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| Yoshitoshi, c. 1866 |
At long last, the writing and subsequent digital publishing of my “little” samurai novel is complete. The first words were typed while I was on a break from teaching a special education class in El Segundo, California, and the final words were written in an uncomfortable high chair in a Starbucks that was attached to Marriot in Sacremento, California. That is somewhat symbolic for me, as there were as many words written away from home as at home; my life has been in a state of upheaval for some time, but I still got the work done.
Muramasa was definitely the most challenging work I have completed thus far, and not just because I was away from home so much. Unlike my earlier true fantasy novels, Muramasa was historical fiction of sorts, and that required hours of research. I made a lot of decisions and took a lot of new paths with this book, with some panning out and some being less successful. Overall, I count it a success. This is because I:
1. Finished a book. This is always a big deal.
2. Devised a means of achieving my vision of monetized content that is free to end users. I even made a small amount of money from the serialization.
3. Expanded my writing, research, and web coding skills because of necessity.
4. Got myself motivated to build a new, better website that will deliver my vision with more efficiency and with better aesthetics.
