20/20

What a crazy year, right? 2020 is definitely not turning out the way anyone imagined it would. At the beginning of this year, I really wanted to have 20 published works, whether that would be novels, novellas, or short stories.

It would be a feat, for sure. I had a few books already written to back me up and I was working on other stories. Everything was going great.

Then March hit. And nothing went great for anyone. But I have to say, I'm proud of all my friends and family for persevering. Those of you who went through hell for a few months or are still there but holding on... You are amazing!

I'm also proud of myself. Yes, I think I can say this every once in a while. Especially since... I made my goal! That's right, in a couple of months, I'll have 20 published works out there in the world.

Next month on October 8th, I'll be releasing the 7th book in my Onepian Chronicles series. "Lost on Nagasan" is the story of Owen who travels to Nagasan with his friends, Thalia, Layla, Liam, and David. When two of his friends get kidnapped, he takes it upon himself to rescue them. You can pre-order the book here.

I left a loose thread at the end of the book that one of my characters wasn't happy about, however. So I ended up writing an extra story for those who wanted to know about that thread. I'll be making this story available on Amazon after the release of "Lost on Nagasan." I can't tell you too much about it just yet, but you can get a look at the cute cover here.

So yes, that's my big number 20!

  ...

But also, I've been working hard on the 8th book in the series and if all goes well, that will hopefully get published this year, too. As in, I might surpass my ridiculous goal. Wish me luck. And as always, happy reading! 

- Natasja

19/20

Hello my lovelies!

Those of you who have been following me know that I had set myself a goal of having 20 published works in 2020. I can't believe I'm saying this, but right now, including the 3 pre-orders I have up on Amazon, I'm actually at...19! You can read about my upcoming novels here.

Let's look at some covers!!

I design all my covers myself, with input from trusted friends. There's certainly a learning curve to designing covers, but I'm really enjoying it and I love the outcomes. How do you think I'm doing so far?

My vision for the Onepian Chronicles covers was a lot of stars and silhouettes to give an air of mystery and other-wordliness. What do you think? This particular one came out darker due to the nature of its story line.

I've played around with this series a couple of times. When it came time to design the third cover, I scrapped the concept I had for the first two, redid them with people, and came up with this. Do you prefer people on covers like I do?

I still have a bit of writing to do to reach my goal of 20. Right now, I'm working on a few different things, so I'll have to see which one will come first. But if all goes well, I'll publish one more thing by December 31st.

I still need some help with one of my books, by the way. I'm running a contest to see who can come up with the best band name to put into my new Swapped Lives book My Brother's Wedding Singer/The Art of Being a Girl. If you want to enter the contest, go here. You could even win one of my e-books!

As always, huge shout out to the people who have supported me along my journey. Without you, I would not have made it this far and it's possible none of my stories would have ever seen a bookshelf. Thank you!

- Natasja 

Happy mumbleday!

 

It's been a while since I've checked in. I keep wanting to give an update to my 20 books in 2020 goal, but life gets in the way. The whole world has been thrown into chaos over a virus–something we can't even see, but we can most definitely feel.

If you're like me and you're working from home and homeschooling your kids, just know you're not alone. And even if you're not working and now struggling to figure out how you're going to make ends meet, then you're still not alone. Take comfort in the fact that we, as an entire human race, are enduring this time together and hope that the outcome is better than we imagine.

Now for the books! I'm still releasing books in the Onepian Chronicles on a regular basis. You probably already know that Co-Piloting the RR5 has just come out. On May 12, I'll be releasing The Last Prince of Onepus. More info on that soon!

In the meantime, if you want a little taste of the Onepian Chronicles before committing to the whole series, check out my Free Reads! section. You can have Bride for Onepus and Nagasani Dreams for FREE, no catch, no emails needed. Just read and enjoy. With these titles, I'm at a grand total of 14 published works. Only 6 more to go!

And now for some of my favourite quarantine memes, because sometimes memes are the only way I can cope:

Happy reading!!

- Natasja

The Onepian Chronicles

I've previously mentioned that I have a science fiction romance series that I've been working on for years. I finally reached a place where I feel confident about it and have started publishing it! The first in the series, Quest for Onepus is already available on Amazon. I've also got a prequel up called A Bride for Onepus that you can read for FREE for signing up to the Indie Wordsmiths newsletter. You can find both of those here:

    

As you know, I'm hoping to have 20 published...somethings by the end of 2020. Currently, with these two new ones, I'm at 10. Wish me luck!

Happy reading!

- Natasja

Two Thousand and Twenty

Wow, what a year it's been! I published some books, won some awards, and even started a newsletter with some friends! At this time of year, I like to look back on the goals I set for myself last year.

1. Two books to finish writing.
2. Publish at least two books this year. (I say at least, because I think I can squeeze out three, but I'm not sure.)
3. Finish editing that series!

So what did I actually do in 2019?

1. I had set myself a goal of writing 2 books because I wasn't sure how I'd managed throughout the year. But then I got a ball rolling and wrote...*drumrolllll* 4 novels and 3 novellas! That's 7 whole new stories that didn't exist before 2019.

2. Of those 7 books, I published 4 of them (2 novels and 2 novellas), plus 2 other books that had been written in 2018. So I wrote 7 books and published 6 books in 2019. Even I have no idea how I did that. Check out all the books I published this year:

3. Ah, the series! The series that I've been talking about for years. Well, I'm happy to say that I'm a good chunk of the way through editing it, I've built covers, I've written new content, and I'll be releasing it soon! If you want to keep track of my progress with that a) sign up for the Indie Wordsmiths newsletter and b) check out the Onepian Chronicles here:

4. I won a couple of awards for Knockout Girl back in June! The Indie Originals awards I won were for Best Young Adult Novel and Best New Author. You can see a complete list of winners here.

5. I also recently started a newsletter with some other writerly friends. All of them have been personally vetted and are more talented than me. We cover a variety of genres, like fantasy, sci-fi, contemporary romance, urban fantasy, and YA, so if you want to keep up with us feel free to sign up! You'll even get a free sample that showcases all of our writing styles. Also, if you want to know more about my friends, check them out here:

• Lea
• Matthew
• Michelle

And now for my 2019 goals! Or should I say...goal. Because I really only have one goal this year: make it to 20 published books by the end of 2020. Currently I'm at 8. Wish me luck!


Happy New Year and happy reading!

- Natasja