Saturday, February 24, 2024

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.  

  


Thursday, January 4, 2024

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.



Friday, December 1, 2023

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:




  

Saturday, November 18, 2023

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



Friday, September 22, 2023

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.


Sunday, August 27, 2023

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!

Thursday, May 4, 2023

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!

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'...