I'm experimenting with something new in my writing life. Kindle Vella. It's actually a long estabised kind of writing that the likes of Charles Dickens once employed - serial writing. His novels started out as weekly newspaper installments, as did Jan Karon's Mitford series, book one.
Now, Kindle Vella offers writers a chance to publish in online episodes rather than print or ebook formats. I'm game!
For several years, I've planned to write my life story, but I'm not ready for that yet. First comes these dabblings into various situations I've experienced. Then will come the biggie, in my second vella coming in October.
My writing career has been enhanced, I'm sure, by my being surrounded by other writers. I'm in a critique group whose members write children's books. I am also with Foothills Writers, a mishmash of talented people who have taught me so much about the writing process.
Our weekly sessions are well-planned. For the first thirty minutes, we meet and greet and eat whatever lunch or goodies we packed. The last part of the day is the core of the meeting, a skills lesson taught by one of us. Between those two elements, we have what we call, the prompt. As we enter the room we can see the prompt of the week written on the board so we can ponder the topic during mealtime. Sometimes I struggle just to come up with a response to the prompt. There was one, Boxers or Briefs. Major flop for me.
Our lessons for the past weeks have been about Kindle Vella, and the leader challenged us to create our own vellas using the prompt responses we've written over the years.
I present to you my vella: "Prompt and Circumstances." It's been my learning curve and already I see things I need to adapt. Link to it here.
Each vella has a shrunken version of a book cover to use as a logo. I wanted something pompous to match the title, something that exuded confidence and variety. I knew exactly the photo I wanted and went searching for it in my photo files, one I had taken several years ago at the Divine Llama Winery here in western North Carolina.
With this regal fellow watching over the episodes, I can't go wrong. Today I'm inviting readers to join me in this new venture. The concept is simple. Read an episode at a time. The first three episodes are free. Only at the fourth level must the consumer pay, and here's how that works.
The consumers purchase tokens from Amazon to unlock each upcoming episode, and they don't need to have a Kindle to access it. Two hundred tokens cost a dollar ninety-nine, which means each token costs a penny! My episodes cost anywhere from six to fifteen tokens, mere pennies! Any leftover tokens are kept in reserve and applied wherever and whichever additional vellas the reader chooses. I only have five episodes posted at this point, so you'll have plenty of extra tokens to explore the vella universe.
If you are game, please go to my vella, Prompt and Circumstances, by clicking here on the link and start reading. The first three are free, so give them a try at no expense. At the end of each, there is a thumbs up to let me someone has been reading. There are also places to comment and interact with me so please go for it if you wish.
You might find out all kinds of things about me!
Catch of the day,
Gretchen
PS Here's another llama from the winery I almost used for the cover, but decided against. He was too perky! I needed regal.
