Stella' Saga — Updated!

I've updated the tab for Stella's saga with book covers and links to the first four stories in the series, as well as a description for "Life Sentence," the fifth and final part of book one of Stella's Saga. Book two will start in late August/early September, and I guarantee that it will be just as thrilling as the first book with at least one reunion of characters from the first book.
And that's all I have to say about that ;)

A question I get asked a lot...

Novels. Why don't you write them, Emma? Emma, why do you stick with short stories? EMMA WRITE A NOVEL!

Emma doesn't write novels. Emma really doesn't have the attention span, okay?
I get burnt out on writing too quickly to actually write books. I have a really hard time trying to write anything more than 20k words. I can do series, I can do shorts, I can do long-winded blog post rant things-
I have the hardest time trying to actually focus on one story and a single cast of characters past about 50000 total words. That's why most things are series and most series are short.
That being said, I am working on a novel that I will be pushing out sometime next month. I am warning you right now that it's not my best work, nor am I proud of it. I am publishing it purely because I want the world to know why I do not write novels and maybe back off a bit?
I don't mean to sound rude about it, but seriously. I don't want to build up your hopes with false promises of a brilliant opus that will invariably shock the literary world. It's not. Let me tell you what Ice is. Ice is Twilight with slightly better vampires and a rape scene. THAT IS ALL IT IS. So far it is 30k words of PURE SCHLOCK.

This is a blog post

Did I actually just talk on Twitter about my writing process? Did I seriously answer questions? Oh my god. I think I did. Holy shit. o:

Hello, hello and welcome back to my blog. Didja miss me? I bet ya didn’t! I’m writing this blogpost while internetless at my dad’s for the holiday weekend (watching kitties, it’s fun! And productive! And filled with fictional zombies and freaking out.) And I simply must say that I’m starting to wonder if all this recent attention means I’m about to hit it moderately big. Well maybe not big.

Maybe big like my massive cat? (Fun fact about that cat: his original name was gonna be Alfie. No, I’m not a Weird Al fan or anything. Not at all…) Or big like a day where I don’t roll my ankle and almost fall into oncoming traffic while trying to walk? Let’s call it that.

I know it’s not a lot to freak out about, but last month I sold 22 e-books on amazon. This month so far (as of 7/3) I’ve sold 8. I’ve also written three things (and released all three) in the past week, and I will probably have more to release in the next week or two.

I’ve also been trying to come to terms with the realization that people actually read my stuff now. I mean, it might not be in the same ballpark as the readership Amanda Hocking has, or even anywhere near any given blogger’s base readership, but I have come to realize I have a fan base, albeit quite small.

This both terrifies and pleases the shit out of me. Terrifies because I know that a fan base means that I’m going to start getting bad reviews with greater frequency as my stuff faces more exposure. Pleases because I know that it’s the start of something bigger and better, and I can’t wait to push it on to the next level.

It also makes me kinda sad because my mom isn’t still around to see this. I don’t think she thought I’d ever amount to anything in the writing world. Yet here I am, in the second month of what I usually considered to be the slowest months of the year for book sales (June, July, and September have been the WORST in both 2011 and 2012 for me, yielding exactly 0 book sales, while January and May have generally been the best).

I don’t want to be one of those unapproachable people with a fan base. I want to be that one who actively talks to and interacts with their fans. Like, even if it keeps me from doing the things I love for a while. I think I’d rather answer fanmail than write a sequel to a book, to be honest. Not that a sequel for (insert book here) wouldn’t eventually happen anyway…

It’s probably the worst timing ever to realize you actually met your idol, it actually happened and it wasn’t a dream, when you’re driving. At reasonably high speeds. In traffic. I sobbed. In an ice cream truck. Beat that for weirdness, eh.