Chapter 21 is out! You can find by clicking the cover below:
Or on Wattpad.
To those in Canada: Happy Thanksgiving! I’ll be busy this weekend with the family and such, but I’m still hoping to find some time soon to personalize the site a bit more.
In the vein of giving thanks – thank you to everyone who has been following along with my work, checking out the site, and just supporting me in general. It means everything to me.
Chapter 20 of Secrets and Skin is now up!
As a quick update – I’m working on a short story for an Urban Fantasy competition. The theme is scary/Hallowe’en creatures. It is finished but will need some good edits and a cover before I post it. Should be on the site in a couple days!
I’m back! Yes, I took the past week off (hence the lack of updates) and I wanted to talk about my reasons, because it’s something I’ve been struggling with a lot recently.
In case you don’t know, Secrets and Skin is a novel that I’ve already written and which I’m editing as I post. And promoting. And cross-posting.
Anyway… what this means is that, while I am frequently posting “new content,” I am doing very little actual writing. Which, as a writer, is obviously not a desirable situation. I WANT to write. Instead I’ve been spending a lot of time editing and focusing on building a platform. And let me tell you something, building a platform takes a lot of time and energy (building a website, creating a twitter audience, chumming it up on Wattpad). Particularly if you’re an introvert that struggles with anxiety and depression. Cause nothin’ gets you down like social media.
Don’t get me wrong, I love connecting with other writers and reading their work – there’s seriously some amazing content out there and I wish I had time to read it all – but I’m also struggling to find a balance. Connecting and sharing while also giving myself space to enjoy the act of just writing a story. Taking time to read and be creative so that I can foster inspiration and learn. Not to mention taking care of my mental health.
So what does this mean for me? The truth is that I don’t know. And that’s pretty much what I’m here to say. Yes, I am building a platform. Yes, I am aiming for professionalism. But I’m also a human being who is floundering about, trying to find their place in this crazy world. And I don’t want to hide that part. It’s disorienting and intimidating sharing your work (art, writing, gluten-free paleo dessert recipes, whatever) and it takes some figuring out. Some trial and error.
So here I am. For now, I’m pulling back a bit on social media. As nice as it is to see my reads rise from Wattpad book clubs and to find really neat titles I’d like to read some day, I’m done with them for now. I don’t have time to read the titles I have on hold right now, let alone adding more. Hopefully that will change as time goes on, but for now it would be an injustice to add to my “To Read” list.
Secrets will still release on Wednesdays and Fridays, for the time being. I will be somewhat active on Twitter and definitely respond to comments and such on Wattpad. But from now on, I want to put a concerted effort toward taking time to write or just be creative.
And seeing as my 2 year old just woke up a couple hours after going to bed… I’m out. Let me know in the comments how you balance your writing and promotion (not to mention your responsibilities). Or let me know what you like to see from the writers/ artists you follow online.
As usual let’s start with the week’s updates:
Secrets and Skin has two new chapters out, you can find them here:
In case you missed it last week, there were also two short story updates:
Good Girl (previously published on The Purple Fig)
I also have a twitter account now! If you want to stay up-to-date with all of my ongoing releases and news you can check it on the right —>
(Follow me… I’m lonely!)
Next: I’m getting some feedback that the current cover for Secrets is a bit racy, suggesting that it is in fact an erotic novel or heavily romantic… which if you’re reading it… you know is not at all the case. So I’m looking into updating it. If you have any suggestions for imagery please let me know – I’m struggling to find something appropriately urban-fantasy-ish while still staying true to its tone.
Finally… it turns out I may have access to a recording studio. For a while now I’ve been playing with the idea of recording Secrets and Skin and basically releasing the audio chapters along with the written ones. Would anyone be interested in this? Obviously this would take some time and resources so I’d like to have an idea of interest before I begin.
Let me know what you think in the comments and maybe I can put together a sample audio chapter in a couple weeks!
News!
First of all Secrets and Skin: Chapter 13 came out last Friday and Chapter 14 is out now!
You can also read them on Wattpad.
There should be a couple short story additions over the course of the week. I’ll include links to them in next week’s blog post but in theory one should be up today and another Friday. (EDIT: Oh, look…. I got one up already. You can check out my previously published story, Good Girl now.)
Finally… drum roll please…
Over the past year or so I have been collaborating with my husband’s mother (an artist from Paris, Ontario… you can check out her Facebook page HERE) on a children’s Christmas book.
And voila!
The books will be sold at the Christmas in Paris art event (again Paris, Ontario) and I will post the details for that as it gets closer. They will also be available on Amazon and I will share those details as well.
As you can see it features some absolutely stunning artwork and a whimsical story of the magical, but brief, life of a snowflake born on Christmas Eve.
So yes, very exciting stuff!
If anyone is curious about the self-publishing process (we used CreateSpace) and what we learned as complete newbies navigating it, I would be happy to dedicate a blog post to it. I am definitely not an expert, but I learned A LOT fumbling my way through it the first time.
Until next time, hope you are all enjoying the last few weeks of summer and good luck to those just beginning the school year!
Chapter 12 of Secrets and Skin is out today!
For those who haven’t read it yet, Secrets and Skin tells the story of Selene Kondo, a university drop out who finds herself caught in a supernatural conflict after a deadly attack at her friend’s going away party. It’s story about the implications of modern magic, but also of mental health, trust and the importance of choice. Of having agency over one’s life when everyone else would use it for their own goals – both mundane and magical.
You can also read it over at Wattpad.
Chapter 13 will be out on Friday and hopefully it will be accompanied by an updated short story.
I’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to leave a comment or some feedback below or on my work. Thanks for reading!
NEW SITE!
Sorry, I’m just a little excited… but yes! The new site is up and running. It’s still a bit of a work-in-progress but I have uploaded plenty of content for you to explore (see the above menu).
All of my Wattpad content can now be found here, so those who felt uncomfortable making an account can access it via this site.
So what’s here?
First of all you can find my ongoing serialization of my urban fantasy novel Secrets and Skin. New chapters are released on Wednesdays and Fridays. You can find out more by clicking the picture below:
Other than that, there are a variety of short stories in the “Shorts” section:
A cautionary tale of one man’s bid for power.
An old woman’s desperate search through a dark and twisted wood.
A modern retelling of a fairy tale classic unlike any you’ve read before.
New shorts are typically released once a week, either on Wednesdays or Fridays though I try to squeeze them in whenever I can.
I will try to write the occasional blog post though I can’t commit to a strict schedule right now. For the next while they will be updates and release announcements.
For those reading this, thank you for checking out my work. If you’re a follower from the old blog, thanks for your constant support. As always, I appreciate any comments or feedback you care to give.
Hope you enjoy!
Amy Notdorft 