Whoo boy, this might be long so buckle up. This is a large authors note related to What We Did Before and The Skies that Changed. If thatās not your thing, thereās plenty of other fandom stuff out there to peruse. Happy trails!!!
Iāve mentioned a few times that I started writing original work. Itās all romance, smutty romance, because thatās where my head and heart are. For a long time nowā¦ a very long timeā¦ likeā¦. 2019ā¦ Iāve been working with writing friends to turn my ideas in The Songbirds Eagle into a reality. Iāve chatted with friends in the fandom to separate if completely from Zelda related things, coming up with a newer setting, different beasts and creatures, and an entirely premise and tropes while still keeping the same overall plot idea that thereās an impending apocalypse of some sort and someone/someones have to stop it.
Iām now at a point where I have a good team around me of alpha and beta readers. Most of them are writers themselves Iāve been lucky to meet through publishing other works. I have three other projects I need to complete (a final book in a series and a trilogy I started), but then Iām going to start moving my original manuscript for SBE toward the publishing stages.
Iām not going to query. The idea of that stresses me out so much, and Iāve had friends whoāve gone through it and itās rough. Iām just going to bank money from some of my other books, maybe post it to Kindle Vella as I write, and self-publish it. I have no idea the exact timeframe for this but Iām putting it out into the universe that it will happen. Iām willing it into existence. Iām āØāØmanifesting āØāØ. Iām hoping to God I can keep my anxiety in check long enough to do it.
That being said, WWDB and TSTC will be changing. Iām going to edit names. NOTHING ABOUT THE STORY ITSELF WILL CHANGE. But Iām going to pull all my original characters out to prevent any conflicts of interest or accusations of plagiarism or anything. Thereās also the fact that I need to separate it entirely from anything Zelda related for obvious reasons. But I wanted to give a heads up that itāll be happening hopefully in the next few months.
I donāt know how itās going to happen. It might be that I have to pull it completely, edit, and repost. Iād rather not do that. Hopefully Iāll just be able to edit and do a search/find to replace the names.
I DID private and pull down Songbirdās eagle and Fierce Affair completely for very specific reasons. It killed me to do it, it really did. But it was necessary if I want to take this seriously and itās been a long time coming. I happen to be on a āwriting breakā so I had time.
WWDB and TSTC will stay up, or be reposted if I have to pull them down (I REALLY hope thatās not the case š±š±š) but a lot of names will change. It wonāt affect the story at all for new readers but I wanted to offer an explanation for anyone who stumbles upon them and subsequently finds this blog that Iāve changed the name of a thousand times.
As a side note, publishing is the scariest thing Iāve ever done. The pressure of success, the absolute nightmare that is self-marketing for someone with extreme social anxiety. Its terrifying. And Iāve given birth four times, and am raising two teenagers in THIS WORLD WE LIVE IN š±.
But itās also the most worthwhile thing Iāve ever done.
From the first moment I shared WWDB in its early infancy, those comments were my lifeblood. Those comments kept me going , and reviews Iāve gotten on my books have made me so happy. Even the negative ones! Theyāre all valid and they mean so much. I have close writing friends whoāve published for years and when I made friends with the authors of two of my favorite books I literally started crying after our first zoom call. I have simultaneously never felt so much elation and anxiety at the same time and itās wonderful.
And it all started here. It all started because I took a chance and I got lucky. It all started because people messaged me and loved the words that came out of my head. Iāve met some of my dearest mutuals on this site (the flock, you know who you areā¦), but every single anonymous message has meant so much. SO MUCH. I should respond to them all just to say thank you, and I guess thatās what this message is. Thank you. Thank you. I know I donāt interact here much or post content anymore but thank you.
So if you have an author you love, leave them reviews. Buy their books (see if they sell them directly! Put more $ in their pocket than inā¦ that website that sells books). Interact with them. Join Facebook groups or discords. Share their work. It means the world because the only way we get our words out there is by sharing them. Especially if theyāre self published/indie published. Itās hard out there.
I said I was gonna be long š but if youāve stuck around this far, I appreciate it more than anything. Once I get brave enough to share pen names and start building hype, Iāll post it here.
Thank you.
