January 8, 2016

Excerpt from TUBE, Draft 3

I'm writing again, at last, and many things are new. The calm is new. The lack of anxiety is new. It's weird. I don't know where it's coming from. I no longer force myself to produce 2K words a day, though I count daily words still, as a way of giving myself an idea of how much I wrote. I write about 5 hours a day, roughly from 9AM till 2 PM, and for the first time I'm writing into a new clean file, occasionally glancing at the old file for Draft 2. It's curiously liberating. I don't have to adhere to the old structure nor do I have to write over old stuff and fix it. I can write fresh.

This is something, I tell you. I'm loving it. At the pace I'm going, this draft should be done in about 2 months, and it will need one more draft (to polish it) before publishing. I'm cutting out A LOT and simplifying A LOT. So far 89 pages are gone, and I'm only on page 31.

If you want to read my daily writing, pledge $1 per month on Patreon, and voila! YOU WILL BE PLAGUED BY NIGHTMARES. So here it is for you, the opening.

July 9, 2015

My 4th story is born! THE BADLINGS is published.

by Ksenia Anske

This was quite a journey. What was born out of an innocent wish to revisit the books of my childhood grew into its own book. Grew fast. And went through all kinds of adventures just like Bells and her friends in The Badlings did. I wrote the first draft in 2 weeks. "Woot!" I thought. "New frontier conquered!" Yeah, right. It was too fast. And it featured too many books, over 30. And then I lost Colleen, my editor. And then I found Sarah, my new editor. And then Sarah said, "What about copyright?" So I had to rehack the whole thing. I tried making it into a parody and go around copyright issues. Didn't help. So I rewrote it again and cut out 10 books, then I rewrote it yet again and cut out 10 more books. Then I had to break to go on the Amtrak residency trip. Then I came back and realized the story is not done and went through yet another set of revisions. And finally it's here. It's done. I can move on to writing 2nd draft of TUBE!!!

February 3, 2015

Draft 3 of THE BADLINGS is done!

by Ksenia Anske

The trip to Spokane has distracted me from blogging about this. Are you ready? Here we go.

DRAFT 3 OF THE BADLINGS IS DONE!!!

This is such a fun book to write, at times I feel guilty. Instead of crying every day like I did when writing IRKADURA, I'm giggling and sniggering and laughing. Due to the copyright I had to cut down the number of books the badlings jump in and out of down to 10. The title has changed from CORNERS to THE BADLINGS as it doesn't fit the story anymore. Below is the first chapter. I'm taking two weeks off and starting Draft 4 on February 16th. Wish me luck.

November 8, 2014

IRKADURA is published!!!

by Ksenia Anske

It happened! It did! It did! So many months of pain, so many rewrites, so much fretting over the cover, and finally it's here! It's been how long? I started writing it on January 2nd of this year, so it's been 10 months from start to finish, a little faster than ROSEHEAD. Boy, am I glad I'm done with this. It made me go back to my Soviet past and stir it up, and it was not a pleasant experience, but those of you who have already read it tell me that you love it. I'm so glad! You can find free ebook files here and, of course, it's on all the other places too, like Amazon and iBooks and Barnes & Noble and Wattpad and more. Now, as is my tradition, here is the 1st chapter.

IRKADURA

A novel by Ksenia Anske

CHAPTER 1. MOUSE

August 9, 2014

IRKADURA excerpt, Draft 4

by Ksenia Anske

My heart is jumping out of my chest as I'm typing this, because with this book I've been through a herd of frolicking flamingoes and I thought at first they were nice and sweet and pink and then they turned into black fucking ravens and stripped me off my skin and opened their terrible mouths and, well...I HAVE FINISHED THE DAMNED BOOK YESTERDAY but what I mean to say here is, when I wrote the 1st draft, some people loved it, but the one to whom I dedicated it didn't (and rightfully so, it was shitty) and suggested improvements, and so I wrote the 2nd draft, and some people liked it a lot, and I got more notes on how to improve it, and then I wrote the 3rd draft, and I had some people outright tell me they fell in love with it, and now I finished the 4th draft, and it has changed so much, that I'm scared shitless. I do hope I didn't toil for nothing for 7 months, so you tell me what you think. I can tell you that I'M SO FUCKING HAPPY I'M DONE WITH THIS BOOK, YOU HAVE NO IDEA.

If you want to compare, here are the versions:

Draft 1 opening - people told me it was like chick lit/women's fiction type stuff, and it's in 3rd person.
Draft 2 opening - people told me it was like historical fiction with an element of horror. I added a magical realism layer.
Draft 3 opening - people told me this turned raw and fresh and it's a psychological thriller. I changed from 3rd person to 1st person and went bonkers.
Draft 4 opening - people told me that the word choice and the imagery is so intense, it makes them want to cry and it's a masterpiece (WUT?? Totally not).

See for yourself. I'm beyond terrified now, and I wonder what this book would've been like if I didn't publicly post the drafts and listened to feedback. Probably something else entirely. I've sent it off to my lovely editor who says I should have it back sometime in October, so to those of you who pre-ordered it, I think I will have paperback copies in November. Thank you for waiting!

IRKADURA

A Novel by Ksenia Anske, Draft 4

Chapter 1. Mouse

I wake up and feel for the boar. The boar is Lyosha Kabansky, mama’s boyfriend. He’s there all right, snoring. It’s September first. I don’t need to go to school anymore and I could’ve slept in, but I’m leaving. He tried to sell me yesterday. He said, “Irkadura, this is Vova. You know what to do. I’ll give you a ruble for some ice cream.” I wouldn’t do it, so he beat me. Then they had me. They took turns, Lyosha and Vova. Drunk.
I turned into a mouse to escape them. It’s easier that way.
I’m sixteen and I’m mute.