Week Four of writing my next book – Project Autumn Winds – Sept 27, 2025
Open Beta Read Shadow Fox on Wattpad here: https://www.wattpad.com/story/398258333-shadow-fox
Socials:
https://www.instagram.com/claradmunro/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/claradmunro
Week Three of writing my next book – Project Autumn Winds – Sept 20, 2025
Challenges
Publishing journey for Shadow Fox
Little bits about my life
Canadian ISBN registry – https://www.canada.ca/en/library-archives.html
Open Beta Read Shadow Fox on Wattpad here: https://www.wattpad.com/story/398258333-shadow-fox
Socials:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/claradmunro/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/claradmunro
You can read the first three chapters up on Wattpad right now! It’s free to read and you can read it on the Wattpad app or website.
https://www.wattpad.com/1560844083-shadow-fox-prologue
I will add more chapters every week and I encourage you to read them, commend, and make any suggestions. Be brutal and honest – you will not hurt me if you do but I trust all readers will be doing so with the best possible intentions.
If you find that you just don’t like it and the type of story isn’t your cup of tea – I respect that. Not everyone enjoys the fantasy genre.
I hope that you enjoy it though!
Clara D. Munro
Autumn Winds is ready to start the drafting process. I have an action plan for this book and I am taking all the lessons I learned writing Shadow Fox and applying them to my new book.
First: This books is going to be 120,000 words – 60 chapters – 2000 words per chapter (give or take). This book will be in three parts – 20 chapters per part and each part will take place in a different part of the Embersong Forest.
Second: I am going to only write five days out of the week which means that it will take about three months to complete the rough draft. That means that I will be working on a different part of the book each month.
I would like the first draft to be done by the end of November. The goal is to write about the season of Autumn during the time in which it is happening.
Lastly, for this book I will be starting a vlog series for it. At the end of each week I will record a little video about how the process is going along with some nice B roll of what the Autumn looks like in my corner of the world. I will post the vlogs on YouTube but also share them here. This means I will be not doing written blog posts about the process this time. Vlogs will be posted every Saturday.
I am going to work on this project first because the second book in the Shadow Fox series needs more time to cook in regards of direction and plot. It has a lot of moving parts and characters in it.
Meanwhile – the first chapter of Shadow Fox will be going up on Wattpad Friday, September 5. I will post one chapter at a time to allow me time to implement any updates as I go. New chapters will go up every Friday. Once all the chapters are up – I will leave the book up for about three months before I start making movement towards hard copy and ebook publishing.
That’s a lot of updates and I know it. I hope that you will all join me on this next part of my writing journey and if any of it inspired you to start you own creative projects, let me know in the comments.
For a while there, I was putting “Aspiring” in front of Writer because I didn’t believe that I could call myself a “Writer” until I had published a book. I had this core belief that only the very special get to have the title of “Writer”. That only those people who managed get their book published were worthy of being called “Writers”. Fuck that core belief.
Aspiring Writer – that looks better, doesn’t it?
I have completed writing a fantasy novel that is over 100K in words and 450 pages long. Is it worthy of awards? No, but I didn’t write it for recognition. Even if this book never sees the inside of my local bookshop, I still wrote it.
Having a good group of supportive people in your life makes a difference. I have a core group that has been supportive of me the whole way through. They are the ones who will I have asked for help in the reviewing of the book before I decided if I am going to seek an Agent and publisher or if I will self publish or online publish.
There will also be silent friends and family. The ones who say nothing at all. They don’t support you and they don’t show up when it counts. At that point, maybe it’s time to ask yourself if those people even noticed that you were doing something or worse, that they just don’t care. I wouldn’t say go and confront them – trust me, that will not make you or them feel any better. I would advise that you just keep moving forward, keep writing, and keep being creative. If they show up at the finish line later on and want to congratulate you then – just thank them and move on. If they never show up again – just remember the fond memories and leave them in your past. Chances are that they are caught up in their own story. Don’t dwell on the fact that you’re not in their story – focus on being the main character in your own story.
Lastly, if anyone tells you that you not allowed to call yourself a writer – tell them to go fuck themselves. That person is a bully and wants to hurt you and cut you down. Fuck people like that.
I am at the stage where I can start considering which option I want to go with for publishing Shadow Fox and the books that will be in the World of Tierra series to come.
Traditional publishing is by far the hardest of the three option. It’s a lot of work for very much little to no pay off. It’s a competitive market out there since writing has never been easier to accomplish. Between the use of AI and advance word-processing programs – anyone who puts in the time can write a book. I am not sure that I have the energy to do what it takes to woo a literary agent. I haven’t even come up with a list of agents that I even want to try asking.
Self publishing appears to be the smarter choice for someone just starting out without a long history of other publications behind them. I have been seriously considering IngramSpark for my books because they take care of everything and all I need to do is upload it and then do my own marketing.
Online Publishing is by far the easiest of the three. I have used Wattpad in the past and it’s easy to upload, make edits, and then remove if you no longer want it on that platform. What I may do to start with is upload the books onto there first. Let it get views and comments on there and then use that final bit of feedback to make the ultimate final draft and then use IngramSpark to publish it once and for all.
The reality of our world is most people read on their phones these days. Whether we like it or not, our smart devices are part of our everyday life now. The average person spends between 4-5 hours on their device a day. I know that I read a lot on my phone. I choose to read on it rather than scroll endlessly on social media apps. If I choose to online publish first and then move to IngramSpark to both get my books up on shops like Kindle and Kobo and also physical bookstores like Indigo Chapters and Coles here in Canada, then I will have checked off every way in which someone can access the books.
I have said it before, I am not in this for money – I am writing because I enjoy it. If someone else likes my writing, that’s awesome and if they don’t – let’s hope they aren’t mean about it. If somewhere down the road I feel comfortable reaching out to a literary agent or one reaches out to me, I can cross that bridge when I get to it.
Fun fact that I learned this week – Canadians get ISBN numbers for free from the Canadian government! All you need to do is apply for one. You need one for each type of publication too. It’s one of the few places in the world that the government helps to facilitate creators.
That’s right, the second draft of Shadow Fox is done! I used my stay-cation to just focus on getting the work done. It ended up being over 100K in words and over 450 paperback pages in length. That is the most I have ever written for a single project.
Now, I am ready to move onto getting trusted friends to read through it. I need new eyes to read it and help me locate plot holes, improve character development, and catch the likely obvious spelling and grammar errors that I am sure are there. I am just going to let the other readers cook on the book for a while and collect as much feedback from them as possible for probably a month or two.
I know that this part is really scary for some people but a career with the Walt Disney Company has taught me how to take constructive criticism without making it personal. I also took more than enough creative writing courses to know how to filter feedback so that I get the best out of it.
While all of that is happening, I am going to start the planning phase for book two. I went out and got some old school blank paper composition books from the dollar store and some new pens to start the process. The next book is going to be taking our heroes out of the Fae lands and into the Human lands and then into the ocean to sneak into the Obsidian Empire itself to mount a daring rescue.
It’s officially summer in the Shuswap and I have continued to be busy with traveling and recovering from traveling. I went to Alberta for a Summer Druid Camp with the Chinook Grove of the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids. I had an amazing time and even shared a bit of the novel around the fire.
With all of traveling and recovery days, I have not been working much on Shadow Fox. However, I have a stay-cation planned for this weekend. I have five days booked off and I plan to take some serious time to work on the 2nd draft of my novel. I am going to swap the hours that I would normally be at my job for working on the novel. Five solid 8 hour days of focused work. I am hoping to get all of my 2nd draft story edits done in that time.
Once the 2nd draft is done, I can then move onto the 3rd draft with is where I am going to focus on the grammar, spelling, and formatting. I have been doing some passive editing while reviewing the story but I haven’t been making it the focus of the 2nd draft.
After that, I will upload the draft to a location where I can send out private links for trusted friends to review it and create a way for them to make suggestions for improvement and cuts. Once they have finished, I will then do one final pass before creating some query letters for literary agents. I am also going to move forward with the self publishing process at the same time. No matter what happens, this book will be published for others to read.
I am not looking for fame here – I just want to share what I have been working so hard on the last 9 months.
This is the blurb for Shadow Fox:
Victoria Oak has led an uneventful life of a student studying celtic literature until a trip to Ireland sends her into the ancient world of the Fae. She must find her way back home before she’s swept up into a eons-old war between the Fae. Together with a group of Fae she befriends, Victoria finds out who she really is and what she’s capable of.
Aidan Rowanheart has been plotting his revenge on those who killed his mother for over a hundred years. Everything is going according to plan until he picks up a stray human who has accidentally stumbled into his world. After swearing to help Victoria return home, Aidan finds himself torn between getting his revenge and keeping his promise.
I am on a pause from working on Shadow Fox (the title of Project Fox Hunt). I tried to start editing right away and found that I was overwhelmed by going right into it. I am taking a full month off from it in order to get space from it. This way I can go back and edit with a clearer mind and be more objective in how I edit the second draft. Even now, I know there’s a bunch of stuff that I want to cut and some stuff I want to add.
While on pause I have been completing other things like helping my parents repaint their deck (I also got help from two very good friends). I have been finishing up other little projects such as my Ovate review and a knitting project that I have been working on since last year.
I have a Beltane camping trip planned for this weekend and I am excited to see everyone again. This is one of my favorite group pagan camping events of the year. I am lucky to have found such an amazing tribe of like minded people.
All the while, I am researching what I need to publish my book. I am leaning towards Ingram Spark and self publishing. I am learning about copyright laws and checking on what I need to do in order to get help with the cover and how much that will cost me (it’s looking like $900). I might just go to Fiver for help with that since I don’t think I can afford a professional.
Clocking in at 98,400+ words so far, the rough draft of Project Fox Hunt is done.
I started this project in November and so much has changed in it that it doesn’t even resemble the original concept for the story anymore.
So now the hard part comes into play. I have a lot of work left to do before any other eyes can even attempt to read it. There’s some missing scenes and a whole lot of editing to do. Seeing as how I am just at the start of my work week on it, I will spend the rest of this week going through it chapter by chapter and reading it over, filling in the blanks, and writing the connecting scenes that are missing.
The end goal is still 120K words and I suspect that it won’t take much for me to get the last 21.5K written. I am hoping for an 8 hour read by the end of this.
No victory lap just yet but it’s nice to have this part of the journey done.
Clara D Munro 