My Knee Is One Year Old
One year ago today I was in a hospital bed recovering from total knee replacement surgery on ShitKnee. During that time I learned that I will vomit copiously if given IV opiates and Zofran is the only thing that will stop it (good to know for future surgeries), the inside of my joint looked like a bomb had gone off in there, and that the nurses, CNAs, and PTs at Medical City Frisco were incredibly professional and kind. Also, my surgeon had one hell of a good stitching technique.
Today the knee is considered to be 100% healed and I pretty much have full mobility. There is some scarring on the outer side of the knee that has nothing to do with the surgery and everything to do with 38-year-old adhesions. one of which I broke last May. That area is still a little tender but it’s getting better and better as I keep moving and wearing down the little buggers.
In the picture above, taken about this time a year ago, I have my nice grippy socks, an elastic wrap and the cooling pad of my ice machine below my brace (the black thing with the blue stitching), and a pump on both calves that squeezed them intermittently to keep blood flowing and prevent blood clots. The blue foam pillow is an instrument of torture designed to promote my knee straightening to 0°. Going to the bathroom required a nurse to unhook me from my IV, ice machine, and calf pumps, and I used a walker to get in and out of the bathroom. But I was able to do it on my own, and I astounded the physical therapist when I walked to the end of the hallway and back to my room the next day.
One thing I learned and will pass onto anyone looking at joint surgery—do prehab. These are exercises that will get your joint into the best condition possible for the surgery and they will cut down on your recovery time. I am living proof of that. And keep doing your post-surgery PT exercises. They suck, but they keep your joint mobile.
Today is also another interesting milestone in my life in that I am now officially in menopause. My last period started on 4/18/22 and ended on 4/20/22 which means I have gone a calendar year without a period and am now a Crone. Personally, I’m relieved. Perimenopause was no joke (imagine going through a second puberty, only with this one you get hot flashes, night sweats, and gum problems along with the pimples and body changes) and I’m glad to be done with all that. I just threw out some really ratty t-shirts which means there’s room in my drawers for a new one—I need to find a really good Crone t-shirt.
Episode Six of Crystal Blade is Live
I hope this doesn’t bug anyone but I’ll be mentioning each new episode (I have got to stop calling them chapters) as I post them so that interested readers can simply click and go straight to the episode page.
Episode 6: https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/episode/B0C32WTWBJ
In other news my new knee is officially one year old today, whee. I can walk a mile in a half hour (working on improving that—I would like to do a 5K this year) and apart from some garbage left from the adhesions I have full mobility and no pain. The other knee is holding steady, although now that I’m able to move around more easily it is starting to get a little achy more often. Once it gets regularly painful I can go back in to TMI and get gel shots—my surgeon said that ideally he’d like to get me into my sixties before we replace that knee (and we will have to replace it—it’s a matter of if, not when). Works for me.
Oh, and I’m also officially in menopause, whee! Got to find a really good Crone t-shirt…
Okay, TODAY Is Officially Tax Day
And man, am I happy I got all of that done in February. Of course I have to send in the estimated taxes for Q1 and pay all the bills but that’s not a problem, I’m set up for that.
I’m also back at the jewelry bench, tra la. In addition to two other pendants I’m working on a rutilated quartz pendant that I’m going to use in a giveaway next week. Those of you who read A Theory of Crystal will remember that Yelena and her men were able to use rutilated crystal to save themselves from an unfriendly blast of magical evergy, and the cabochons are super pretty so I wanted to make one into a pendant. I’ll post pics once that’s done, and I’m giving some serious thought to creating a unique piece for each book from here on and using those as giveaways for promo.
Although I’m not giving away the carved labradorite flower bracelet from Shadow of the Swan that I’m going to make. That one is for me. Although I could be talked into making another one if there’s any interest…
Crystal Blade Is Officially Live
And it’s official. The first five episodes of Crystal Blade are now available on Kindle Vella, may the Flying Spaghetti Monster have mercy on my soul, and the first three eps are free. I’ll be posting three episodes a week on a M-W-F basis until the story is done, and thirty days after that I’ll take everything down and publish it as an ebook and print book.
So if you want to check out the continuing adventures of Crystal and the Buff Lords right the heck now, head on over!
- Crystal Blade Home Page: https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B0C2PHK17L
- Episode One: https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/episode/B0C2P9ZZTF
- Episode Two: https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/episode/B0C2P8SJWW
- Episode Three: https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/episode/B0C2PD2YCJ
- Episode Four (paid): https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/episode/B0C2PF1TT2
- Episode Five (paid): https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/episode/B0C2PB471S
And Now We Wait
Five chapters of Crystal Blade have been uploaded to Vella (Chapter Six needs more editing than I’m capable of doing right now) and are currently chugging through the ‘Zon. I’ll get Chapter Six whipped into shape tomorrow and uploaded, then I’ll start my two chapters a week upload schedule (and may I just say that my fanfic experience is coming very much in handy right now).
Also, the image at right is the story’s avatar. I think it says “fantasy romance” well enough and goes along with the title (and the five-pointed star was an unintended bonus that refers to the Buff Lords). I’m really hoping this does well because my ‘Zon income is a joke at the moment. The custom text AMS ads are still not serving (I’ve created automatic ads for all my titles so at least some ads are getting served) and my sales are wretched.
All of which is just convincing me to put all of my titles wide sooner than later. KU is clearly compromised and I’m not making anything near what I was making from it last year, and with Kobo starting KoboPlus (their version of KU that doesn’t require a title to be exclusive to Kobo) I would have a bit more stability and might even make more money if I went wide. Plus I wouldn’t have to worry about the ‘Zon abruptly yanking my author account because someone else had posted one of my books on a pirate site.
But for now I’m happy and pumped about Blade. With a good tail wind I should get it finished by the end of the month, then I can get started on Crystal Reflection, High Tide, and To Love a Wild Swan.
Tax Day
Okay, technically Tax Day is 4/18 this year because of the weekend but I got all the bills, tax and otherwise, paid off today anyway because I’ve got the money ready and I’d rather get it out of my bank account before I’m tempted to spend it on frivolities such as food and toilet paper.
The drive to get Crystal Blade uploaded to Vella is progressing. I spent the bulk of the day trying to find an appealing image to use for the story’s avatar (can’t use the book cover because Vella images can’t have text and require a strong central image that will fit into a circle) and found something that I think will work. Next up is editing the first three chapters and splitting each one into two easily digestible 1.5-6K Vella chapters. The useful thing about this is that I have to recap the events of Crystal Shard in the first few chapters in order for Blade to make sense, but this has to be done in a smooth way that doesn’t yank the reader out of the story. That can only make the final novel better.
I figure I’ll upload about six chapters to begin with, then edit and upload two additional chapters a week while I work on finishing the book. That’s very doable for me and it gives me impetus to write without stressing me out too badly. Once that’s done, I’ll send out a newsletter letting people know where to find the chapters. And Lord, I hope someone pays to read them.
The Plan For the Weekend
I’ve made a decision—I’m going to get at least five chapters of Crystal Blade tuned up and loaded to Vella at some point this weekend.
Why? Because it’s halfway finished and is surprisingly clean, my sales have absolutely tanked (more on that later), and I need to make money somehow. I’ll make sure the chapters are edited and all shiny before I upload, don’t worry about that. And when the book is all done I can take down the chapters and publish it. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.
And yes, I’m gonna keep doing the other two Vella series I have planned. But I need income now and this is the best way to achieve that.
So, my sales tanking. That appears to be a three-fold issue. Issue #1: KU payouts are at a historical low. This may be due to a KU strike fomented on TikTok back in February that was meant to punish Amazon for letting people buy books, read them, and return them. Unfortunately, it just hurt indie authors who have seen our page reads dwindle over the past eight weeks/
Issue #2: I don’t have details about this so I can’t say anything for certain but it’s been bruited about in certain quarters that some romance heavy hitters have been allowed into KU. Without being required to be exclusive to the ‘Zon, I may add, but hey, rules are for little people. That kind of a book influx from authors with a big following essentially swamps KU and makes it even more difficult for people to find indie titles, thus sales droop even further.
Issue #3: This one has been confirmed by the ‘Zon itself—there’s some kind of problem on their side that is preventing AMS ads with custom text to be served to potential customers. They’re working on it but we don’t have an ETA for a fix. In the meantime my AMS dashboard is flat as a rock since 4/12 and that lack of advertising has an effect on my sales, hence my decision to start uploading Crystal Blade to Vella. As soon as I have links for that, I’ll let you know.
This Isn’t Half Bad
I’m at that point in a book where I’m looking at it and wondering whatever made me think I was literate in the first place. This is perfectly normal and happens to about 95% of writers—we’re known to have highs and lows in our confidence (thanks to she-who-fights-and-writes for this visual explanation of the insanity that goes on in a writer’s brain).
Right now I’m at “No on will ever read this book because it sucks and is the absolute worst.” But the interesting thing is that there is also a tiny part of my brain that is saying, “Well, no, this is actually pretty cool. You just need to finish and edit it.” That’s the part that I’m desperately encouraging at the moment.
I think part of the problem is that I worry that I’m adding too much worldbuilding and non-romance stuff to my romances. But that’s the way my brain works—I want to know the background of my MCs, I want to know what problems are lurking in the background and how their world got to that point in addition to the spine-tingling, toe-curling romance. But I’m always afraid that readers are thinking, “Ugh, why is she bothering with all this political crap—get to the smexy times!”
Mrgh. Enough people buy my stuff that there must be readers out there who want worldbuilding along with sex. So I’ll write for them and try to add more of them to my audience.
I Have a Title
The Paladins of Crystal WC academy romance I’ll be publishing on Vella will be titled Crystal Clear, and will follow the adventures of Kristiana (and her twin brother Konstantin) as they navigate the Academy of the Elements in Munsala and the problems that come along with matriculating at the grand old age of 18 instead of 10 or 11 as is the norm. It doesn’t help that shy Kristiana is much more skilled at magic than her brother and gets bumped into Fourth Form (the university level with 19 to 21-year-olds), so she needs to deal with all that. Of course, four hot Fourth Formers take an interest in Kristiana and want to make her part of their pentad … and more. *dramatic musical sting*
The nice thing about this is that I can weave events from Crystal’s story throughout this series as well, and one series may well feed the other. Hey, if it keeps readers entertained that’s all that matters. Now I just have to lock myself in my office away from the cats and churn out wordage, tra la.
Pulled In Too Many Directions
A problem of being an indie author is that you are, in fact, a small business owner with all the hats that come along with that. In addition to writing I have to arrange for editing, formatting, covers, promotion and marketing (which are separate things, believe it or not), plus I have to keep a weather eye on the market and try to hop on the next rising wave.
At the moment that appears to be Kindle Vella. Now, I’m no stranger to writing serialized fiction—I did it all the time with fanfic and I know how to add little cliffhangers to keep the reader interested and reading along. But that also means splitting my already fractured writing time to absorb yet another project that has to be updated at least once and ideally twice weekly. Plus I need to write something that will appeal to the main group of Vella readers. From looking at the top sellers in Vella, that appears to be Why Choose academy romance with just a touch of bullying.
Yeah, yeah, I know—wasn’t I doing a Hidden Empire novella? I am, mainly because I need it as a link between The Crimson and the Black and To Love a Wild Swan. But seeing as this is serialized and I only have to post two chapters a week, I can squeeze in another project. And I am choosing to look on this as a challenge. I know the market, I know what readers expect from the market, and I think I can deliver an entertaining WC academy romance set in my Paladins of Crystal universe. I mean, hey, haven’t you ever wondered what attending the Academy of the Elements must be like? And for a shy girl who’s been tutored at home until her parents lose all their money and have to send her and her twin brother to the academy for training in their Talent, that could be very interesting.
So, yeah, gonna be quite busy for the rest of the month. But hey, who needs sleep?
Nicola Cameron Writes 