Fantabulous news! The production of The Badlings as an audio book began in earnest, and I'm going to jump the gun and let you listen to the first chapter because it's amazing, amazingly narrated by amazing Erich Lane who resides in the amazing LA.
Read MoreMy 4th story is born! THE BADLINGS is published.
This was quite a journey. What was born out of an innocent wish to revisit the books of my childhood grew into its own book. Grew fast. And went through all kinds of adventures just like Bells and her friends in The Badlings did. I wrote the first draft in 2 weeks. "Woot!" I thought. "New frontier conquered!" Yeah, right. It was too fast. And it featured too many books, over 30. And then I lost Colleen, my editor. And then I found Sarah, my new editor. And then Sarah said, "What about copyright?" So I had to rehack the whole thing. I tried making it into a parody and go around copyright issues. Didn't help. So I rewrote it again and cut out 10 books, then I rewrote it yet again and cut out 10 more books. Then I had to break to go on the Amtrak residency trip. Then I came back and realized the story is not done and went through yet another set of revisions. And finally it's here. It's done. I can move on to writing 2nd draft of TUBE!!!
Read MoreAvoid holes in your first draft
Boy, the things The Badlings is teaching me. I don't know what it is about this book. Maybe it will be my watershed moment and I will look upon the chasm cleaved in my life, on one end of it written "before The Badlings," on another "after The Badlings," and I will see the middle of it a thousand fiery dragons spurting up pillars of fire to remind me of what it was like. And I'll tell you what's it's like. It's gruesome. I'm learning one very valuable lesson writing this book.
Most of the story is handed to you in the first draft.
Read MoreFinal draft of THE BADLINGS is done!!! 1st chapter for you.
As per my tradition, of course, I am posting here the first chapter of my 6th (!!!) book. Crazy. Can you believe it? And on Monday I'm starting my 7th. This one was a fun one. It turned out better than I thought it would. Because of the copyright issues I almost scrapped it, but then didn't. Because I'm not a quitter. Enjoy! (Oh, and here is the link to the final draft).
THE BADLINGS
A novel by Ksenia Anske, Draft 4
Chapter 1. The Duck Pond
Read MoreI started Draft 4 of THE BADLINGS! 1st chapter, just for you.
It's my tradition to post the first chapters of drafts here. My current book, The Badlings, has given me surprisingly a lot of grief. It started out as an innocent wish to revisit the books I grew up on, and ended up being something completely different, partly because due to copyright issues I had to cut down the number of books mentioned in it from 30 to 10, and partly because I tried writing parody and concluded that it's not mine. Nope. Don't feel it. Can't do it!
So. Here is the chapter I banged out today. Let me know what you think. My biggest fear with this book is that I'm not growing, that somehow Rosehead or Irkadura are better than this (I'm supposed to be improving!). Whatever. That's my self-doubt talking. If you want to read a chapter every day, cough up a 1$ a month and you can read them on Patreon as I post them. Also, if you want to read more of my blogging but in shorter form, hop over to Ello, I do shorter posts there. And the ultrashort shit goes on Twitter. Yes, that's my reduced social media presence, Twitter (ultra short) + Ello (short) + Blog (long). I also post a picture or two on Instagram, which I sometimes share on Facebook, but that's about it. Okay, why am I telling you all this? I don't know. I'm ranting. Here is the chapter.
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