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.

Here's the synopsis:

Leonidas is a captain in the army of a King he hates. On the night when the rebels take the city, Leonidas only wants to find his brother.  Ciphas is a guard in the King's harem.  Leonidas hears a story about a guard who was thrown into the tiger's pit with a harem girl.  Racing to unlock the pit, he finds nothing but dead bodies and a very beautiful woman resting in the arms of the tiger.

You got chills, right?

Fourth:

Curses!

It seems that I am not yet ready to release the cover for this book yet.  All the same, let me tell you about it.  Curses! is a full-length novel I've had on my writing desk for at least five years.  It's a good story, and it's 90% finished, so I don't want to discard it.  Except it's reached critical mass.  

To me, that means that I can't edit the first chapter anymore.  I can't edit the second chapter either... Or the first plot arch.  I've started to finish it too many times and had to walk away for various reasons.  I can't work on certain parts of it anymore.  So, since I have reached such a deadly crossroads, I have found that there is only one way to proceed.  

Once I finish releasing these three books - it's time for Curses!  Here's what I'm going to do.  I'm going to sit down at my computer on the first day, and I'm going to release each chapter as soon as I finish it with zero regard for what day that is or how it happens.  It's a sloppy way to do things, but I can't see another way forward.  If I don't just start releasing it - it will NEVER come out.  And it is too good to leave on the editing table any longer.  

So doom or death or dread or dead... It's coming out.  It's a full-on fantasy romance with tons of combat.  I don't think it quite crosses the line to dark romance, but we'll see.  I'm going to war with my book.  Good luck to me.  

I hope you enjoy what I have in store for you this year, and if you read anything on GooglePlay, Royal Road, Inkitt, or Amazon, I hope that you will leave a review.  I've been in a review desert lately.

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

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

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.  

I struggle to write contemporary romance.  It feels like everything has been done already and there's nothing left to do.  It's easier to write something shorter because then there's less temptation to write overdone cliches.  

The Land of Umbrellas was a difficult piece for me.  If you read it, you won't understand why.  It comes off as pretty effortless... in a good way.  Except that it wasn't.  I kept taking the wrong turn and having to go back and scrap what I'd written.  Finally, this year, I was going to finish it or I was going to die trying.  I think it ended as well as it was going to.  I'm pretty proud.

Here's the synopsis:

Lindsay Thomas wanted to be an actress, but that mostly meant 'acting' like she had her life together. When she gets an opportunity to help one of her acting buddies renovate a hotel for the winter, she moves to Vancouver Island to get a fresh start in a place where it rains all the time and where umbrellas keep popping up to keep her dry.

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

On Inkitt: https://www.inkitt.com/stories/romance/1276726

The House With Two Halves

Welcome Ink Drinkers!

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

Cut Like Glass

One of the things I really enjoy writing is novelettes.  I wish I had discovered them sooner.  They are SO MUCH FUN!

'Cut Like Glass' is my latest.  Here's the synopsis!

Bart has a two-week dating pattern.  He wins them over with dinner dates, evenings out, and lavish experiences, but dumps them at the end of the fourteen days.  He doesn't mind the mascara smears because they are not on him.  

What will happen when his driver picks up the wrong girl and brings her to his mansion in the mountains? 

Let's talk about the cover.  I bought a cover through GetCovers ages ago because I started this story ages ago.  The original cover looked just like the one to the right except that the couple was not there. It was simply a picture of some very magical-looking glass.  The more I thought about it, the more I felt that the cover simply would not do for the Inkitt release.  There were two reasons why the cover was bad the way it was.  One was that a book cover should convey the genre of the book if nothing else.  The magical glass wasn't doing that.  This is a contemporary romance.  Secondly, I have been noticing that covers with couples on them do better on Inkitt.  So... I opted to use the cover I bought before with the addition of the married couple on the front.  I used the cover just the way I bought it for the RoyalRoad release because they hate romance, but they come and read it anyway.  They just don't like it, favorite it, add reviews, or comment.  But they come and read it anyway.  

Now for the story.  It turned out beautifully.  It's 17K, but when you read it, it will feel like you've read 3K.  It's light as a feather and easier to gobble than cotton candy.  Your eyes will eat ten pages and you'll think you've eaten three.  I was surprised that the final word count was as high as 'Tiny Wishes' and 'Born in January'.  It's exactly the same length.  Oddly enough, 'Heart's Key' is the same length too.  17K is just lucky for me.  This book is eight chapters instead of eighteen.

I'm releasing it on Inkitt https://www.inkitt.com/StephanieVanOrman

And Quotev https://www.quotev.com/StephanieVanOrman

And RoyalRoad https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/81328/cut-like-glass

I will release the last chapter this upcoming Tuesday.  

  

New Year - New Projects

Hello Ink Drinkers,

Soooooooo... It's the new year.  I didn't join a gym.  I barely remembered to drink something bubbly on New Year's Eve.  

This last year, my personal goal didn't have anything to do with writing.  Ever since I gave up trying to make money with my writing, I just do what makes me happy as a writer and move on.  With that mentality, I released four science fiction novels this year and two novelettes (one fantasy, one contemporary).  So, I'm a beast... I get it.  I also experienced a HUMONGOUS leap in hits and downloads.  So, refusing to focus on writing worked out well for me.  

All last year, I focussed on fashion.  I wore a different thing to church every Sunday for the entire year.  IT WAS AMAZING!  Honestly, I have rarely had so much fun.  I had so many options of what to wear when all the holiday parties hit.  I didn't even fuss.  I just walked into my closet (which isn't as cool as it sounds) and chose something to wear (which was way cooler than it sounds).   It was such a riot that when I tried to figure out what to do with myself this coming year, I found myself wondering if I could just do another year of fashion.  Honestly, when I think of that, it sounds amazing, but... I don't think I can dress much better than the people around me without causing a completely unnecessary problem.  I mean, I'm an old hag, but I was hit on by five teenage boys in the mall this last year.  They didn't even notice the gray hair.

Anyway, another year of fashion is out.  So, I thought of making my own hair accessories.  I have a lot of hair and I could always use more, but hair accessories are a younger woman's game.  I craft quite a lot.  I had one year where I crocheted an afghan every two months, so I had six at the end of the year.  

*Sigh* This post is shaping up like whatever bloggers put before they share a recipe.

I decided to do audiobooks.  

First, I started making audiobooks on GooglePlay.  From the selections available in the dropdown menu, they only let you make AI audiobooks, so I started doing that.  Fighting with GooglePlay is not my strong suit.  It tends to win, so I've been fighting with it this week.  So far, I have live audiobooks on GooglePlay for:

Tiny Wishes

The Blood that Flows

Whenever You Want

Kiss of Tragedy

Behind His Mask: The First Spell Book

Hidden Library: The Second Spell Book

If I'm a good girl, I should have the rest finished by the end of the month.  However, that's not really what I want.  Frankly, after experimenting with AI, I have to say... it doesn't swear very well.  I don't put a lot of bad words in my books.  I leave them out because using swear words all the time turns me into the boy who cried wolf.  If my books are littered with strong language, what do I do when I want to imply the severity of the situation?  That's right.  When I use strong language, I want it to pop.  It doesn't pop when being read by an AI.  If anything, it makes the swear words sound ridiculous.

Anyway, I'm experimenting with making audio books myself.  I'll start small and see how it goes. 

I also have a big snarly stack of unfinished novelettes and other goodies.  I made a list of all my unfinished projects that I hope to finish and the list was long.  

We'll see what I can accomplish this year, but if I'm really productive, I'll have proper audiobooks that have not been read by AI.  Seriously, tell your Google to pronounce 'Damn it' for you and see what you think.