I published my first book today

Launch day is weird. How the duck did I get here?

I’m sorry for stuffing your mailboxes with another piece. October 24th is here, the launch day of my first book. This is clearly a promotional post, but - hey - you gotta do what you gotta do. Did you know I hate promoting my work?!

Anyway, yes, my book The Last Daughter of Wolves is published, the eBook, the paperback and the hardcover version. It’s a dark fantasy novella, set in a semi-medieval world with shifters, and… well you’ll have to read the rest. It’s a short novella, easily read in one sitting (with a mug of hot tea!). I tried to capture the atmosphere of a cold Winter’s day in this story, and I think it works. This story came to me slowly but steadily, making me taste every sentence, to live it step by step.

Okay, is this the part where I share the pitch and the blurb of the story? Here goes:

A soul of a wolf trapped in the body of a frail woman. A ruthless lord training her to become an assassin of a tyrant. Shall the Bloodhound Queen fall from the sword of the last daughter of wolves?

What is a Wolfling unable to take its wolf form?

A cursed creature stranded in the human world against her will, the savage girl Stella is made to take part in dog fights, where she is bought by the cold-hearted Lord Rufus. She becomes his spy, the assassin he trains to murder the tyrannical Bloodhound Queen, who put Rufus’ kingdom to its knees. The Lord’s young brother Julian earns Stella’s trust, but their  love is shattered by Rufus’ plans.

As Stella enters the Bloodhound Queen’s court, she proves to be a fierce fighter, the one who fears no pain. Over five years she becomes the Queen’s confidant, all the while waiting for the sign from her Lord. But when Lord Rufus himself gets seduced by power, and his brother Julian plots an alliance against the Queen, Stella is forced to make a heavy choice between her Lord, her lover and her friend the Bloodhound Queen.

“The Last Daughter of Wolves” is a story with the cold soul of winter. A story set in a mythical semi-medieval world, observed through the eyes of a savage girl learning to understand the nature of men. Will she find the answer to the question haunting her; what is it that makes a man?

I hope you’ll give this story a chance. You know how those indie authors are, always begging for ratings and reviews? Yeah, now I’m one of them. It would be most kind if you could leave your ratings and maybe even a review on amazon. Whatever it might be. Even if you hated the book, an honest rating is better than nothing. If you’d like to buy this book, it’s available HERE .

I sincerely apologise if there’s something awkward going on with the book's cover, or formatting or anything… It’s all entirely my fault. I changed the cover like 3 times over the course of editing, same with the manuscript. A bad excuse but I was stressed out, batshit crazy and hardly adequate… so pretty much the same as usual.

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Do you care to read about the origin of this story? No? The story behind the story is boring, you say? Tough luck, lovelies! I’m going to write it anyway.

Although the story is set in the same world as my previous fantasy stories published on Substack, this one is a stand-alone. The inspiration came from my devious idea to write my version of a very popular story. Back then I used to amuse myself by reading the one and two star reviews of popular books, because they’re hilarious! This story was about a young girl who is supposed to be this badass assassin. The readers weren’t happy with the controversy - the author kept describing the protagonist as this legendary killer while her behaviour proved the opposite, which clearly wasn’t some clever intentional plan of the author. So, I had the bad idea of writing my own story about a young assassin girl. How could I make it believable? Give her a beastly nature. A stoic character, because she’s not really human, although she looks like one. The one who fears no pain. The one who doesn’t fear death, because her kind had been called the merciful guides to the afterworld. The story went it's own course, I didn’t plagiarise the one that sparked the inspiration for it.

Anyway, one of the first places I shared the snippets of this story was…ugh… FB. Out of all places, huh?! An idiot move, but I had my reasons. This story caused a shit storm there. It was the reason I deleted my private profile in this FB fantasy group. But the good news - some people there enjoyed it. It encouraged me to share it on Substack. Although it’s not on Substack anymore, obviously, I plan to publish it here again, but behind a paywall.

So, that’s it. No more spoilers! I’m crawling back into my dark corner, and leaving you alone. At least until tomorrow…

Love,

Kathrine 🩶

P.s. This is a big day for me but… I know I won’t receive any flowers, or congratulations “in the real world”. I chose a lonely path to walk, when I decided to keep my writing hidden from the outside world. I’m not writing this to make you buy my book, I just got a bit emotional. Sometimes it’s hard to keep this hidden world inside me, and not to show any of it to the ones I love the most, because I know they won’t understand.