Why am I writing a humorous fantasy novella, when my career as a novelist so far has been filled with long science fiction stories?
The Strategy
I have, in fact, been writing another big science fiction story. It’s in developmental edits and currently stands at 150K words. It’s deep storytelling and carries a wide spectrum of POV characters, both things I love in book series.
But just like some days you want beef udon and some days chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, writers too feel the need to switch it up.
The novella worked so well because it was the opposite of my big project: short, full of magic and romance, funny, with only one POV character.
Additionally, I watch the book market very carefully, and while I would never make myself write something I didn’t want to just because it’s selling, I do keep an eye on opportunities that fit the kinds of things I want to write. When I was a teen in the early aughts, novellas were nearly unheard of. Now they’re having a bit of a moment.
More importantly, a novella felt like the perfect format for a story I was carrying around inside me.
The Story
Do you remember how season eight of Game of Thrones ended? The plot yes, but also how a long-standing, critically-acclaimed fantasy series tumbled at the very end amid fan complaints? Well, I think season eight was only one way the story could have ended. There were others.
George R. R. Martin hasn’t finished Winds of Winter or A Dream of Spring, so canon for the series is technically still in the works. Many readers no longer think we’ll get the books—the world was watching the royal wedding the last time we got a new GOT novel.
It’s true that I can have empathy for Martin while also really, really wanting those books to come out. Many readers feel the same. Even though Winds of Winter isn’t published, there’s 13K ratings for the book on Goodreads, many of the reviews tongue-in-cheek jokes about the long wait.
With still no books, it’s a story vacuum of sorts. We know how the GOT producers played the final season out, but don’t have the details from the author himself, something most fans would consider the real deal.
So, for a few years now, mostly on walks, I’d play through the scene beats and character arcs and try to guess which details in the final episodes Martin would have chosen to keep in the books and which were for cinematic purposes only. How he might choose to wrap up certain plot points in the series. What other details would have been added.
It was a kind of mental meddling that led to a new book idea.
How It All Came Together
I decided to put my book idea to work last summer when I got on the Southwest Chief train to go from Chicago to Los Angeles for a writing conference, the Nebulas. I expected to draft a bit and tinker with the story idea over the two-night trip—I didn’t even have an outline.
Instead, the story poured out of me and at the end of the returning train trip, I stepped off the platform with more than half the novella written.
Landsome Roads is now a planned trilogy of novellas, the first to be published September 30, 2025, the next two to follow in early 2026.
Ok, so what’s the big story idea?
It’s about a master story meddler alright, one who wants to save her favorite book series and get to meet the handsome hero along the way. Get the full details on Goodreads or Storygraph.
