Sometimes you stop and look around and ask yourself "why am I doing what I am doing?" Such was what happened with me with my novels. For a decade, I have been pushing and struggling, and desperately begging to sell books. I have followed every 'rule' about how an author should act, and I saw little to no gains. So, recently, I stepped back and asked myself 'why I am doing what I am doing?' Why am I publishing? Why am I trying to sell books?
Simply put?
I want people to read my books. I want people to read these stories I have poured my heart and soul, and literally years of my life into. I want to entertain, to make people smile, and laugh, and cry. As nice as the dream of being a smash hit with millions of books sold is, well, it is exactly that. A dream.
So, having decided that, I had to decide what to do next. Then, percolating like a nice cup of coffee or tea, I had a *crazy* idea. Maybe there's another way to get my stories to people, and maybe--just maybe--still make some money as an author. At the heart of it is this: What if--and stay with me here--what if I gave away my stories for free? But, and there's always a but, with a caveat: it's not going to be all at one time. You have to come along with me for the journey by following my blog. Every Saturday, I will post one chapter for free with no strings attached on my blog. Eventually, you'll get to read not just the entire book, but the entire series, because I almost never do anything as a single book).
When I put this plan into form, I looked at my series, and I realized there was only one that could possibly be the first series for this great experiment: The Kingdoms Series.
The Kingdoms Series is more special to me than any other series I've written, because it was the first thing I ever wrote. Over two decades ago, I wrote a lil fanfiction that contained some core elements that are still in the series now. I wrote some dialogue then that is still in it! Over the years, I kept revisiting it, and rewriting it, as my skills grew, and eventually it bore only a superficial resemblance to the original series it had been based on. I looked at it and thought "What are you really?" So I sat down, and I worked out a brand new outline, brand new content, and built my own magical girls story for adults from the ground up. It bloomed in a way I didn't expect, and my first ever story is now my most beloved to me. It is my love song to every magical girl story that ever inspired me as a teenager and even as an adult.
And now, I am giving that story away. All six books of this epic love story will be made available here on my blog. And it is a love story. Love of all sorts--between lovers, between twins, between siblings, parent and child both blood and adopted, between subject and ruler. It is an adult fantasy romance with adventure, tragedy, and triumph. It faces what it means to have the burden of power, the burden of leadership, and why we have to sometimes destroy ourselves to become our true self. Throughout it, many important characters ask "Why was I born?" and the answer is not always easy. It's not supposed to be easy. But when we close the final chapter on the final book, everyone will have their answers, and some of them might surprise even you.
The series: The Two Kingdoms, The Unseen Kingdoms, The Destined Kingdom, The Eternal Kingdom, The Chaotic Kingdom, The Final Kingdom.
Total chapter count: 156 (no kidding!)
Total word count: 891, 778 (give or take a few)
Estimated time to post entire series on blog: Finished sometime in 2025
And so, here we are, friends, at the beginning of my great experiment. If at the end of the three years all I've done is entertain more people, that's a success in my eyes. I know how daunting the idea of reading an entire book can be. There's a weird belief or threat almost that you have to read the entire thing at one time, and because of it, books sit untouched. My hope is that by providing one (or two) chapters a week in a bite-sized format, people will feel welcome to take their time reading the books, and enjoying the journey.
As of the initial release of this blog post, the series is going up on another blog, but as I am moving from that blog to here, a number of chapters will be going up weekly until it is caught up with the other blog. Once the two blogs are caught up, that one will end while this one will have new chapters of the Kingdom Series going up every Saturday.
Please note that the blog is flagged as mature, and you had to confirm your age to even get here, and the chapters with adult content will say "ADULT" in the title. I write adult content for mature readers, but I do not write erotica. My personal opinion is that my content is more than safe enough for any sixteen-year-old who has (probably) spent a fair amount of time on fanfiction sites in the questionable sections, but since age-of-consent can vary, check your region to be sure before you click a naughty chapter!
Oof! This was a longer post than I expected, but there was a lot to be said! As I said earlier in this post, at the end of the day, all I really want is people to read my books, and hopefully now I am making it far easier for that to happen. I hope you will come along for the adventure! <3
-Stacy J. Garrett
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