October Kindle Vella Blog Hop

Wow, the year is just flying by! I can’t believe that we’re at the end of October already.

So, because we made it through yet another month, treat yourself to one (or more) of these neat Vella stories.

Genre : Romantic Fantasy

Elven Heartbound by Elizabeth Ash

Born of elven magic. Bound to an elven prince.

All her life, Arisanna has been destined to wed the son of the elf king, and now the elves have come to collect. Nothing, however, goes as expected when the elves arrive to claim her. Despite their misunderstandings, Arisanna agrees to wed the aloof elf prince with whom she’s been heartbound since before her birth.

Is the prince as hard as he seems? Or is there more to him than meets the eye?

I live in the middle of the woods of the Pacific Northwest, where I keep a wary eye out for sasquatch. So far, he hasn’t revealed himself, but the trees around me are the inspiration for many of the forest scenes in my stories. https://www.facebook.com/ElizabethAshBooks/

Genre: Urban Fantasy/Slow Burn Romance

A fast pace, Urban Fantasy tale with slow burn romance. Suggested age for reading is 18-up.

I never thought I’d be running the family business alone, but a freak hunting accident left Fenris, my Direwolf companion and me half-dead. Luckily, we pulled through, but my dad he didn’t make it. Now I am searching for the people responsible for his death while digging up the pieces of secrets he kept.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B097DBXGWF

About the author: Adalynd Grayves  is  the name  and writing darker fiction is my game. When writing my stories, I like to take a pinch of monster, a dash of myth, and add a sprinkle of fairytales into the mix. I’ve been in anthologies in the past, but I’m currently working on publishing my first novel releasing  in 2022 ( official date TBA) and I  have my Kindle Vella serial out and ready to read now.  You can find all my links here:
https://linktr.ee/AdalyndGrayves

Genre: Non-Fiction

Building Your Readership by LaShaunda Hoffman

The hardest part about promoting a book is finding your readers.  Inside this book I share 10 ways to start building your readership.  Each episode gives you tips and action steps you can implement after each episode.

https://amzn.to/2Xg1JsK

Hello I’m LaShaunda Hoffman. I’ve promoted books for 20+ years. I started an online magazine – Shades Of Romance and it taught me how to build a readership.  I’m currently working on my first women’s fiction book.  I’ve been enjoying this journey on Kindle Vella.    

You can find me on Facebook, Instagram, Clubhouse and TikTok.

http://lashaundahoffman.com

Genre: Dystopian/Steampunk/Sci-Fi

Beneath Gehenna

After an alert goes out to the paying members of the disaster bunker known as New Eden, residents find themselves trapped between two vastly different worlds: one that preys on trauma and one that creates it. Now, a newly wealthy yet troubled man and his new friends must find a way to live with the Hell they bought or return to the Hell which remains.

https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/product/B09CZK57GP

Benjamin ran with scissors when he was five. He now writes, paints, uses sharp woodworking tools and plays with glue. Sometimes he does these things at the same time. You can read more at https://www.bxwretlind.com/ where he writes blog articles focused (mostly) on writing.

Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Forsaken Beauty and the Etherbeast by Kelsey Josephson

A bookish strongwoman longs for freedom.

A beast searches for a cure.

Together, they’ll break man-made curses.

After her own father sells her to the unscrupulous Ringmaster, Belle thinks she’ll spend the rest of her days performing cheap stunts while the Nuzaran masses gawk at her ether-poisoned body. A chance encounter with a beast by her solitary campfire changes everything. Can they find liberation or will the past consume them both?

I have a deep love for Universal Monster movies, all things related to Nikola Tesla, and iced coffee. The first two things fuel my creativity and the latter keeps me motivated! You can check my other works on my website: https://simplykelseyjo.com/

Genre: Fantasy

Fight or Flight: A Cinderella Tale of Court Intrigue

Who doesn’t love a Cinderella story?

However, the stories never tell of what happens after the Prince finds his Bride and Cinderella finds her ‘Happily Ever After’. What should be a happily ever after for Alyssa quickly becomes a game of survival as she tries to navigate a hostile court and those who are eyeing her position next to the prince.

Will she manage to win the game or will the strike of midnight only declare the beginning of her doom?

In addition to writing Urban Fantasy, one of the things I love to do is write fanfiction. You can check it all out here on my blog in addition to my original works.

Home

Genre: YA Dystopian

Death Date

People tell you to live life to the fullest. Take your time. Don’t make rash decisions. I should have listened. Maybe it would have made a difference. Tomorrow is my eighteenth birthday. A day that’s supposed to be special. Eighteen years old means adulthood. Life is just starting. That’s how it used to be, years ago. Before our new society formed. Instead, I face uncertainty. My past sways the outcome. On this birthday, I will receive the most important gift. The gift of the date I will die. 

Death Date | Kindle Vella (amazon.com)

In addition to writing YA Dystopian, I also write YA Fantasy. You can check out more about my projects on Facebook-  https://www.facebook.com/authorbysimpson/ and on Instagram

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Not Your Angel

Two worlds, two wings, and one big problem ex…

With the return of her childhood ex-boyfriend, Silana and her family must stop pretending to play normal and embrace who they really are in order to save the world from a disastrous past love eager for new worshippers. The only problem is that Earth already believes in angels.

About The Authors: Some friendships never die. This co-written story is by two life-long friends! Follow one of the authors on instagram @RoseOverChaos for more bookish friends. https://www.instagram.com/roseoverchaos

Genre: Coming of Age, Family and High School Drama, Romance

An Operator’s Daughter

When jettisoned into dysfunctional family and new high school, 17-year-old Ashton must overcome severe anxiety and fight back against sexual harassment, while attempting to rebuild a relationship with her grieving Navy SEAL Veteran father. She questions whether or not history should repeat itself while seeking her own happiness when her own budding relationship with a Special Warfare Operator begins to parallel her parents’ love-at-first-sight story as told within the pages her mother’s journals.

Laurie Anne Brandon writes based upon her experiences as a military academic counselor, high school teacher, years of working television production and as an alpine ski instructor. She lives with her husband, three cats and golden retriever in suburban Western Washington.

Find her on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/laurie.brandon.12

Genre: Mystery/Suspense/YA

The 7^th Whistleblower

Claire, a journalism student at Brunston University has stumbled onto quite a few secrets about B.U.s alumnae. Outing the culprits might not only destroy the guilty, but take down the innocent as well. Travel with Claire Richardson as she navigates a sticky trail of clues that will ultimately force her to choose between what is good and what is evil.

The 7th Whistleblower | Kindle Vella (amazon.com)

Every since I was a young girl I absolutely loved watching Mystery and Suspense movies with my mother. The art of a story unfolding to reveal the larger picture inspires me to create characters whose curiosity pushes them to find the truth. 

Visit my Link Tree for more info on current works @ https://linktr.ee/MHandy1

I hope that you find one of these amazing stories to your taste 🙂

Happy Saturday!

Genre: Urban Fantasy

What is Urban Fantasy?

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

: a genre of imaginative fiction featuring supernatural characters or elements in an urban setting … a sub-genre that has become increasingly popular—urban fantasy. A number of authors have recently told stories of elves and other fairy folk coming to our mundane world, usually setting up shop not in the wooded groves of the past but in crowded modern cities.— William Marden, The Orlando (Florida) Sentinel, 26 Nov. 2000

http://www.m-w.com

Also:

: a work of urban fantasy It’s an elaborate urban fantasy about sisters Makeda and Abby—the offspring of a human mother and benevolent demigod. — Mindy Farabee, The Los Angeles Times, 24 Mar. 2013

http://www.m-w.com

According to Wikipedia:

Urban fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy in which the narrative uses supernatural elements in a 19th-century to 21st-century (or equivalent) urban society.[1][2][3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_fantasy

(The Wikipedia article contains much more info, I recommend checking it out if you’re interested in learning more about the genre, sources at the bottom of the article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_fantasy)

Basically, the way that I understand it, Urban Fantasy is a world where magic and technology co-exist. Where there are all the modern conveniences like cars and cell phones, but there is also magic in the world. For example, in an urban fantasy story, your cab driver could have the ability to teleport to your destination. Or maybe instead of going to college for a business degree, college is mandatory so that people can master their magic gifts before going out and getting hired into the workforce. Or there is some sort of incursion of magical creatures and now the world has to embrace their magical gifts in order to survive and save humanity.

Seriously, the possibilities are endless.

Another popular aspect of Urban Fantasy is alternate historical timelines. For example, what if the Titanic didn’t sink because a magician who could wield fire was on board and melted the iceberg? Or what if the reason that Marco Polo traveled so much was because he was looking for a magical artifact? What if the Mount St. Helens eruption was really the rebirth of a phoenix?

It’s a popular way to take what if questions and look at the world through a different lens, one imbued in magic.

When it comes to Urban Fantasy, the only limit is your imagination, so let it run wild, you never know what amazing thing you will discover around a familiar corner.

The Great Kindle Vella Experiment…

Is, well, not going so great.

When I first learned about Kindle Vella, I was very excited. A whole new way to engage with readers, sign me up! What Kindle Vella promoted was stories, but told in installments. Now, I know that I’m dating myself slightly here, but one of my favorite things growing up was getting to read the next installment of the story in our local newspaper. They were little mysteries, would probably be considered quite easy by today’s standards. But the anticipation of waiting for the next week’s paper to find out what actually happened, that anticipation was so, so sweet.

I think that is one reason that I’ve been drawn to fanfiction as well. Instead of readers having to wait until the entire book has been written, rewritten, edited, proofread, sent to the printers, and finally released, now they can discover the story along with the writer. This especially works well for my writing style, considering that I’m a Discovery Gardener when it comes to writing. (If you’re curious what that is, check out my post on that: https://theseekerfiles.wordpress.com/2020/06/03/how-i-write/ )

So when I learned that there was a platform where I could share my original works in installments, I was instantly intrigued. After a little bit of research, I discovered that Kindle Vella offers the first three chapters free to Vella readers before they have to pay tokens to read further chapters. Even better, because who wants to spend money on a story that they don’t like. This way, readers can get a feel for the writer and the story before deciding whether or not they want to go any further. Very nice!

Excited to get started, I carefully looked over my current WIPs, picked my most developed one, Elianora, and got to work. Vella was very easy to use and to set up and I quickly had four chapter uploaded. I had a few readers stop by, two even decided that they liked my story enough to keep following it and four thumbs up. Sweet, it’s not much, but it’s a start, right?

Well, then life happened, I had a relative get very sick and family ended up taking priority over writing for a while. Still, writing is the core of my being and I love sharing stories with other people. So now that life has settled back down, I picked myself up, sharpened my pencils, and settled back at my desk to write.

On September 15th, I decided that I was going to write and share 5 stories. 3 would update Monday, Wednesday, and Friday while the other 2 would update on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Because I’d made a timed commitment, life decided to get crazy on me, so I didn’t manage to update the story every day that I intended, but I still managed to get four out of five up and updates happening at least 2-3 times a week. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a start and I was very proud of it.

And you know what happened?

It’s been twelve days now and I have not had a single view. Not a single person has read any of the stories that I’ve published. It’s kinda funny, actually, because if anything, this has only made me more determined to succeed.

I don’t know where I’m going wrong, but I’m going to share my process here so other writers trying to use Vella can maybe learn from my experience/mistakes. And hey, maybe a reader will trip over this post and decide to give my stories a chance, so you never know.

First, Content:

I am not a great writer, certainly not an epic writer on the level of Tolkien or Rowling, but my fanfiction readers and those who have read my books tell me that I create a good story that helps entertain them. They also give me feedback, which I love because I believe that it makes me a better writer.

What I love to write is Fantasy, with my books being heavily Urban fantasy. These four stories that I currently have up definitely lean more into just the fantasy category. I decided to go with a broad range, so I have one playing with the myth of Atlantis, a Cinderella type tale, a magical war, and a humorous one dealing with a character being Isekai’d.

Second, Appearance:

I have the feeling that this is where I’m falling short. I’ve put on pretty shiny cover pictures, carefully summarized, and then tagged with seven tags in what I think best describes the stories. Maybe they’re not being picked up because I’m not marketing them right.

I should probably do deeper research into exactly what my target audience is and what tags they search to find stories like mine. (Scribbles quick note and puts it where I can easily see it again).

Third, Marketing:

I put these stories up thinking that Kindle Vella readers would be willing to check out new content simple because where it’s a new platform, there is limited content. However, I’m beginning to realize that a lot of people are simply not even aware of Kindle Vella. It’s not something that you see on tv or hear about on the radio. Even in reading groups, I see very few mentions of it, if any.

Not only that, but stories available on Kindle Vella are growing by leaps and bounds, mine might be getting just lost in the shuffle. So I need to make people who already like my writing and writing style aware that I’m using this platform and what this platform actually is.

So, In Conclusion:

I still have a long way to go before I figure out Kindle Vella and its algorithm.

I need to do a lot of market research (I got excited about sharing my stories and jumped in with both feet, so now I need to do a bit of backtracking, lol)

I’ll need to further examine the variables, like posting times (will I get more views if I post in the morning or the evening) and how many times a week is the optimum amount.

Still, I think it will be worth it in the end and I’m not giving up here. I’ll keep posting about my journey and my process 🙂

Hope you’re having an amazing Monday!

~ A slightly discouraged yet very stubborn discovery gardener

P.S.

If you wanna check out my stories, I’ve included the links below.

Daughter of the Sea: https://www.amazon.com/Daughter-of-the-Sea/dp/B09GS1D4D1/

Elianora: https://www.amazon.com/Elianora/dp/B09BDJTCYZ/

Fight or Flight: https://www.amazon.com/Fight-Flight-Cinderella-Court-Intrigue/dp/B09GFCQX7Q/

I was Isekai’d: https://www.amazon.com/I-was-Isekaid-now-what/dp/B09GK3L297/

How do you de-stress?

• 

So what do you do for fun while having to stay at home during this time of corona?

Ok, time to share something cool (and kinda nerdy) about myself. As I’m sure that many of you know, I’m a writer. I write urban fantasy and I have some books published and available for people to read.

But that’s not the cool thing. I write Fanfiction as a way to de-stress. What is fanfiction you ask? That’s where you take a story or character from an already established book (think Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings) and then write a story about it from your own perspective. Don’t like how the story ended? Rewrite it the way that you would’ve liked it to end. Want to explore a character more in-depth? Write a story about them and/or throw them into a totally different situation and try to predict how they react.

This is really fun for me, because it allows me to explore already created characters and worlds, but from my point of view. It’s been a great way to help take my mind away from the craziness that it currently our world. Also, I’ve had several people comment that it helped them de-stress and forget their problems for a little while, which made me very happy.

I mainly write in The Hobbit fandom featuring a female Bilbo Baggins, although someday I may expand beyond that into other fandoms.

Curious? Wanna check it out?

Here’s the link for my largest (currently at about 160k words), most popular fic, a “Fix-it Fic”if you will:

Only in My Dreams:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/21115682/chapters/50247068

And here is the link for a place where my various one shots land. These are story snippets that wouldn’t leave me in peace but didn’t quite have enough material for a full story by itself:

Female Bilbo Oneshots
https://archiveofourown.org/works/22775707/chapters/54423808

So what are you doing to unwind during these trying times? I’d love to hear from you!

It’s Finally Here!!!!

Hi Everyone,

In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been rather absent from my blog for the past couple of weeks. Although it was partially because I was exhausted from the A to Z Challenge, I was also busy getting “In Search of Healing” ready for you 🙂

 

I’m so excited to announce that it is finally live on Amazon: In Search of Healing

 

Having survived her first few months at HSI, Agent Aletta is settling into her partnership with Lirim. She is coming to terms with her newfound gift and the threat to her welfare is finally over. Or is it?

Aletta had left everything behind to start over at HSI. But her past is not content to remain where it belongs, in the past. Drawn reluctantly back into her past, she and Lirim race against time at they try to figure out who is behind the attacks on the Canticum Opera Company.

Struggling to fully harness her gift and running from her past, can Aletta and Lirim figure out who is targeting the Canticum Company before time runs out?

 

Who’s excited to read?

Let me know if you’ve published something recently, I always love to discover new authors. Happy Tuesday everyone!