzle your contact list with her wave of black hair and her violet eyes.  She'll even travel to Mars, a place infamous for its cruelty toward purchased models.  After her father sells her to Vantz Bloomburg, what could her future possibly hold?

So... I was not expecting this book to get in my head and plague me until it was finished.  I was supposed to write two more Octavia Girl books before I did anything else.  However, it turned out so magical I can't even.

Here is a little clip from chapter two.  People are always getting put in cryostasis in the Sleeping Beauty Inc. books.  This is a little bit from when Lisbet is put into cryostasis for her trip to Mars.  Enjoy:

The lid was clear plexiglass and was meant to look something like a space-worthy glass casket like the one Snow White was dead in. However, there was a bar that broke up the glass, and on it was a tiny screen with instructions and information.

Vantz’s voice came over the speaker. It was deep and low with a slight accent that spoke of culture and civility. “Once upon a time, there was a land that was made of red dust. There was so much of it that it formed dunes of pink sand with jagged black rocks jutting out of it. The sky was a red haze. All the kings of the red sands dreamed of showing their power by turning that pink sand into yellow sand, making that pink sky blue. They all dreamed of it. They poured their money into plans to achieve it, but it was all for nothing. In time, they stopped trying. It was something not even a king could achieve. If a king can’t achieve it, who can?”

His voice stopped and Lisbet saw the sleeping gas drift in through the vents. The little screen in the middle displayed the words, ‘Breathe Normally.’ Lisbet did, though it took all her control to do so.

She fell asleep. The heaviness that hit her was strong. Heaviness was all she knew. Heavy eyelids, heavy hands, heavy thoughts. The thoughts were the heaviest.

I release my books first with chapter updates on Inkitt, Quotev, and Royal Road before they go to the major booksellers.  Here are the links if you can't wait:

Inkitt: https://www.inkitt.com/stories/romance/1149087

Quotev: https://www.quotev.com/story/16188572/Beauty-of-Ares/1

Royal Road: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/77430/beauty-of-ares

  

Born in January

Hi Ink Drinkers,

Sometimes, I don't write a novel.  Sometimes, I write a novelette.  What is a novelette?  Basically, it's what beginner writers write when they think they're writing a novel.  It's very unfortunate to be the one to tell them that 17,000 words is not a novel.  It is not even half of a novel.  It hurts their feelings terribly because a novelette is a really good length for a particular kind of story.  

I enjoy writing them in the extreme.  I love them because I can drop an idea that is not a full novel and have the satisfaction of communicating my idea without having to turn it into a full-fledged masterpiece.  

A full novel has side characters with whole story arches.  It has a complex world with rules.  It has multiple adventures for the MC has to go on.  Frankly, it has closets.  My books always have closets full of clothes and the clothes have to be talked about and sometimes... that wears me out.  Tee hee!  I have a bible for Octavia Girl.  That's right.  That book has so many characters that I have to have a little book with a tab in it for every friggin character.  Now, don't get me wrong.  I love Octavia Girl.  That thing  is going to be five books long, which will make it the longest thing I have ever written, but... sometimes it is sure nice to write something smaller.

I like to think of L.M. Montgomery.  Sure, she wrote novels, but she also wrote scads of tiny things.  The tiny things she wrote are so fabulous.  I have a huge stack of her short story anthologies.  Some of her best work was in short stories.  

I want to write more of them.  

Here's the deal with Born in January and where you can read it.  Today, I finished posting it on:

Inkitt: https://www.inkitt.com/stories/romance/1135029

Quotev: https://www.quotev.com/story/16116144/Born-in-January/1

Royal Road: https://www.quotev.com/story/16116144/Born-in-January/1

Later today, I'll start posting it to other sites like GooglePlay Books, Smashwords, Barnes and Noble, AppleBooks, and the like.  NOT AMAZON.  I do not put my novelettes on Amazon because they will need to be in an anthology for that.  That way I can print a chonky book to put on my shelf.  Later.  I need more of these.  I need it to be at least 120K for that. 

Thanks for reading, Ink Drinkers!

I'll see you soon!

Stephanie

Independent Novelist

Closing My Account on Wattpad

I never thought I would do this.  I never thought I would close my account on Wattpad.  I never, ever, ever thought that I'd close it.  I'm going to close it.  Once I finish typing this out, I'm going to visit my account on Wattpad and close the account.  Here's why:

I don't have any readers.  

Some of the places I post are hotter than others.  I have tons of hits on Fictionpress, but current readers are few.  The reason I still happily post there is that they list their submissions based on WHEN they were submitted.  That means that if you click on Romance, if I have uploaded a new chapter of my story in the last few days, it will be on the first two pages.  If someone is cruising for something to read, they'll see my story.  

It's the same on Vocal.Media.  They list their submissions by date... and a little bit by popularity, but the biggest point is that the story has a chance to be noticed, if only for a few hours.  Sometimes things get whipped out of sight pretty fast if there have been a lot of submissions.

I mention Fictionpress and Vocal.Media because they are the places where my work is noticed the least.  And I'm still satisfied with them.  I don't need much... just a little traction.

On Wattpad, they highlight only their best and brightest... like stuff that has been made into movies or TV shows because everyone and their dog has read it.  For this reason, I don't think there is the foggiest chance in hell of my getting noticed on Wattpad.  No one will ever even see my stories even if they go digging.  My biggest story there has under 400 hits.  Most of my other stories have under a hundred hits.  Some have under fifty.  I've had my stuff there for years because my trying for years has been rewarded elsewhere.  I keep track of my hits and often a month goes by and I get under five hits for my stories on Wattpad.  On other sites, I get thousands of hits to Wattpad's five.  It's horrific.

It's a shame.

But I have been reforming the way I do my writing and I think saying goodbye to Wattpad makes sense for me.  I'm giving up the stuff that doesn't make me happy and licking the floor on Wattpad has NOT made me happy.  

Cheers to you all!  Read my work elsewhere... which means there's no change.  My best readers are already reading elsewhere.

GooglePlay Has Been Good to Me

Hi Ink Drinkers!

Today, I have to say that GooglePlay has been good to me.  So good!  I get so many downloads there a month that it is crazy.  So, since things are already going so well, I think there's room for them to do a little better.  Let me explain.  

On GooglePlay, my book with the most downloads is His 16th Face.  The reason why is obvious.  It's because that book has the most reviews and the best reviews.  So, I was hoping that if any of you have read the books that have no reviews, you could leave reviews and that would help me because there are already people visiting my page and downloading books.   Here are the ones that need reviews the most!

Behind His Mask 

Evander is a complete mystery to Sarah until she's given a spell book he authored.  Is he a tortured prince? A bloodthirsty jester?  The owner of the haunted mansion or the man hired to drive the ghosts out? 

Hidden Library

Veda didn't expect Salinger to fall for her so completely that he was willing to dive into an adventure with needles, crystal balls, spell books, magic circles, and the delicate curtain that separates this world from the next.  

Tiny Wishes

Wyn did not want to live with Raif. The only way to keep him away from her is to make him do an unreasonable task every time he wants to speak to her.  Will she change her mind about him if he grants all her tiny wishes?

There are some of my other novels that only have one review and the stats aren't great.  They need reviews too, but these are the ones that need reviews desperately.  I'd leave a link, but if you read books on GooglePlay, a link isn't a lot of help.  Just go on the app and look for Stephanie Van Orman.  You'll be there in a flash.  

Thank you very much!

Heart's Key

Hi Ink Drinkers!

I shouldn't stack so much on myself, but I really love making stories.  I don't even know where my stories should go, just that I want to send them off into the universe.  

This is a story that came to me very quickly.  It's a fantasy novelette.  Here's the synopsis:

Leander, a knight of the realm, has been sent through slime and muck to a castle on the edge of everything. The ruler of the castle, a red puff of smoke, has invited him to kidnap their most prized possession - the Maiden in the red dress. Can Leander do it without falling in love and making a mess of himself?

I also have a trailer for it!

Here it is:

I have been posting chapters on:

Booknet: https://booknet.com/en/book/hearts-key-b420072

Inkitt: https://www.inkitt.com/stories/fantasy/1055296

Quotev: https://www.quotev.com/story/15730921/Hearts-Key/1

Royal Road: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/67792/hearts-key

Check it out if you have time!

Dead Girls Don't Write Books

Hi Ink Drinkers,

Normally, I make a point to update my blog every month.  I blew it in March, so here we go for April.  Here's the thing... I have spring allergies.  And you can't be allergic if you're unconscious.

It's pretty hard to write when I'm like this.  

Tired

Sleepy

Drowsy

Did I mention sleepy?

I have come to the conclusion that I must have a spirit bear somewhere inside me because all I want to do is lie quietly with my eyes closed.  

I have so much work to do on my writing.  But I find myself throwing a frozen pizza in the oven and dozing while it cooks.  

So, I'm not dead.  I'm just very tired.  

If I'm true to form, I will wake up at the end of April with a whole new lease on life.  

But it's only the middle of April.  I'm going back to bed.

Night, night, little ink drinkers.

Octavia Girl

Hi Ink Drinkers,

Just as I promised, I wrapped up posting If Diamonds Could Talk on all the major sites.  Well, I'm still updating it slowly on Booknet, and maybe a few other tiny places, but the majority is complete.  That means now I get to start posting Octavia Girl.  I'm pretty excited about this.  I don't know why I want to write something this bonkers, but I'm really into science fiction these days.  His 16th Face and If Diamonds Could Talk are both very soft science fiction, beginning in a world we all understand and slowly moving into the world I hope exists beyond the limited vision of our understanding.  Rose Red was not very sci-fi.  Let's be honest.  It isn't, but it gave me the tools to write Sleeping Prince which is very sci-fi.  Sleeping Prince is very heavy in the romance department.  The whole thing breathes and sleeps romance, but Octavia Girl is a bit of a departure from that.  Yes, there is romance.  I'm the author.  There's romance, but the romance is taken to the back burner for the comedy and the drama.  I wanted to write something that represented a woman in a bizarre science-fiction situation.  Embarking on something like this always makes my knees wobble as I worry no one will like the unusual literary contraption I've conceived.  Well, here's hoping.

Let me tell you a bit about the cover.  The first thing is the font.  I made the font that says 'Octavia Girl' and by made, I mean that I strategically butchered another font.  I love it so much!  Secondly, the background.  The background art is by Russian artist, Liia Chevnenko.  It seems to me that she mostly makes art that gets printed on fabric.  Isn't her work delightful? And lastly, the picture of Jenna herself is by another Russian artist, Elena Barenbaum.  I LOVE HER!  She provided the central piece for the girl on the cover of A Little Like Scarlett and for my upcoming novelette, Born in January.

Here's the synopsis for Octavia Girl:

Jenna Fairchild has a secret she has been keeping since she was a baby.  Under her headband, under her grandfather's fedora, under her headphone strap, and under her messy bun, she has been hiding a black crown.  No one could understand it, so she had to keep it hidden.

​

That is, she had to keep it hidden until she was abducted by aliens, given riches beyond her wildest dreams, a palace to herself on an alien world, and been tasted head-to-foot by an enormous alien octopus.  Then she was ready to take her place on the political stage of the universe.  Jenna is not a princess, she's a diplomat.  Armed with arms that are less plentiful than an octopus's, with fewer suction cups, and only one person who can help her... Sardius, who is only a voice speaking to her through an earpiece, Jenna has to crown seven more diplomats or blue and red blood will spill.

Also, I've released the trailer on YouTube.  Now, in case you thought that the trailer is just going to be the synopsis all over again... it's not.  It's something else.

 The introduction is available to read on the following sites:

Booknet:

https://booknet.com/account/novels/view?id=416703

Quotev:

https://www.quotev.com/story/15561209/Octavia-Girl/1

Royal Road:

https://www.royalroad.com/fictions/search?title=Octavia+girl

A Little Update

Hi Ink Drinkers,

Here's a little update on all the stuff I'm doing.  

I've been working on uploading If Diamonds Could Talk on Booknet, Inkitt, Quotev, and Royal Road.  

The girls on Booknet have been giving me a lot to look forward to as they have shown a lot of enthusiasm for the story.  I've really appreciated that as sequels don't really get much attention.

Things have been quiet on Inkitt and Quotev, but the hits keep going up, so I know there are readers.  They're just not saying much.  

I get into long conversations with readers on Royal Road, so that's nice.  It's really something to look forward to. 

All in all, writing sequels has been rather thankless.  At least, that's what I think until I remember Sleeping Prince which did very well despite being a sequel, but Rose Red is one of my highest-performing books.  His 16th Face didn't do nearly as well as I hoped when I was writing it.  

Moving on... Born in January

This is a novelette I will release this year.  Here's the synopsis:

Annaliese and Trip are best friends.  They've known each other since they were children.  They were best friends through high school and went to university together.  Except, they have a secret that they've never told anyone... until they tell everyone.

This is a project very similar in nature to Tiny Wishes.  Not only was Tiny Wishes really fun to write, but it was also extremely rewarding.  It was a fourth of the word count of a decent-sized novel.  The hit count for it has rivaled much larger projects.  The success of it basically caused a revolution inside me.   I decided to take on a collection of smaller projects.  This is the first completed of the new round of stories from me.  I'm delighted.  

I'm also delighted with the cover.  I have been sampling yellow covers for quite some time and they never have as strong an impact as other colors, so yellow keeps getting overlooked.  But this time, the yellow was strong enough.  I may do a post about the graphic design process and how I got that great cover, but not today.

Moving on... Octavia Girl Vol. I

I have been promising this book for well over a year.  I had a major problem with my male protagonist.  My alpha reader scolded me so soundly over the creation of Sardius that I basically had to rewrite all his dialogue.  It's better now.  However, I am still 1,200 words off the desired 60K.  I have to figure it out before I finish releasing If Diamonds Could Talk because this is the next project I'm going to release come hell or high water.  I have a little over a month.  

I have also written the next two books in this universe, which means that I have to follow my alpha reader's instructions and rip apart a ton of dialogue and realign the plot.  I'm really looking forward to it, but I absolutely can't start that job until I get that 1,200 words I need for the first book.  

Where the crap am I going to find 1,200 words?  I keep adding a paragraph and going, "That's fantastic!  Surely I've added a whole 200 words there!" ... Only to find that it was more like 20.  

Moving on... Sleeping Prince

I have been preparing this book as a full ebook that will be released on all the big sites: GooglePlay, Amazon, Smashwords, AppleBooks, Barnes and Noble, DriveThru Fiction, and more.  I'm close to being finished the first half of the manuscript preparation.

The most rewarding thing about it is how few changes are needed.  I wrote this book in three weeks and it is so good.  How come it is some of my best work?  

So, that's all the books I'm working on right now, except for the two I'm not ready to talk about.  Come back and I'll tell you more updates!