R. K. Brainerd's Blog, page 2

My Debut Novel has been Unleashed Upon the World

My debut novel, Jagged Emerald City, is published.

And it’s so surreal. A year ago, I was finishing up revisions and neck-deep in querying; but after some serious thought, and then visiting the place where my story is set, I decided it was time to get this story out there on my own. I’ve been researching marketing and publishing and the business side of authorship for years, but it’s still been a whirlwind of learning and then actually doing.

This story actually started…

… as 15-year-old-me writing interactions between two characters as I tried to figure out my concept of romance. (I didn’t kiss people to figure things out, I wrote stories about kissing people.)

It didn’t really exist as a real story with… you know… a plot line. But at 15, I wanted to write a story about two people becoming friends and then falling in love. But with magic. And monsters. And like, a lot of adventure-y stuff.

It’s almost bizarre looking at where this story started and where it is now. It’s been through a lot of changes then since. These characters really didn’t blossom into themselves until the time I hit 20. At a similar point, I actually put effort into developing the world (versus nebulous ideas of “well maybe I could…” lol), and that’s when everything really took off.

By my mid-late twenties, this story started it’s final evolution into what you can read today. And even then, it went through a big final change.

I think all debut authors probably say this in some form or another, but this book came right out of my soul. Not only did it grow with me, but—and I didn’t realize it until nearly the end—I was working through a lot of my own trauma while putting Fairian through hell.

And now Jagged Emerald City is published. In the world at large. Eek. I kiiiiinda feel like throwing up being this vulnerable, but we’re doing it anyway!

Without further ado, I’m going to slide JEC’s description right below here, and then just some handy buy links at the end if it sparks your interest…

Meet Fairian Leynthall. She’s irreverent, the unwilling heiress of her family’s business empire, and obsessed with learning magic. She’s also got two big problems. 

One, there’s evidence the magical being who killed her sister is in town. 

Two, there’s this supernatural jerk interfering with her field research. He keeps spouting nonsense about danger, treating her like she matters, and distracting her with big lonely eyes. Not to mention it’s aggravating how much being around him makes her feel like her true self.

Then turns out that her supernatural jerk, Daimyn, is some kind of lynchpin in the magical community, and people are desperate to control the power he holds. As Fairian struggles to unravel the truth about her sister’s death, a ridiculous rumor of Daimyn’s affection for her spreads, and she becomes a target. Fairian convinces Daimyn to work together to fix it, but she won’t let herself get close to him. Because the last magical being she trusted? Killed her sister. 

History threatens to repeat itself as Fairian falls further into the tangled web of supernatural politics. Becoming a pawn would be the easy path. The hard path will mean believing in herself, being vulnerable enough to trust, and take back power to be her own piece on the board.

Jagged Emerald City is the first in the OBSIDIAN DIVDE series, set in an eco-city and following the adventures of Fairian Leynthall as she discovers and finds her place in the magical underworld.

Buy on AmazonBuy on Barnes and NobleBuy on Google PlayBuy on Kobo

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An Important Date for You to Remember

Guiz, I finally have it: my tentative date of publication for Jagged Emerald City.

And wow has it been a hard road getting to this point. After I walked through the place my book is set, I came home inspired and ready to publish. I dove back into researching how to make it happen, started putting together a plan, gleefully contacted cover designers…

Then I found out something that resulted in my (ex)partner of 13 years and I separating. Cue everything screeching to a halt.

If you’ve been following me on Instagram, you’ll also know we bought a house this year which we were at the tail end of remodeling. So. The second half of September and October were eaten up by making the house as ready as I could, and a heartbreaking move by myself, one I had thought would be a joyful and a new chapter in my relationship. For obvious reasons I didn’t make any progress on publishing. The grief has been… a lot.

All that being said, it’s now December, and I am getting my feet under me to return to this publishing plan with a vengeance. There are two things that have been bringing me a sense of satisfaction and joy, and one of those is writing (thank god).

I’m starting to feel like myself again and am looking forward to getting my book out there more than ever.

How I Chose My Publish Date

This is a funny question. During my research, I found a few people with halfhearted suggestions, like not publishing during the summer when people were more likely to be outside. (Which I chortled at, because when the sun is shining I do not want to be outside.)

The point is, the gist I got was “eh?” about what was The Best Time to Publish.

So I decided to get interesting. I think it’s pretty ingenious actually, never mind the idea struck me and I took all of .5 seconds to debate whether to do it or not. Here’s what my brain threw at me:

The New Moon has a particular significance in my book. Then it hit me: what if I just… decided to publish on the new moon? With a quick google search, I discovered the next new moon dates are December 23rd and January 21st.

December 23rd. Hm. Right before Christmas. That could catch the Christmas rush of people buying books? But this is a debut that nobody knows about, so I shouldn’t rely on that, and people don’t pay attention to things during the holidays.

January 21st would give me time to better prepare, catch people’s attention as we all exit the holiday fugue, and isn’t it just cool my book’s birthday is on the first new moon of the year?!

So there you have it, friends. My totally scientific, fool-proof method of choosing a book publication date.

And if you need a reminder of what I’m talking about, or randomly stumbled onto this page and want to see more about this new-moon-published-book, here’s the logline for JEC, and the link to the full description…

Fairian’s quest for magic drives her into the path of a lonely, mysterious stranger who may have the answers she’s looking for but brings the attention of deadly players in supernatural power politics.

Check out more here.

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I Traveled To My Book’s Location For the First Time

I shared a bunch of this on Instagram, but I thought to share it here too. The last two weeks of June and the first week in July, I traveled through Spain and Galicia. This is exciting for writing reasons because the magical city in my Obsidian Divide fantasy series (called Farfalla) is located on the coast of Galicia.

I originally put this magical city here for purely geographical reasons. Due to alt-history/fantasy elements I wanted in my world-building, I needed a very west-ward spot out along the coast, and for that I just pulled out a map and pointed.

In a bizarre quirk of fate, it ended up the area was more perfect than I thought. There’s a big theme of independent communities, rebellion, and challenging societal restrictions throughout the series, and it turns out that Galicia has a long history of seeking independence from Spain. Not only that, but the weather is similar enough to my own place of residence that I don’t need to write too far outside my experience.

Anyway, I’m not the greatest writer of world-building, so that was that, and I kept writing.

Flash forward several years.

For reasons completely unrelated to writing, my mom and I had planned to walk the Camino de Santiago in summer 2020. But, well—2020 happened. Our trip postponed, we finally got a chance to go this past June.

It didn’t click for me until well into planning the trip that the Camino de Santiago goes into Galicia, and one of its pathways heads to the coast to basically where my magical city is set. Specifically, to Muxia and Finisterre (otherwise known as the end of the world by the Romans). So we made sure to build time to go visit while we were there, so I could actually visit the place I’ve set my city!

I can’t possible post all the pictures I took here, considering I took over a thousand. But I wanted to share a bunch of the ones that really struck me as magical.

Here’s some photos of our feet as we traveled through Galicia and Spain.

My absolute favorite part was the magical pathways we walked through. They inspired me a lot.

Here are some highlights: Of course there was the food, several which will be making an appearance in my books.

Pictured is padrón peppers with rock salt, Santiago (almond) cake + fruits + café licor, octopus, and tuna empanadas + vegetable soup!

A few architectural highlights!

I love old buildings, and I was pretty much constantly in a state of awe of how much history greeted me everywhere.

Of course, some landscape shots:And just some final cool pictures

Okay… this is a lot! So I’m going to leave it there! But I hope you enjoyed a glimpse into my journey. If you’d like to check out more about the book that will be set here, with all of it’s magic and mayhem, check out my Jagged Emerald City page!

Until next time.

The post I Traveled To My Book’s Location For the First Time appeared first on RK Brainerd.

It’s Official: I’m Publishing My Obsidian Divide Series

Okay! So! I am both excited and proud to announce that I’ve made the decision to self-publish my Obsidian Divide fantasy series, which starts with JAGGED EMERALD CITY.

This has been such an interesting journey. At the beginning of the year, making this decision would have resulted in me fighting this lingering sense of “I gave up” on traditional publishing, that it just got “too hard” or I got “too impatient.” But this past six months has been such a discovery of realizing I don’t want to publish my Obsidian Divide series traditionally.

Why? Let me tell you: I have way too many ideas about covers and formatting and everything else that giving up that control is hard to swallow. I knew I’d make peace with it. But if I don’t have to, why?I… don’t actually know how the series ends. It could go a multitude of ways, and this series is so much an exploration of this world and these characters. Traditional publishing would balk at that to begin with, let alone having to cram this into “traditional” storytelling structure is just… icky. Again, if I don’t have to, why would I? This story is really personal. Yeah, yeah, I know, join the club. But there’s so much about mental health and trauma and dealing with crap that makes the story… not as tight as it “should be” but is really a bedrock of what it is.

So I’ve come to this glorious, freeing realization: I don’t want to cram my story into what’s expected or needed for the kind of publishing that I’d originally been aiming for. I can choose my covers. I can figure it out as I go. This series can be whatever it ends up being.

Do I need to hire experts (editors, designers, etc) so that I can be sure this isn’t just a hubris-filled exercise? Absolutely.

But in the teeter-totter relationship between “art” and “business” that is writing, this is where this series needs to sit. With more of the art and flexibility in there, and less of the concerns of business.

If the series flops [because it’s too weird or slow-build or whatever various issues that may conflict with what kind of structure sells]? Okay. Bring it. This isn’t going to make or break my career and at least I’m doing something instead of just waiting around forever.

I made this romantic alt-history fantasy story my way and that’s how it needs to be.

(Don’t get me wrong, the reality of dealing with that will suck, but I’m on a high of confidence right now, don’t ruin it.)

I have books in the future that may be more right for traditional publishing. (I have a duo-logy in mind right now that I’ll probably position that way.) Because I am not one story, I am not one method, and this is all a journey to figure out what works for me as an artist and author.

Self-doubt will have it’s time later. Right now, I smile towards the future for the first time in a long time [and prepare to hire a copyeditor, cover designer, re-do my website, learn formatting, figure out how to get my book to readers through Amazon/B&N/Kobo/Apple/Google/Ingram Spark/etc, get my newsletter going, my social media plan nailed down, contact reviewers, buy ISBNs… and I’m sure there’s more to that list].

I’m so freaking excited.

Also. Erm.

Since I guess I should be plugging this now: I did start a sign-up where you can get first look alerts directly in your inbox so you don’t miss anything.

Interested in reading this alt-history romantic urban fantasy that’s long and messy and seductive? You can subscribe to my newsletter here so you don’t miss an update, and I’ll be rolling out sneak peaks, gifts, and goodies as I nail down a timeline.

The post It’s Official: I’m Publishing My Obsidian Divide Series appeared first on RK Brainerd.

To Be or Not To Be Self-Published

So I’m sitting here thinking in circles and decided it might be more productive to get my thoughts out about this.

I’m becoming increasingly convinced that I’ll need to self-publish my Obsidian Divide series if I ever want it to be out in the world. I’ve received about 22 form rejections from agents so far, and queried over double that; I imagine I won’t hear from them because of the non-response model.

As far as I understand, because there’s no constructive feedback, this means I need to redo my query. It’s not capturing the imagination. But I’m being honest, while staying away from critical self moping at the same time, I don’t think the query is the problem.

I think my manuscript is too off and simultaneously not unique enough for traditional publishing (at least how publishing stands right now). Despite endless hours on TVTropes and having been a fantasy-romance reader for my whole life, I don’t understand the tropes enough to break them cleverly. Or at least when I wrote this I didn’t. The book is big and complicated; it’s basically got three plots that take up a lot of room, each interesting in their own right but it’s a lot of paper. There’s nothing snappy about it as a selling point… or I just don’t know how to tease out those points, either way.

I’d like to think it steadily pulls you under, weaving a spell and sinking into hearts that resonate with what I’m saying. It grows on you. Maybe like mold.

BUT ANYWAY. Further strikes against it: the manuscript is set in Galicia, Spain, and publishing wants are leaning away from Western-setting fantasy right now (which is completely legitimate), and while I think my book is cool in a post-dystopian greenpunk kind of way, I don’t think it’s a strong enough element. It’s too young/angsty to nicely fit into adult fantasy, but too long for YA and it’s not a coming of age story. And the worst strike of all: it’s not a standalone. It completes its arc, but it definitely sets up for more. If I’m being honest I’m not entirely sure how the series will actually end. It could go a bunch of ways, and conceivably for years. But publishing is a risk-averse industry, and buying a series from a debut author is definitely in the risky category.

I know my book is good. For people who like what I like. For as much as I can make it. And that’s the problem; I want a partner in this industry who will push me so I can continue to grow, and in order for that to happen, they have to care about what I’m writing. And likes are subjective. It’s possible I just haven’t found the right agent that it clicks with—but the next step is selling the book, and publishing is still risk-averse and finicky.

So. Where does this leave me.

There’s abandoning it for writing another book, but then what the hell was all this work for? Sure, yes, I learned a lot. But I already did the abandon-the-first-book-I-ever-wrote thing (did y’all know I have a YA dragon shifter series gathering dust somewhere? Anyway). Besides, I’m already working on writing another book; it’s really a question of focusing a majority of my energy on Book Two or something that’s more of a standalone.

There’s always rewrite this manuscript… again. But I’ve been working on this book for almost 10 freaking years (though the first several not seriously) and I don’t want to do it again. And anyway, I like what it is now.

Which brings me back to self-publishing. An intimidating idea that is slowly growing on me, though I need to get over the “self publishing is giving up” idea. I’m a needy person who wants feedback and to be recognized. Striking out on my own without that strains the self confidence.

I figure, there are three big real factors to this decision:

Getting the book conceivably as perfect as I can Getting the book in front of peopleBeing consistentBonus factor: avoiding burnout

As for getting the book into its best form, hiring editors is fairly straightforward and will just mean time researching the right ones and money on my part. Do-able.

Somewhere between that and getting the book in front of people means hiring a book cover designer and, more broadly, probably a website/brand redesign to get my author brand to a strong, recognizable place because I’ve got a million stories inside of me and my career is not just one book. Again, research and money, doable.

Getting the book in front of people… well. I’ve been consuming information on book marketing for years, so I’ve got an idea on where to start. It’s something that I’d need to do for traditional publishing anyway. Contact reviewers. Build a newsletter list. Grow my social media following. Find my fans and help them do their thing.

It’s just a lot. Depression and ADHD like to pull me into a hole or the fog a lot. That doesn’t exactly work with being consistent and keeping a strong presence. I don’t want it all to live or die based on me (back to that partner thing I was talking about); I don’t want my writing career to be forced to depend on my erratic brain. Ha.

If I’m being honest, I have another hangup about shouting into the void. There’s this lingering sense of bUT I WanT To BE SpeCIAL that I cannot seem to beat into submission. But I’ll probably never quite get rid of that. If I’m clever I can redirect that energy into finding the right people who will enjoy my books.

Anyway, this has been cathartic. I know what I need to do, I’m just grumbling my way through the rest of my reservations. I told myself I would “Tolkein-goal” myself before I switched gears (Tolkein-goal: he had 86 rejections before publishing, so I’ll wait until I get 86 before I move on), but it’s beginning to feel tiresome and a waste to send queries when it’s unlikely I’ll get specific feedback and I’m pretty sure I know the real issue.

Plus, I was willing to give up control in a lot of things (as you do for traditional publishing) as far as cover design, marketing, trajectory of the books, etc—but I have so many ideas, it would amazing to have control over it all.

I’ve just got to gather the courage and confidence to do this on my own and weather the bad times.

Wish me luck?

NOTE: I’m actually about to leave on a three-week trip hiking through Spain with my mom. It’s apparently quite the soul searching adventure for people who have been on the Camino de Santiago before. (Additionally, I will end up where my fantasy city in The Obsidian Divide series is located which I am so stoked about.) I’ll write a post about it when I get back, and hey, maybe it’ll be the thing I need to trust myself enough to get all this off the ground!

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Why I Love Sandboxing

I’m coming down to the last few edits on my Work In Progress before I’ll declare this ecopunk fantasy romance manuscript about life after trauma good to go. If you’ve been following my journey, you’ll know that I embarked upon a beta-reading journey, including a second pass that I just finished up, which really pushed my skills and this story to the next level.

Some of these final edits are aggravatingly more complicated than they look at first glance. “Give more personal details in the introductory scene” is fairly straightforward, but “clarify momentum after [particular plot point]” became a weird brain-bend where I had to subtly alter several scenes. It got easy to lose track of what I’d changed and when (though was a pleasant surprise later when I’d remember to change a section and realize I’d already done it and wow doesn’t it look nice).

When I get lost in the details, I tend to fall back on one particular method to get my head clear and let creativity run free. This is something I call “sandboxing.” I can’t remember when I first heard the term, but the gist is this:

Sandboxing: opening up a completely new document (or Scrivener page) and experimenting with the scene/chapter/what-have-you without worrying about the consequences of what you’re changing, because, well, you’re just playing around and it’s not the actual manuscript. You’re just “playing in the sand” to see what happens.

Because sometimes that intimidating blank page is actually a help.

I’ve talked a little about how I used this during my massive rewrite to re-envision scenes. The downside of it is sometimes you can forget what does need to be there, or increase the wordcount of the scene, which is especially annoying when you’re trying to get word count down.

For example, I recently took a scene in a library between my main character and another primary character, and tried to see if I could highlight some worldbuilding information while playing up the flirt. By the end I was pretty proud of myself for weaving it all together.

… only to realize a day later that I’d already meshed this worldbuilding information in another scene, and in a better way that empowers my main character and lowered the word-count a bit by replacing a superfluous scene.

Whoops. Redundant work, there.

So now it’s back to the drawing board for that library scene. The great thing is, I discovered a new way for the characters to interact that choreographs tension, which I’m going to hopefully still use no matter what details actually end up in the scene. This is a weird turning-point moment that I feel could really be more if I can just do it right, so trying to keep an open mind about where it goes.

I think this will be the last structural edit, after which I’ll do a final pass for line edits and see if I can lower my overall word count. As much as I want to go straight to querying, I should—sigh—at least do one copyediting pass. Especially considering my wordcount is still in the upper 120s and I sometimes have a passive-voice problem.

As I mentioned in my last blog post, I could literally spend the rest of my life editing this book and never get it out in the world, so I’m doing my best to stay out of the “art is never finished” trap. Sandboxing is a method that unfortunately can last for as long or as little time as you want it to, so I’m thinking of giving myself deadlines so I don’t get lost in the woods of my mind again.

Tomorrow will be the 1st of March. So let’s say I have a week to figure out this “library scene.” (Maybe that seems overkill, but I am trying to be kind to myself while working full time and remodeling a house. Time is scarce and I am le tired.)

Then, the final three weeks of March to get through copyedits?

Here’s to starting up querying by April 1st, 2022, friends!

Let me know about your journey and where you’re at! I’m also really curious how long it’s taken others to get through the copyedit stage.

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