A year ago, on October 15th, my first novel, Vandella, was finally published. After a journey of years in the making, it was a great relief and personal accomplishment to deliver my story to the world. The reception of the readers who have dared to immerse themselves into the pages of Vandella has been extremely positive, with a shared sense of amazement after uncovering the twists and turns of the story, to the point of delivering a great sense of satisfaction, even for avid readers of literary fiction.
Despite of the slow but increasing success Vandella is having as it’s recommended mostly by word-of-mouth, like a baby just delivered to the world, it still has a long way ahead to travel. And I, like all proud fathers, face the challenge of guiding the steps of this infant eager to roam the globe. I’m a debut author, and like a new dad, I’m still learning how to do things right with my prima opera. The hardest part to all aspiring writers it’s developing a readership, and for that, our work needs to break through the millions of fictional works that compete for the attention of the readers. It’s a daunting task indeed, not apt for the faint of heart. But despite having a scenario unfavored by the odds, my publishing experience during this long year has been so enriching, that made me only to double-down on my commitment to continue telling the stories buried in my soul.
I’m currently editing the third draft of my next manuscript, Vandella’s sequel, titled “Resilience” that I hope can see the light of day during the first half of 2023. In parallel, I’m also working on writing complementary short stories that will be integrated under the Vandella: Chronicles brand, which will tell side-stories crucial to understand the happenings surrounding the main plot. This because, by the point of view used to narrate the novel (first person), it made it impossible for me to integrate the happenings not witnessed by my main character, Maia, into the narrative. I’m interested in exploring additional venues for sharing some of those short stories, intending to widen the reach of my writing. And I hope that in a not-so-distant future, I can integrate these short stories into a couple of anthologies to make it available to you as part of Vandella’s universe.
As you can see, I’m full of ideas for the future and I keep working hard to deliver the best narrative experience to you, my readers, striving to craft the novels I would like to read. I must confess that it has been a bumpy journey, constantly juggling with my day job and personal responsibilities. But during my life, I’ve learned that achieving our dreams is not really a destination, but a continuous endeavor, because dreams that don’t vanish when we wake up are those which are always in the making. Molding our lives. Becoming our lives.
I’ll be sharing the details of my incoming projects as we approach to the release dates, but I didn’t want to allow the anniversary of the release of Vandella passing without looking back at the teachings and learnings of the author’s life and also sharing a brief update of my incoming projects with you.
Thank you to my readers, who have supported my writing career buying a copy of Vandella. It’s your interest in my writing that pushes me to deliver the next installment in the series.
And for my readers, who haven’t yet read Vandella, I wholeheartedly invite you to download the first chapter from my webpage by subscribing to my newsletter. I can promise you that the time and money invested in the book it will be worth it.
Sincerely,
M. Ch. Landa