What is the story behind the self-published science fiction novel “Laenif”? Here’s the behind the curtain look at writing and publishing the first two books of what is becoming the Laenif Trilogy.
The Planet Called Laenif: Making Book One
The Origins of Laenif: 2001 - 2007
Since the mid-1990s, I have been writing stories and books as a hobby. I remember in 2001, I finished a novel called “Better” that had several flaws. This was mostly due to the fact that I was in middle school at the time. In 2002 I wrote a book that just as bad, if not worse, entitled “The Walk.” Learning from my mistakes, and heavily inspired by Quentin Tarantino films, I wrote a much better but still disastrous novel I called “Nine Ashes” in 2003. The first novel I wrote that I thought had any value was in 2004, “Fading into Autumn.” I wrote these books for myself and learned a lot along the way, but my intent at the time was to crank out a book every year and then leave it be. Go to the next one.
On October 1, 2005, while in an altered state thanks to psilocybin, I wrote the following paragraph:
“Now don’t start somewhere or try and write it down. It doesn’t have to have or be defined. Not now. Just stop what you think you’re doing and look around. There’s a whole lot of stuff anywhere and I think at the end of the day, after wallowing around in the saddened reality, I don’t know what’s going on.
Something happened once, though. And now we’re just dealing with it. There was a magical union of consciousness and flesh and that was it. This can of course give the sense of multiplying, but somewhere the thought of infinity just spirals out into interpretation. There’s the thought of life, there’s a strand that reaches so far out into possibility that this organized mass of flesh, blood, and organs actually connects with the beauty and majesty of… the unexplainable consciousness… and then there’s death. I don’t care for any of it, though. I don’t know why I was created. To consume? To live? Nothing more? Was I not created for something more?”
This became the beginning of a novel called Laenif. The original intention was for the novel to be a standalone piece that was to collect dust with the rest of my annual books. In 2006, I started writing a new novel called “And the Sun Let Go,” about a depressed man in his 30s who gets swept away to another planet. About halfway through writing chapter four, I realized this was the sequel to Laenif. I wrote about seven chapters of Laenif Book 2: And the Sun Let Go before I had to go back and read book one to verify some information. I was studying creative writing at the time, now a freshman in College, and realized the first book (especially the back half) would need to be completely rewritten.
Rushing into Publication: A Rookie Mistake
Completing Laenif: Book One, which was originally completed as a rough draft in a matter of 10 months, took until 2012 to finish and it was only then that I began to revisit book two. In May of 2013, upon finding the Amazon self-publication platform, then called “Create Space,” I hastily self-published the first novel. For the cover, a random photograph that had little to do with the book was used. For a description, I rushed that as well, typing up a rough summary. Then I pushed publish without even giving a read through and blasted the link on my social media.
This was a costly mistake for several reasons. One, family and friends who gave my book a shot received a typo-ridden, verbose book that needed some serious editing. I feel many readers who bought this version were rightfully turned off by this sloppy draft and may never give my writing a second chance.
(original cover design, 2013)
This iteration of book one lost me many readers and potential fans. I didn’t even notice until reading through it again in 2015, when I immediately unpublished it, put writing book two on pause, and then spent two years editing and rewriting a large chunk of the novel until it became what it should have been before ever releasing it to the public.
The second version of book one was published in 2017 but by then, the damage was done. I wrote the rest of book two and published a final version of each book in 2020 after using the pandemic to craft each book. The campaign to start marketing this book really took off in 2025 and am still hopeful it find its audience. Check out the bookstore.
The Future of the Laenif Trilogy and Other Novels
Despite what search engines or A.I. might tell you, my upcoming novel Remember Me, Nothing is not a book that takes place in the same universe as the Laenif series. I really wanted to write outside of the Laenif world before diving back in for book 3. But I am pleased to announce that the trilogy will be complete and the third book of the trilogy is in the works. Unless there’s some sort of an accelerant, best guess is 2030 for a publication date.
