Quick Fall Updates from the Vaporous Realms

A novella launch, a short story to be published, and incoming snippets!

Hi folks!

Whew, what a month September has been. Getting Len’s novella published has been a humbling experience, with several lessons learned the hard way. (Case in point: we probably won’t do an e-book preorder again. Apologies to the few who tried to take advantage of that.) But I’m relieved and grateful to be on this side of the launch—and excited for what’s in store this fall. Here’s a rundown of Vaporous Realms news:

Dustsong: Len the Wanderer has launched!

(Okay, not an actual photo of the book, which is about 160 pages long.)

Hallelujah! At long last, the Len novella is available for purchase on Amazon (e-book or print) or our website (e-book only, which you can downland and send to your preferred e-reading app). [Update: The Dustsong: Len the Wanderer ebook is now free for subscribers. Paperbacks will continue to be available on Amazon for now. You can also buy a signed copy directly from me: check out our “Books and Products” section, beginning May 16, 2024.] This book is a vastly improved and expanded telling of Len’s adventures in his younger years. (Subsequent novellas will further expand the saga with Kaelii’s and Egwae’s points of view, as well as “Old Len’s” experiences featured in the original, 2022 edition of Len’s Song.) Thank you to everyone who’s already bought the book or is considering it! Buying a copy would be an amazing and deeply appreciated way to support what we’re doing here. Let us know what you think of it! (I’ll brace myself.)

Havok Publishing has accepted an exclusive Egwae snippet for publication!

One admitted reason for the week’s delay in the novella launch was the decision to meet a submission deadline for Havok Publishing. Havok is a respected, typically “family friendly” online publisher of flash fiction in genres like fantasy and sci-fi. Our 999-word story “Watchers,” featuring Egwae, was accepted! We’ll let you know when we find out the exact date of its publication on Havok’s homepage in November or December.

Rough versions of the novella chapters are posted here on Substack.

As promised, the novella chapters have been posted here on Substack for paid and complimentary subscribers. New chapters, beginning with “The Hollow,” are posted as new snippets. Chapters based on revised snippets from Len’s Song are hidden beneath the original, serialized version in the old posts. They’re all linked for convenience, though! (Of course, the versions published in the book are further polished and proofread.)

Weekly snippets of Delfii’s Song are (finally) coming at the start of October.

Delfii, Snippet 1, will tentatively appear on Monday, October 2. When I start drafting Kaelii’s story in October, I’ll share those, too! Free subscribers will receive abridged versions of the Delfii snippets, and we’ll enable comments on those. We’ve got a great reader community and look forward to more conversations with y’all in the months to come!

In the meantime, thanks for taking the time to peruse these updates. Happy reading!

—M. B. Heywood (and the Vaporous Realms team)