Amazing as it sounds, another year just vanished… and although the speed in which it happened is a bit scary, the year in itself is surprising. Just so much happened this year and, I dare say, I’m quite proud of what I have accomplished!
So, shall we review this?
On Unearthed Stories
With regards to Unearthed Stories, the year started in the frenzy of preparing for the iPhone/iPad release, which happened in March… while at the same time I was privately racing to complete one of the most difficult and challenging stories so far: Means of Egress—a dungeon-crawler that features 182 ways of crossing it. My mind exploded as I wrote it; likewise, I learnt so much with that book-with-choices!
Therefore, around April we released the first thematic update of the year Elusive Pathways, which included two books-with-choices: Means of Egress, and Reflections. Both of them have experimental mechanics, and so writing them was an interesting journey. Both of them are themed around escaping, hence the name of the update.
From there, I paused Unearthed Stories to work and release a book—my novella, The Genesis of Change—but it will have its dedicated section in this review, so let’s keep the focus on the books-with-choices.
After releasing The Genesis of Change, I began working on a secret project—acquiring stories from invited writers. This meant I had to create a framework to teach them how to write book-with-choices in the ‘Unearthed-way’, provide templates, and—most important of all—learn to be a developmental editor. It is very different to being an author, and the experience has helped me a lot.
We released Thomas J. Devens’ short story The Pawn, and the Karl Forshaw’s Dreams of the Sky, but in the middle, I found time to write two more works, and so release the second thematic update of the year: Future Societies. Future societies included two books-with-choices: Tales of the Stars and Static Signal Living Legacy. Contrary to all the others, these two are variants of science-fiction, and they came to be out of my need to scratch another itch: I wanted to write sci-fi.
Now, let me tell you something—we had a lot of success with Unearthed Stories this year, but it wouldn’t have been possible without the people that supported us. From those that read the stories and cheered us up, the many booktubers and bookstagrammers that helped us with cover reveals (Kay, Jamedi, Esmay: you rock!), giving us blurbs and more. Also, all those that took the plunge and invited me to their channels to talk to me: Angela from Do Unicorn Reads, Beard of Darkness, Nicholas Fuller from Person Behind the Pages, José from José’s Amazing World, and Britton from Some Okie Dude. Thank you. It is always that support what keeps me going.
Starting a Newsletter
Oh yeah, that happened. I didn’t have a newsletter, and I started it this year! And people subscribed! Every fortnight I send a bookish discussion, short and concise. We tackled prose analyses (e.g., that single-sentence chapter on Rothfuss’ Slow Regard), we tackled themes (e.g., worldbuilding, speed in prose, implicit grimness), and some cat photos (unavoidable and highly desirable).
I wasn’t expecting enjoying the newsletter that much, but I do! Researching and writing my thoughts on books, then sending that and being able to talk to others. I love it.
Releasing: The Genesis of Change
Truth be told, this was so not in my plans. Let me explain.
I originally wrote Mien as the result of having a theme to complain about (you can find out what theme by reading its Author’s Notes). However, I had loved the universe too much that in between everything else I kept worldbuilding and toying with the concept of the alchemists. Come this year, and I just knew I wanted to tackle that story. I wanted to write a novella, quite experimental, to put myself in the shoes of these otherworldly beings that are my alchemists.
The Genesis of Change ebook is free for my newsletter subscribers.
The release was something beyond what I imagined, and for that, I need to thank all the people that accepted my offer of an eARC, the many that helped with the cover release, those that hyped the launch, the authors that gave me blurbs, the many people that reviewed. In no particular order: Joshua Walker, Karl Forshaw, Bethany Garcia, Thomas J. Devens, Zara (from Books with Zara), Kay (from Kay’s Hidden Shelf), Esmay Rosalyne, Adrian Collins, Jarrod (from The Fantasy Thinker), Angela (from Do Unicorns Read?; literally, Genesis wouldn’t exist without you), Aaron (from BiblioTheory), Jamedi (from Jams Reads), the SSFInsiders team, and many more.
I know that The Genesis of Change is quite a quirky novella. It exists at the intersection of dark fantasy and grimdark, with a literary approach, and a magic system based on philosophy; the characters are non-human, genderless, and have a very strange perception of humans… yet many people loved this novella, and that means the world to me.
Now, something I was not expecting was for TGOC to be nominated for awards and win some! It was nominated for the Indie Ink Awards in the categories of Best morally gray character, Best setting, Best use of tropes, and Writing the Future We Need: Mental Health Representation. And… believe it or not, but TGOC also won the Literary Titan Gold Award: Fiction:
About Books Undone
Well, my podcast is one year old! (Plus a few months more). I started two new series within the podcast: Guests Talk, where I invite people to discuss a book or theme, and Author Spotlights, where I invite the author for a spoilery deep-dive of the themes within their books. It’s been a ride. Chatting with so many people, learning from them, hearing wildly different opinions, laughing about our book-jokes…
That’s the best part of my podcast, you know? Talking about books with cool people. I’m so happy I started it, and so this year I put up a lot of effort on upping my gear (got a fancy new mic now) and my software so I could improve the quality of the episodes. I’m quite happy on where that’s it, to be honest!
Overall, and only because I love numbers, I released 18 hours and 16 minutes of content through Books Undone! And that’s the finalised content, without taking into account the effort behind the scenes. Also, it doesn’t count the many other hours of content in other podcasts, such as the Sci-Fi Masterworks Circuit! (I’m on again off again, so am not there in every episode, but I’ve been loving it!).
Books Undone was nominated as Best Book Media in the Indieverse Awards. Unfortunately it didn’t win, but I’m pretty happy about the nomination nonetheless.
What’s Next?
That’s the question, right? The answer is, I don’t know what the future holds. However, I have plans and I’ll try my best to carry them all.
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The podcast will keep up and running because I love it. I already have some episodes planned, and I really hope to tackle the second half of The Book of the New Sun, and Hyperion. Let’s check in another year, and see if I actually made it.
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Next year is Unearthed Stories second anniversary—we initially released in 2023 in Android only, so we’re counting that date as When Everything Began. I’m planning a surprise for that moment, and I am so incredibly excited about it. However, I’m trying my best not to spill the beans before it’s due, so for know (as Gandalf said), I’ll keep it secret, keep it safe.
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I plan to continue with Records of the Orders, which is the series encompassing Mien and The Genesis of Change. I have big plans, and am hoping to release Volume I in the second half of the year… the main reason is that I want to plot as much as possible (for more than one book) so that I can—in an ideal world—release the books of the first series relatively close to each other. Will see if my plans hold up!
That said, I wish you the best for the next year, and happy reading!
~ Livia
