On my birthday

Foto de Bhaumik Shrivastava en Unsplash

In this post, I'm not going to cover blog numbers, which I'm leaving for the anniversary of the latter on WordPress (it actually warns me about the blog birthday...) and in an attempt to calm things down a bit, because it seems like there are quite a few people both signing up and leaving in the last few days.

In this post, I'm going to focus more on what this year has been like from the perspective of Mil y Una Historias.

As you know, the day I started the blog on Blogger was April 13, 2024. The truth is, the beginning was more of a joke than a serious one: I thought I had written a good portion of the story now called The Legend of Sinardia, and I didn't think about anything other than organizing it. Yes, things aren't arranged the same way when everyone has to see them as when only you have to see them: I already know what each character looks like (more or less, there are always exceptions) or what the world is like, but when you have to show it to others, who, obviously, aren't in your head, you have to be clearer. That's exactly the moment when the writing you had in your head or in a draft really solidifies, takes shape, and becomes something that can be understood by third parties.

Book I, which is now in its final phase of correction—I'll talk about this later—: I wrote daily from April 13th to last June 28th. Now, I was quite disoriented: I didn't know anyone who had written a book, I knew very little (or, rather, nothing) about publishing, and, as I say, I was more interested in that moment in people enjoying what I wrote than in thinking about publishing it.

Coming to Substack was pretty decisive in my starting to consider publishing it: it was an added burden and a responsibility because you can stop publishing a blog, especially if it's free, but starting a saga and not finishing it seems to me to leave the reader in a "hold on to the paintbrush, because I’m taking the ladder away" moment. With all the characters in a "what do we do now?" position. I don't like Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin, but I do like The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, and the fact that he hasn't finished it poses a problem for me because I want to know what happens to the Kingkiller, that brilliant character who compelled me to continue reading his two books almost breathlessly.

So, before considering publishing, I had to see if the book was something people would actually enjoy: reading a blog post isn't the same as buying a book. I have always been aware that fantasy literature has been more successful in the Anglo-Saxon world than here, despite having great literary works in Spanish that can be included within the fantasy genre, such as traditional Spanish tales (not only Grimm wrote tales), the Legends of Bécquer, Olvidado Rey Gudú by Ana María Matute, etc. At least, in my case, I have always had more readers in English (including here those whose mother tongue is another but understand English too: Chinese, Russian, etc.) than in Spanish.

With that information (after three months of blogging), I started looking for someone who could read The Legend of Sinardia in English, and in the end, I sent it to

S.E. Reid

. We agreed she would read only the first half and, if she didn't like it, she didn't have to continue reading (and, by the way... I only had to pay for half...). But she read it and asked me to send her the other part: when she finished, apart from some specific considerations, she confirmed that she had liked it because of several reasons, such as the specific mixture of Anglo-Saxon and Spanish characteristics. She then recommended me to

Sara Dietz

, the person who did the first correction: she had to make various recommendations, both in terms of style, and also where the same thing can be better said in a much simpler, easier, more direct, or... correct way. Of course, in the notes, she also wrote down how many times she'd laughed at something in the story, which meant a lot because I didn't know if the jokes I'd written in Spanish had been translated correctly and were understandable. So, it was already 2025.

Since I already knew that it seemed publishable in English, I signed up for the "Writing Without Planning" course at

Alicia Pérez Gil

’s Escribeteca. The story was no longer the same as the one published on the blog: firstly, because things were added to what was published to make the story more understandable, and secondly, because, as I was publishing already the second part, I realized that there were few things that were incorrectly written in the original version of the blog (names, places, etc.). After answering all the course questions, I could see that I had 98% of it well-planned out, but there were still small details that I needed to clarify for the second part.

The last ones to review it are

M. B. Heywood

, for the English version (which is already finished and which I'm currently revising), and

Cristina - Entreaquiyahora

, for the Spanish one, which is currently under review.

As you know, I started writing the second part on the blog last November 8th, although in this case, the chapters were weekly published, which also allowed me to think a little more about each one. The chapters became longer, the characters, I think, are better defined than those written on the blog in the first part, and, although there are still some stories to add, I've noticed the practice when writing them and the story is much more "studied." I finished the second part on May 3rd with the chapter of the liberation of the Baron of Nirandomir thanks to the intervention of Erevin and the intervention of the great black wolf, who frees one of the prisoners who had already been thought dead. As I said, I have to add some stories that will only appear in the book, but that will only happen once Book I is published.

A separate mention is the story of The Guardians of Bastet, which I also have to finish and publish, if I don't have time to submit it to an online contest, which I think will be impossible...

This year, I've done one of the craziest things I could ever have imagined: the podcast. I'm very shy by nature, I don't like being the center of attention, and besides, at my age, I'm very aware that I don't have an attractive voice. But, despite everything, I started it. Although some episodes have had more downloads than others (there are some with exaggerated downloads), I'm very happy I did it. I'm grateful to

Charlie Marrez

for the fact that he volunteered for the first one… even though the sound wasn't as good as it should have been.

The same goes for the link rounds, which have been fun, despite the work, and very interesting to be able to read from a lot of people who, otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to. I also don't want to forget to mention those who wanted to contribute to the blog last year, like

Selvar

and

Mundo Jablago

from Substack, and, from outside, others like Nuria de Espinosa or Cecy.

Finally, I must say that I'm grateful for the support a few have shown me as a newbie. Here I must give a shout-out to

The Brothers Krynn

(don't worry, the next post will be in English... 😁) who started linking to me, were the first to interview me for their podcast and who selected one of my stories for their Anthology (more information here); to

Sam Liebl

, the first person willing to pay for my writing; to

Tom Soren

for Nexiok, for being my beta reader for the Spanish version and for the amazing covers and back covers for the English and Spanish versions of the Book I; and, of course, to

Salvador Lorca 📚 ⭕️

and

David

for offering me the chance to collaborate with them on that wonderful project called "Chronicles" within Columnas: Diario y Crónicas de Substack.

That's why I said I was really proud of this year. It's been interesting, fun, even though it's always forced me to strive to create original stories, as well-written and coherent as possible.

A new year begins... Next year will call for another roundup... but this is this year's...