Obligatory "My Book Is OUT" Post

 What book is out? You must be new here! I'm Jenni, I'm an author, and my first book is officially available for sale today. This post is going to be me fangirling over it.

After reading this, you may find yourself wanting to buy the book. It's less than 5 USD so you probably can do it without thinking about budget. It only takes an hour or two to read (depending on reading speed), so you aren't committing to more than your lunch break or before bed. 

Okay. Now that the sales pitch is out of the way. Let's get into Shinelle.

First, a little synopsis. Not the back of book one because reasons. 

Shinelle is a pixie with an important job. She keeps the forest around the last refuge of pixie kind hidden with a forest made of magic. You see, the pixies are the latest target of the brownie kingdom.

The brownies already killed off all the fairies.

She shuffles around trees and bushes so people can't find their way around. You can't find a hidden community if you can't figure out where you are.

One day as she's doing this she meets Jazaar. He's a demon. The demon crown prince, ack-tually, and she falls in his arms.

When the brownies attack Shinelle does her best to handle the army while her people run. She watches her mother, the Head Pixie, die in front of her.

She sees Pixie Tower crumble.

She runs out of magic.

She's not letting it stop her. In a fit of grief and rage she siphons power from somewhere and wreaks havoc on the sea of uniforms flooding her life and destroying her existence. She doesn't even notice how it's effecting her until Jazaar uses his travel magic to pull her from the battlefield.

If you make it this far in the book you have committed to read through to chapter five. Why? Because that's when the first kiss with the other love interest happens. And it's only another three chapters. It takes me about ten minutes to read a chapter myself, you'll be fine.

If you make it to chapter five and you aren't scared of some gore shit, keep going. The next two chapters are awesome. Some of my best writing if I do say so myself. If you disagree take to the comments.

I'm trying not to put spoilers in here. I'm not sure how much more I can tell you. This is the rub of writing novellas. You can't gush about them with people who haven't read them but want to. This is where we are.

So we've summarized, in some detail, chapters one and two. Don't tell me, you saw 80 something pages and thought nothing happened? This must be smut? Just another fairytale? Yeah, my family thought so too.

It's NOT. Okay, it kind of is in a modern dark fantasy way. 

Ultimately this is a first book of an indie author. People who start here will see me grow as an artist, they'll see me learn new skills and get more prolific. They'll remember the days of Canva cover art and no editor, long after my backlog speaks for itself.

I learned so much writing this book. I learned so much by going through the steps of self publishing. That was the whole point of doing this. To learn. 

The other main point was to prove I could do it. To myself, yes, because there isn't an aspiring author out there who hasn't thought about not being able to follow through with their dreams. Life gets in the way and it's hard not to let it.

I also did it to prove to my family that yes I'm fringe in comparison to them. I'm also an artist that can sell their art. Like my dad's cousin who was famous back in the day for her scenic paintings.

Being the black sheep of the family, the one the aunt who could never say anything rude about anyone, describes as "always employed," affects different people different ways. It's made me spiteful and a little bit petty.

I wrote Shinelle because my family thought I would never do it. I'd never publish, or keep up a website, and if I did I wouldn't sell anything. Writing and publishing it is only step one. On that note I have an announcement. I'll make a separate post about it, including early chapter outlining, this is different.

What you're in for if you subscribe is the rest of my fuck you. The next step is the next book. I've decided on a project that will challenge me in the ways that scare me more than any of my other projects. It's one I've posted about on this very site.

It's Complicated has won out as the next book. 

What's so terrifying about this project for me? There's a few reasons actually. Let's talk about it.

• It's about someone with childhood trauma. It speaks to how people living with trauma and mental illness are existed AROUND and not WITH, how isolating it is knowing that no one gets it. Feeling tolerated instead of loved. I struggle with this personally. 
• The entire point is connection. The FMC, Moira, doesn't speak. It started as a trauma response and became so instinctual it's just how she navigates life now.  
• There's emotional resolution of an issue I experience. An answer to the questions I barely admit I have about my future. Moira finds someone who is meeting her where she's at. Finding the nuance between being there and being present without having to think about it.
• I'm doing multiple POVs. This one is more of a skill question. I really like to get in my character's heads, try to experience the world we've created through their eyes. It can be disorienting to character hop so I haven't built up the fluency I want in character development.
• Not a self insert. There is some, it's unavoidable, but it's not a character based on how I experience the world. 
• The most terrifying reason at all: this is a trilogy. The scope of the character arcs, plotlines, relationships, and worldbuilding needed are much bigger than I've ever challenged myself to go. It's intimidating to step out of your wheelhouse. 

If you've read this far I assume you're invested. I encourage you to check out Shinelle and really encourage you to buy it. I also invite you to check back next week for the BTS on writing the next book is going.