Time flies, eh? It’s been almost two years since I started serializing Hazel and Holly here on the blog, with the first post going up early September, 2015. How was I supposed to know that what started out as a flash-fiction story for the 2015 A to Z Challenge would end up being an epic novel of about 150k words? It was, essentially, an experiment. To see if I could do it. To see what would happen.
It’s been interesting, to say the least. I managed to keep my schedule of posting every Friday, with the exception of one month-long lapse last Spring. It’s a story I let myself have fun with. It was an indulgence–at first, anyway. And then, later, one of the hardest things I’ve managed to wrap up and wrangle into a story since, well, I started writing. At the end of it all, it feels, to me, like a story worthy of having been told. And I really can’t ask for more than that.
If you’ve been following the story (Lori and Michelle, I’m looking at you!), you might be wondering what I’m going on about, because the story isn’t over yet, is it? And the answer is, no, it’s not over. Not quite.
See, one of the goals I had when writing the installments was to have something of interest happen in each one. Either a plot or character development of some sort. Something more than “they traveled from here to there.” I’m not sure if I always succeeded, but it was the goal, anyway. Now, with the brunt of the story having been posted, the chapters left are the ones that I kind of like to think of as “exhaling” chapters. The denouement. Wrapping things up, basically. These chapters are very important to a story, but I don’t think they’re really meant to be read one-at-a-time.
So, with that in mind, I’m going to be posting the rest of the chapters, not once a week, but once a day instead. I probably should have posted them already, but this latest A to Z Challenge took up a lot of my mental capacity, and making decisions such as this really felt quite beyond me. Plus, that would have been a crazy amount of blog posting happening alongside the challenge.
So, next chapter goes up on Friday as usual, and a new chapter will follow each day until it’s done. There are four chapters left, I think, so we should be done on Monday. I decided to go with once a day, rather than all in one day, mostly out of blog technical reasons. I thought it would be awkward having to scroll down to find where the story left off. So this alleviates that (if one is prompt in reading, I suppose) though it doesn’t solve it. Plus, if you subscribe, you’ll still get the chapters one-at-a-time, rather than a monster mail with four chapters lumped together.
So, yeah. That’s basically my long-winded way of saying we’re almost done and that I’m tweaking the schedule. See you Friday!
Hi Sara – well done – and I love the cover … I’ll be reading the last chapters and seeing your ending … congratulations – achievement … cheers Hilary
Thanks, Hilary! 🙂
Now that I know what Hazel and Holly is about, I’ll definitely go to the start of their story 🙂
It’s looong! 😉 But I’d love to know what you think of it!
Yay! So exciting! And thank you for not posting them all at once. As much as I would love to know the rest of the story, I would just end up binge reading and not getting any work done that morning. Plus, I’ve really enjoyed the anticipation of each installment. Look forward to adding a hard copy to my shelf. 🙂
Give in to the binge reading. 😉 Yay for the hard copy though. Anders keeps asking me, “Is the paperback ready yet?” Uh… no. Heheh. 😛
Oh my goodness, so excited! Will there be a hard copy or digital book with everything in one place? I want one!!!
Yes! Both hard copy and digital. It won’t be the exact same as what’s on the blog (editing and all), but mostly the same. 🙂 Will probably be ready sometime next year. Was aiming for the end of this year, but I doubt that’s going to happen.
That is a lovely cover. How fun! I shared a story online once, and my readers got so mad about only having one installment a week that I upped it to two. That seemed to satisfy them, and it was doable. 150K already? Crazy.
Thanks Crystal! Yeah, I’d heard about that happening with once-a-week schedules, and it was a concern of mine, but it never happened for me. Once a week seemed to work well for my modest readership. 🙂
This is exciting! Beautiful to look at, too!
Thank you! 😀
Cool. 🙂
😀
Sara, I’m so ashamed that between one thing and the other, I’ve never gotten around reading this story, although I really enjoyed your original from AtoZ.
Thing is, I’m very bad at reading continuoiusly a blog. I mean reading instalments that come every week. I know because I’ve tried with other blogs too, and I’ve always failed.
But one way or another, I will read this… one day 😉
Will you ever turn it into an ebook?
Congratulation on finishing this. It is indeed a grand achievement and a good experiment, one that I’d like to try myself… though I don’t see myself posting for two years 😉
A big cheer for you!
Thanks, Sarah! Definitely do not feel bad for not reading it. I’m also pretty rubbish at keeping up with blog reading, so I doubt I would’ve kept up either had I been on the other side of things. It will be coming out in ebook/paperback form, so it could be worth waiting for that so you can read it while lounging. 😉 As for the experiment, I’m glad to have done it and for the experience it provided. I’m not sure I’ll ever do it again, but this project was fun and worth it in my opinion. You should definitely give it a go sometime, if you’ve a mind to. 🙂