I’m happy to announce that I have begun to release Sapphire Sun, the sequel to Onyx:05, on Kindle’s Vella platform in weekly episodes:
Link: https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B09K6W8SC7
The first three episodes are free to read. After that, there is an affordable token system to unlock further episodes.
Let’s meet Sapphire Sun
‘Sapphire Sun’ is Kita’s story. Don’t worry, if you’re someone who came to love Erin and Paolo in ‘Onyx:05,’ you will see more of them. Kita’s voice came to me fairly powerfully, though, and she needed her story told as well.
This is not, however, a retelling of the story you experienced in ‘Onyx:05.’ Some familiar scenes will align, but even then, perceptions are different from one person to the next. Kita has her own biases and assumptions of the world, painting a different landscape than the one described by Erin. Kita also has her own private challenges.
If you wondered where Kita disappered to at the end of Onyx:05, you’ll want to give this a read. Hint: She never does make it to Hamarti.
Why Episodes?
‘Sapphire Sun’ has benefited from at least five completely different endings at this point, and it isn’t a short story. I feel confident about the first ninety percent of the story, but the end has fought me – or the other way around. Not sure which. I finally realized that my dissatisfaction had to do with worry over the length of the book. I kept trying to speed along ill-fitting resolutions. Kita’s story is BIG though. Expansive. And every quick, pseudo-tidy ending felt like biting on a bad tooth. Once I released myself from the expectation of a novel written under a certain word count, however, the story conclusions that had eluded me became clear.
I chose to try publishing ‘Sapphire Sun’ to Vella for two reasons: First, to experiment with the venue; and second, to honor Kita’s story without capping it with an arbitrary word count. Once the story is finished, I will bind it together and publish it as a book. I estimate the episodes will take about a year to get through the full telling, at a weekly cadence, so that gives me both a publishing timeline and a little room to edit the final ending to satisfaction.
I hope you join me on this journey! Kindle’s Vella is a new service, and still somewhat experimental, in my view. I think they’re still working on making it available across more than two kinds of devices. It’s a fun concept, though, and there is already a healthy and growing library of reading in there. If you like what you read, an option at the bottom of each episode allows you to give it a thumbs up. The more thumbs on a story, the easier it is to find in the library. So if you don’t mind, please consider giving some of those likes to ‘Sapphire Sun.’
Thank you!
Short Stories and Meanderings 