Category Archives: The Healers’ Home (Book 2)

Quick update: The thing is what it’s always been

As part of trying to study up on the meta/marketing?/etc. of it all, I finally bit the bullet and changed the name of the Balance Academy to The Healers. That’s what I’ve been calling it for nearly a decade; the series veered off its original intent as an anthology almost immediately; the BA name is misleading; the end.

I apologize if this is confusing at any point, but it has been annoying me for ages, and I wanted to finally make that switch. So I did.

Announcement over.

The Healers’ (Gum)road

Gumroad link for Book 1 is now live! So if you are inclined to do the sideload thing and/or don’t want to give money to the big storefronts and/or want to maximize the creator’s cut of the profits, there you go. But don’t worry on my behalf when it comes to money. It’s fine. I’m not shaming anyone into giving me any. If you feel moved by anything I’ve written, give a donation to a cause you care about. They need it more than I do.

Just Book 1 so far. Formatting is a long process! I probably didn’t have to do all of it again from scratch, but now my memory is refreshed, and I’ll have to do Book 3 someday soon (hopefully) anyway.

It took most of an afternoon on my day off, and that’s only because I got sucked in re-reading chapters that I hadn’t read in years. I found at least three continuity errors! Dammit! 😀 At least one is a continuity error in comparison to book 3, and I can still fix that.

Next, formatting book 2 and/or finally getting some more notes / extras up like I keep claiming I’m going to do in the end notes.

EDIT, Later That Day: Book 2 is also live on Gumroad. A few notes are up, too. Someday I’ll organize all of my lore notes, and get at least a few short stories up / back up. Someday. First, I’ve procrastinated about as much as I can from finishing the Book 3 edit.

Ahahahaha.

After years, I think the covers of both books are finally fixed on Kobo. The help team DID get back to me, but I’d stopped checking that email address out of free-floating despair (not their fault!). I just FINALLY did what they suggested and it seems to have worked.

So *ahem* Books 1 and 2 continue to be available at Kobo, DRM-free:

The Healers’ Road

The Healers’ Home

Yay. If all goes well, I’ll add book 3 when it’s done.


Can I just say for the ten millionth time that I enjoy writing and editing and dread everything else? Writing cover copy, coming up with titles and keywords, researching the market, setting prices. Checking email is terrifying. And I check email all day every day at the day job with no problem. How is Outlook comfortable and familiar and Gmail terrifying? I mean, other than Google being Google…

Everyone’s personality is different, is the thing. Lots of people would rather write cover copy all day long than turn over control to someone else. More power to them. Meanwhile, if someone were to hand me money and say “we’re going to do all the work, just write the things”? Yes please, so long as it’s not a naked scam. I mean, I have read about how publishing contracts can be fully terrible, and I’m speaking out of frustration here; I know it’s complicated. But I have the kind of personality to which that appeals, generally. I just wanna do the easy part.

But that’s okay. If I had a publisher, I couldn’t write the stuff I write. It’s a mess and it doesn’t fit into a market segment and while I wish I could write a coherent plot to save my life, it’s evolved into its own weird little thing. Not better than commercially viable fiction, I don’t believe in that sort of stance; just its own thing.


Progress: Ebook edit round 1 is done; beta readers have the same draft; first draft of the book 2 synopsis for the start of book 3 is done. Gotta work on extras, decide on a title, talk to the cover designer, write the cover copy for 3, get the betas’ comments back, and do at least one more round of edits. But I think it’s coming together.

Things that exist

OK, Books 1 and 2 are now available in print at Amazon; see links on the Books page, via the sidebar/menu.

I really ought to order preview copies and make sure something isn’t drastically wrong with the formatting, but uh, let’s… live on the edge, shall we?

Meanwhile, I have contacted Kobo about my issues with getting the covers to display. Book 1 is still not working, but Book 2 is fine! Well… that’s a start? I do look forward to having them available in more places; I just seem to be technically challenged. Which is kind of embarrassing.

This has been, The Thrilling Adventures of the Exciting Lives of People Who Don’t Actually Know How to Make Books Beyond Putting Words in Order, Volume 1: It’s Really Quite Complicated, And I See Why Most People Hire an Army of Contractors to Do It For Them.

A new low (or high?) + Real books and not-real books

Did I just re-format Book 1 for print because I was procrastinating writing Book 3?

Y…yes. A bit.

It was already mostly formatted! I just cobbled together a new wraparound cover, since last time it had the Horsie Cover, and we are now on the Treeeeeeeees! Cover. The interior, which is the larger part of the effort, hasn’t changed except for the bio.*

But yes.

The Healers’ Road should be available in print on Amazon again in 72 hours, if all goes well. Other books and markets, I’ll work on as procrastination continues. (which it probably will)

The cover issues with Kobo persist, by the way. I’ve re-tried with a differently sized file, and if that doesn’t work, I’m going to pester somebody like the rank newbie I am.

* Deep breath. So, that. First, I made it shorter; second… About a week ago I came out as nonbinary (and some other things) via Facebook post, so yay?, I can mention that in book contexts without fear of it getting back to Real Life People.** In short, the new bio uses they/them pronouns. I don’t yet IRL. Hey, yet another topic for therapy!

** except my day job.

So, uh, that!

I think I’ve also clarified my approach to This Whole Thing, including why everything is late and slapdash and does not fit nicely defined genres: In my heart of hearts, I am still a fanfiction writer circa 2001. Now that AO3 has won a Hugo award, it’s clear fanfic has evolved, and I have been out of the loop for much of that evolution. Still, I remain in the mode of Writing Stuff That Makes Me Happy And Feeling Awkward About Asking For Money For It.

That’s not to say that fic writers can’t be punctual or strategic, or that they can’t ask for money; obviously Patreon does a very brisk business these days. But me, I come from the days when no one even knew to ask whether that was an option, and it still seems very strange to me that someone would pay money and download something I wrote and shelve it alongside, like, “real” books? that some moonlighting English professor or full-time garret-dwelling Author wrote?

IDK. It’s still very weird to me. Awesome. But weird.

I try not to look at sales figures nowadays because they still make me feel weird, but my spouse likes to track how many reviews and such I’ve gotten. Recently we tried to figure out where a little sales bump came from, and it turned out that one of my books had been name-checked in a thread on r/fantasy. SO THANKS, R/FANTASY! I don’t read you, actually, but thanks!

All that said, I don’t want anyone to feel ripped off for spending approximately $1.99 on this pile of words. I did work hard on it, it does mean a lot to me, and people’s time is worth something etc. etc. capitalism. Just that the urge to label and minimize what I do is strong, and hey, there’s another topic for therapy. *makes note*

Have a good one, all. Thanks for reading.

Tomorrow is…tomorrow? Ish?

Okay, so The Healers’ Road and The Healers’ Home are en route to Kobo and Barnes & Noble. Both need to check …things?… like, I suppose, my payment information and confirming that I haven’t uploaded a world-destroying virus to their system.

Links will follow as soon as they’re available.

This process makes me nervous, and always has. On one hand, I feel less emotionally invested than I did the first time around. On the other hand, I am much more out of touch with self-publishing than I was the first time.

It’ll be fine. More soon.

Edit, 6/30 – Kobo won’t load my covers, but B&N/Nook is up – Road & Home. Yay!

Tomorrow, the world.

Update on availability: Book 2 (The Healers’ Home) is now off Amazon Kindle Unlimited. Book 1 will cycle out of that system on June 24, and at that point, I’d like to release both on some other platforms.

So the goal is the week of June 24, if all goes well. Maybe I can also get it together(tm) and rerelease it in print? Maybe? Who knows.

Book 3 feels like one of those dreams where you try to do a task and it keeps turning into something else. You try to dial a phone, but every time you look, the phone is now a cabbage. It’s progressing, sure, but the plot keeps veering west even though I’ve carefully explained to myself that veering east is less trite and more interesting. Sigh.

I may just let it be that “something else” and let the chips fall where they may. That’s difficult, sometimes. It’s a learning experience.