I am writing a cozy fantasy serial story with a loving, vibrant sorceress named Duchess who helps people heal and make their dreams come true in a luxurious forest retreat set in central British Columbia.
Six months ago, it started out as a memoir.
Me: 🤔😬 I didn’t know you were a witch
Also Me: I think that’s the point, we’re not.
It’s been fun. Entirely unexpected. A little unhinged. All I can do, really is laugh, shake my head, sit down and write some more, get up and laugh again.
I thought I had a story to tell, and that it was a memoir. Then I decided I needed to reserve the right to make stuff up, so I switched to auto-fiction. Hmm, still not quite right.
When characters started morphing into cats, and talking to me, changing their names, and throwing out fairy tale story lines, I…paused.
Then I did a 33 day daily writing challenge on Medium. Somehow, while doing that challenge, Duchess showed up in my subconscious and worked her way up to my fingers and danced out onto the page.
The whole thing arrived fully formed: the structure, the staff, the premise. An episodic serial. Guests arriving at Duchess’s retreat. Healing. Or not. And then—life goes on.
I told my son about it. He is a website developer and programmer. He thought it all sounded interesting, and without telling me, he built me this beautiful website: dorisvontettenborn.ca
He even built characters based on the stories as AI chat companions that readers could talk to, and Duchess does tarot card readings.
Oh my gosh! It is beautiful.
Of course, now I had to fill it with content.
So I’ve had to learn social media, and editing, and serial fiction structure and so many things. It’s only been about two months, but so much fun!
Me: Wow! I might even want to do some writing!
Also Me: 😂👏✍️👍😻