Out in the Sunshine
After working on the VJA project, I was glad to be out in the fresh air again. It truly was a personal endeavor for those who started it, especially the leader who was feeling irked that one of her stories had been rejected in a contest. Negativity is not a good reason for creating a project because it creates a self-focused passion that's not healthy when working with other people. There might also have been a touch of sarcasm in Bellevere that I wasn’t aware of when I wrote it. Because honestly the whole thing grew to be a leetle bit silly as the years piled up. Just a little bit. I didn’t mean to satirize their writing—or that of countless other young ladies I’d read over the preceding 4 years—but it might have been there unintentionally because I always write what I feel is there.
By the time of publication, tensions were high and communication had been poor for over a year. The beta feedback on Bellevere showed strong feelings, but didn't take that lack of communication into account, and my sister was almost yelling at me through a chatbox when I changed my book cover model. I felt it was essential because Faye’s hair color had switched from black to blonde. I did the changes myself to save her the work, because it was my call to change the hair color so late. (I didn’t even have to tell her about it, but I wanted to be upfront.) But she cared passionately about the covers. Passionately, passionately, passionately. This should have been a light hobby project among some friends. Some homemade fanfiction about Jane Austen. That’s all it was. Just because your reactions are genuine does not always make it okay to voice them.
Because it’s difficult for me to sort this book when it’s so drowned in associations from the project, I’m going to send Bellevere out solo. I no longer view it as part of the series, nor should readers. That’s a formality only, at least for the time being. I’d always wanted to market this book separately after the collection was done and that will give me a chance to decide whether I want to keep it among my works.
And there will be more updates.
By the time of publication, tensions were high and communication had been poor for over a year. The beta feedback on Bellevere showed strong feelings, but didn't take that lack of communication into account, and my sister was almost yelling at me through a chatbox when I changed my book cover model. I felt it was essential because Faye’s hair color had switched from black to blonde. I did the changes myself to save her the work, because it was my call to change the hair color so late. (I didn’t even have to tell her about it, but I wanted to be upfront.) But she cared passionately about the covers. Passionately, passionately, passionately. This should have been a light hobby project among some friends. Some homemade fanfiction about Jane Austen. That’s all it was. Just because your reactions are genuine does not always make it okay to voice them.
Because it’s difficult for me to sort this book when it’s so drowned in associations from the project, I’m going to send Bellevere out solo. I no longer view it as part of the series, nor should readers. That’s a formality only, at least for the time being. I’d always wanted to market this book separately after the collection was done and that will give me a chance to decide whether I want to keep it among my works.
And there will be more updates.
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