About a year and a half ago I gave myself permission to start writing more science fiction stories. I'd guess that sentence might sound odd to some people but, if you knew me, it wouldn't seem at all unusual coming from my fingertips. I adore writing science fiction and I've gone on and on at great length about it but it has seemed liked a guilty pleasure.
I guess I've felt guilty about writing science fiction because I've always felt that I was investing my time into something no one would ever read. I guess I always felt that I should be writing some dry-as-toast commercial material to pay the bills. But the fact is, when I'm writing sci-fi, I'm not taking time away from any sort of paying writing to write something useless; I'm refreshing and resetting my mind. I'm engaging in a relaxing activity that leaves me more productive afterward.
My inner nay-saying voice did have a fairly valid point about the science fiction I write being unlikely to be read. I've tried the route of sending short stories to magazines and even sending a novel around to assorted publishers. Obviously, my writing does not have whatever it is that is necessary to please an editor. So that leaves self-publishing of some kind.
I could just create a Kindle version of my novel and put it up for sale on Amazon but I suspect the only folks who'd buy it are my closest friends. I am a lousy marketer. If my writing doesn't sell itself, it just isn't going to get sold.
For some reason, I latched onto the idea of serializing my novel online. For some even stranger and doubly elusive reason, I've latched onto the idea of serializing a novel on a website called Squidoo. If you have any idea of what Squidoo is like, you may be thinking I'm a little bit nuts by now and you wouldn't necessarily be wrong.
Anyway, that's where I'm serializing Gift of the Gruldak online.
I've created this blog to share my odd journey serializing a science fiction novel on a website designed for something else entirely. I suspect I'm going to learn a bunch of things (make mistakes) so I thought it might be a good idea to process this venture by posting my thoughts about it in a dedicated public space. It's maybe a little like the phenomenon of blogging about a life-changing illness to come to grips with it and to help other sufferers feel a little less alone.
That's my story and I'm probably sticking to it.
If you'd like to, you can read the first two installments of Gift of the Gruldak online.
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