Sadly, this also means that I will no longer be uploading my novels to Inkitt, Quotev, Royal Road, Scribblehub, or Tapas before they've been available on GooglePlay Books, Apple Books, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and all the bookstore sites for at least a year. What can I say? I've been receiving more interest for my books on GooglePlay than I have on those chapter-by-chapter sites. It's a shame, but it's true.
I Dream of Black Butterflies
The official blog of independent novelist, Stephanie Van Orman
Thursday, August 14, 2025
Teardrop Editions
Sadly, this also means that I will no longer be uploading my novels to Inkitt, Quotev, Royal Road, Scribblehub, or Tapas before they've been available on GooglePlay Books, Apple Books, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and all the bookstore sites for at least a year. What can I say? I've been receiving more interest for my books on GooglePlay than I have on those chapter-by-chapter sites. It's a shame, but it's true.
Friday, April 25, 2025
Dream of the Wolf
I'm here today to talk about my new story, 'Dream of the Wolf'. Here's the synopsis:
Selphie awoke in a sealed room surrounded by ladders. On the bed next to her is a white wolf. He has promised not to EAT her, but she doesn't believe him. Wolves can't climb trees or ladders. She could leave him there, but what horrors will she find on the upper floors to send her back down to the wolf who swears he isn't hungry?
Originally, I got the idea for this story when I was doing a brainstorming session for stories that could go in a fantasy anthology. I did a contemporary romance anthology, and it has enjoyed a shocking amount of success. I really don't deserve to be surprised. Contemporary romance is probably the most popular genre in the world. However, I got really excited by the prospect of writing a bunch of anthologies, so I got my brain really busy and cooked up a bunch of ideas for an anthology.
If I'm making a fantasy anthology, the first book has to be 'Heart's Key' and then 'The House with Two Halves'. But, I didn't want the whole thing to simply be fantasy romance, even though romance is my favorite genre.
I also have this sick little corner of my mind where I want to turn concepts that are traditionally used to write smutty stories and turn them into something human that awakens something noble in a person instead of something sexually exciting. I had already done it for vampires with my book, 'The Blood That Flows', and then I did it again for billionaires in my book, 'Cut Like Glass' (I bet some of you are surprised by that system of logic since I don't focus that hard on Bart's money in the story. I only made him a millionaire. If I had it to do over, I would have made him even richer... However, it stands nicely as it is), and so I wanted to do a wolf story.
Here it is.
It's available to read now on:
Royal Road https://www.royalroad.com/profile/183381
Inkitt https://www.inkitt.com/StephanieVanOrman
Scribblehub https://www.scribblehub.com/profile/152188/stephanievanorman/
Tapas https://tapas.io/tigrix
Quotev https://www.quotev.com/StephanieVanOrman
It's also available as an audiobook on GooglePlay and AppleBooks. As I celebrated before, it is killing it on GooglePlay. It's breaking my download records left and right. I sure hope no one is expecting a werewolf romance novel from me because this isn't it.
Cheers!
Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Audiobooks on Spotify
Getting my books up on Spotify was one of my big goals for the year. Look at that! It's March, and I already got it done.
Let's talk about my other writing goals for the year.BTW: Last year was a horrible year. I floundered at everything I tried to do. I've been trying desperately to stop that trend in its tracks and get back to winning.
So, here are the plans for this year.
First:
I have posted the first 37 chapters of Goldilocks Zone on Inkitt, Quotev, Royal Road, Scribblehub, and Tapas.
It's the fourth book of the Sleeping Beauty Inc. series. Here's the synopsis:
Ornette is a model who has been bought and sold many times. This time, she's been sold to participate in a fashion reality TV show on Venus called Goldilocks Zone.
When this book is finished, it will be the longest of the Sleeping Beauty Inc. books. Rose Red was around 65k, Sleeping Prince was around 75k, Beauty of Ares was about 85k, and Goldilocks Zone is the longest at a whopping 99k. I can't write any more of these books because I no longer write books that are over 100k. Just kidding. I have a few more ideas for these books, and since they get tons of readers, there might be another book in the works, but not immediately.
I release chapters on Mondays and Thursdays.
Second:
Dream of the Wolf is a short story that has been divided into 100% necessary chapters, so I'm calling it a novelette. I have released it early in its entirety on GooglePlay Books (audiobook and ebook), AppleBooks, Barnes and Noble, Baker & Taylor, Hoopla, Smashwords, Kobo, Draft2Digital Audio, Vivlo, Tolino, and so many more, it's hard to remember them all. It will get released on Inkitt, Quotev, Royal Road, Scribblehub, Tapas, and Fictionpress after I finish releasing Goldilocks Zone.
Here's the synopsis:
Selphie awoke in a sealed room surrounded by ladders. On the bed next to her is a white wolf. He has promised not to EAT her, but she doesn't believe him. Wolves can't climb trees or ladders. She could leave him there, but what will she find on the upper floors to send her back down to the wolf who swears he isn't hungry?
Third:
This is a novelette/novella that is close to being complete. It is not available anywhere yet. I haven't even written a synopsis for it yet. I think it will probably be ready to have a release similar to Dream of the Wolf where it is released on the big sites before it's available on the read-only sites. If all goes well, it will be ready to be released before summer.Saturday, July 20, 2024
Dictionary of Characters
Sometimes, I think something like what I'm about to do would be useful, so I have made these before, but this time I'm going to post it online since I seem to do a better job of keeping track of my documents that way. I would also like to say that this is not a complete list. It is merely a list of the primary characters that I can remember off the top of my head. The leads are getting marked. I hope you enjoy!
A
Alexander - Whatever You Want
Axel - If Diamonds Could Talk
Antony - Hidden Library
Apostate - Sleeping Prince
Armen - Beauty of Ares
Annaliese - Born in January
Aaron - Blog Entries of the Brokenhearted
B
Blanche - Kiss of Tragedy
Beth/Bethany - His 16th Face
Brandon - His 16th Face
Bobby - If Diamonds Could Talk
Benediction - Sleeping Prince
Beck/Beckett - Beauty of Ares
Blueleg - Heart's Key
Bart - Born in January
C
Christina - Whenever You Want
Colin - Whenever You Want
Cerise - Kiss of Tragedy
Carly - Behind His Mask
Christian - His 16th Face
Charles - His 16th Face
Clementine - Hidden Library
Carver - If I Tie U Down
Cinni - Sleeping Prince
Charcoal - Beauty of Ares
Cassica - Beauty of Ares
Carlos - Beauty of Ares
Crimp - Octavia Girl
Conrad - Octavia Girl
Celestina - Octavia Girl
Careen - The Land of Umbrellas
D
Dominic - Whenever You Want
Dudley - The Blood That Flows
Derrach - Behind His Mask
Dante - Sleeping Prince
E
Evander - Behind His Mask
Excelyn - Octavia Girl
F
Fiona - Kiss of Tragedy
Falon - Rose Red
Felicity-Ann - His 16th Face
Faire-Isle - Hidden Library
Fletch/Fletcher - If I Tie U Down
Favel - Octavia Girl
Fallcet - Octavia Girl
Faydra - Heart's Key
Fayette - The House With Two Halves
G
Gibson - His 16th Face
Gage - Sleeping Prince
Gavin - The Land of Umbrellas
H
Helona - Kiss of Tragedy
Harrison - Rose Red
Hattie - Hidden Library
Heratic - Sleeping Prince
Hessia - Beauty of Ares
I
Intarsia - Hidden Library
Iona - Sleeping Prince
Invocation - Beauty of Ares
J
Juliet - Kiss of Tragedy
June - Hidden Library
Jenna - Octavia Girl
Josh - Octavia Girl
John - Blog Entries of the Brokenhearted
K
Kalavan - Behind His Mask
Keziah - Rose Red
Kimberley - Born in January
Kerry - Blog Entries of the Brokenhearted
L
Laura - Whenever You Want
London - The Blood That Flows
Loring - Behind His Mask
Lance - His 16th Face
Leviticus - Sleeping Prince
Lisbet - Beauty of Ares
Lucy - Octavia Girl
Lou - Octavia Girl
Leander - Heart's Key
Lindsay - The Land of Umbrellas
M
Mark - Whenever You Want
Murmur - Behind His Mask
Marshall - The Blood That Flows
Misha - Octavia Girl
Mirr - Octavia Girl
Muriel - Tiny Wishes
Marissa - The Land of Umbrellas
N
Nixie - Kiss of Tragedy
Narissa - Rose Red
Natalie - If I Tie U Down
O
Osric - Rose Red
Olivine - Sleeping Prince
Oliver - The Land of Umbrellas
P
Paulo - Kiss of Tragedy
Pierce - The Blood That Flows
Paige - Rose Red
Pricina - His 16th Face
Pearl - Hidden Library
Philip - Octavia Girl
Q
Quinn - If I Tie U Down
R
Rylan - Kiss of Tragedy
Roan - The Blood That Flows
Rachel - Behind His Mask
Rhuk - If Diamonds Could Talk
Rin/Ringlet - If I Tie U Down
Raylynn - Sleeping Prince
Ryatt - Octavia Girl
Rennett - Octavia Girl
Rossi - Octavia Girl
Raif - Tiny Wishes
Ricky/Richenda - The Land of Umbrellas
S
Seth/Sethos - Kiss of Tragedy
Sweeper - The Blood That Flows
Schroder - The Blood That Flows
Sarah - Behind His Mask
Serissa - Behind His Mask
Sarafina - Behind His Mask
Serena - Behind His Mask
Steve (Skull Boy) - His 16th Face
Salinger - Hidden Library
Shannon - If I Tie U Down
Simon - If I Tie U Down
Stonic - Sleeping Prince
Sherman - Sleeping Prince
Sardius - Octavia Girl
Smoothie - Octavia Girl
Scion - Octavia Girl
T
Taylor - Kiss of Tragedy
Tate - The Blood That Flows
Tawnee - Kiss of Tragedy
Tremor - Behind His Mask
Trevor - Rose Red
Trinity - His 16th Face
Tallis - If I Tie U Down
Tiffany - If I Tie U Down
Todd - If I Tie U Down
Theology - Sleeping Prince
Tanya - Sleeping Prince
Testament - Sleeping Prince
Tuton - Sleeping Prince
Tiffania - Beauty of Ares
Temptic - Octavia Girl
Torsten - The House With Two Halves
Trevor - Tiny Wishes
Trip - Born in January
U
V
Valance - Behind His Mask
Veda - Hidden Library
Vantz - Beauty of Ares
Vash - Octavia Girl
W
Wystan - Rose Red
Wyn/Wyntessa - Tiny Wishes
X
Y
Z
Zaphier - Rose Red
Friday, July 12, 2024
Octavia Girl Vol. IV
Hi Ink Drinkers,
Let's talk about Octavia Girl Vol. IV. Soo.... I am not really ready to release this. If I lived in a perfect world, I wouldn't release it. I have a complete manuscript, but... I'd really rather sit on it for a few months, edit the hell out of it, and release it then. Except... I'm getting a little flack from my readers.
In response to impatient readers, I have to say:
1. I could write a volume of Octavia Girl once a year for the rest of my life, but if you're all going to explode between release dates... I'd rather not.
2. I'm not getting paid for this.
3. I want to ban impatient readers. I'm not talking about 'I'm so excited for your next book! When's it coming out?' I mean explosions blaming me for having an incomplete series. 'I never read incomplete series and if I'd had any idea that yours was incomplete, I never would have read it. You have wasted my time and ruined my life and now I wish you would just ^*&."
4. As if all this isn't hard enough..
I don't want to release this book. If you're thinking that I'm being bullied into releasing it now, that is only partly true. There are other problems.
Problems like:
1. This is it for the covers. The artist who did the pictures of Jenna (didn't know she was making pictures of Jenna) and I've run out of pictures from her collection of a girl who looks enough like Jenna to squeak by with my graphic design skills. I had to give the girl on the fourth cover a nose job so she'd look enough like the girl on the front of the first book. We've also run dry on possible covers from the artist who did the backgrounds. It was quite difficult to stitch this fourth cover together and I don't know if I could do a fifth cover without massively sacrificing quality.
2. There hasn't been enough interest for me to have reasonable belief that the average reader will be interested beyond the fourth book. Normally, I say that if a book has earned 4k hits, it's been worth it. Well, Octavia Girl earned the necessary number of hits on Royal Road, but not on any of the other sites where it was hosted. It just hasn't been popular enough. My Sleeping Beauty Inc. series has been popular enough on all platforms to warrant it's continuance. Octavia Girl is a weird genre. It may need time to get more readers and maybe it'll get the necessary popularity after it's complete, but by then I will have moved on. Oh, the irony.
3. If I pause and pursue other projects, I'll come back to Octavia Girl and I'll have no idea what I had in mind, what I was doing, where I was going, Sardius will have left me and I'll have to dedicate myself to studying my own books in order to finish. It's better to push myself now than lose all that I've worked for in a haze of forgetfulness.
Octavia Girl Vol. IV will be the last book.
It has to be. At the end the series will be around 240k. That's a beast and I don't have the kind of brain that wants to just work on one thing. I want to work on lots of things, so I don't know if I'll ever even write another series like this in the future.
I hope you all enjoy this last bit. I think it's good. I'm happy with my final draft. I just wish I had a bit more time to stew over it before I release it. There will be very little stewing. I'm releasing it chapter by chapter on Thursdays on the following sites:
Royal Road: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/64843/octavia-girl
Inkitt: https://www.inkitt.com/stories/scifi/1298721
Quotev: https://www.quotev.com/story/15561209/Octavia-Girl/8
ScribbleHub: https://www.scribblehub.com/series/1138250/octavia-girl-vol-iv/
Tapas: https://tapas.io/series/Octavia-Girl-Vol-IV
Wednesday, June 26, 2024
The Land of Umbrellas
Hi Ink Drinkers,
Contemporary romance is blessed. Whenever I write a contemporary romance piece, it always gets a whack-load of interest from the public compared to my other pieces.It's available on RoyalRoad: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/86720/the-land-of-umbrellas
On Quotev: https://www.quotev.com/story/16549586/The-Land-of-Umbrellas/1
Friday, May 3, 2024
The House With Two Halves
Today, I'm announcing my novelette, The House With Two Halves. It's a fantasy romance like Heart's Key. I always wanted to write an entire book of fairy tales. I'll get there. When I have four fairy tale novelettes, I'll have enough to make an anthology. That will be amazing, but one story at a time. Here's the synopsis:
The House With Two Halves
For once, a prince must be sacrificed for the kingdom instead of a princess. Prince Torsten has been raised to be a toothless lion. He's a man untrained in battle and unaccustomed to warfare. Instead, he was taught to paint beautifully, speak beautifully, and write beautifully. Was it just so he wouldn't put up a fight?
The Cover
This cover is from Shutterstock by an artist called Blackspring. They do a lot of fairy tale images. This one was a picture of a door. My big idea for the cover for The House With Two Halves was to cut the image in half. The cut created the tree in the middle, which was a delightful surprise for me when I was fiddling around with the image. I was hesitant to do a door for the image because the cover for Behind His Mask is a door in the middle of nowhere. My library of books is becoming large enough that finding entirely new concepts for covers is becoming a challenge. However! I like the way it turned out. I always like blocky, geometric art like this. Thanks to Blackspring for making something so charming.
The Extra Tail in the Fairy Tale
One of the features of this novelette is The Extra Tail in the Fairy Tale. At the end of each chapter, I take the opportunity to shift perspectives and tell a point of view other than Torsten's. Honestly, I loved doing it. It is one of the best parts of the book. It's a bit of a play on the birds and woodland creatures helping to clean the house in modern fairy tales. So, we get the perspective of people in the extra tail, but we also get the perspective of animals and objects. It's joyful and a little bit scary.
Where To Read
RoyalRoad - https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/85486/the-house-with-two-halves
Inkitt - https://www.inkitt.com/stories/romance/1255014
Quotev - https://www.quotev.com/story/16508843/The-House-with-Two-Halves/1
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