The Wind Sings Sorrow: A Story About the Start of a Revolution
My debut speculative fiction, science fantasy novel, The Wind Sings Sorrow, is coming soon! 🌪️✨
There is so much I want to say about this project that I barely know where to start…
Ever since I was old enough to hold a pencil, I’ve wanted to be a science fiction and fantasy author. I wrote my first short story at 6 years old about something I no longer remember. I wrote my second longer and more complex short story about anthropomorphized Sun and Moon sisters in cosmic conflict. The vision became clearer when I wrote my first few stories at 11. At 13, I wrote my first children’s story, Fingers McGee, for a younger sibling who was a toddler at the time. By 14, I was developing full Dungeons & Dragons campaign worlds, complete with hand drawn maps, complex back stories for all the main characters, and inter kingdom conflicts fit for high powered epic level campaigns.
Writing has always been a way to express myself and a vehicle to express my trauma. Under threat of death, I kept my darkest secrets of trauma bottle up, protecting my loved ones and community the only way I knew how.
Fiction and I have rarely parted.
There were hundreds of stories in my head I never managed to finish writing. I wrote scraps of scenes, poems, and character profiles prolifically, as if all these people lived fully realized in my head. Their stories and experiences were mine, and mine were theirs. They represented both parts of me and parts of the collective—aspects of people I love and who bring my shadows to play.
Around 19, I started my first novel—a post-apocalyptic urban fantasy sci-fi about a young man venturing across the ravages of a war torn United States in 2052. The novel itself was titled 2052 in my mind, but I never finished it. The first person I asked to read it was one of my roommates, a woman in her 40s I respected deeply and looked up to as a mentor. She was a speed reader and devoured books like the Wheel of Time Series as if she was flipping through a magazine.
But when she read my first few scenes in 2052, she essentially told me I was trying too hard, I was too wordy, and she didn’t want to read more. I had put so much love and care into choosing literary words I loved and I felt evoked what I wanted to say. Her immediate criticism coincided with my first college English teacher telling me I said too much and should say less in my writing. That shut me down for a while until I found my footing again.
Next, between 20 and 21, I wrote Intertwined—the first novel I ever wrote to completion. It was a Tolkien-inspired high fantasy story about factionary politics and the discovery of magic. A few people read and enjoyed it, but I didn’t feel confident enough in the trilogy I planned for it, as inspiration more or less dried up once the original spark faded. I still have the manuscript—and also no idea what to do with it.
In November 2011, at 22 years old, I wrote the first draft of Red & Black, the story meant to kick off my sci-fi universe and its various adventures. I was planning to share the story of the gunslinger Sahj with the world, feeling the drive to publish her tale above all other stories I’d already written or thought of creating. You see—Sahj is a very special character to me, one I embodied for years in one of the most impactful roleplaying games of my life (have I mentioned I’m a super nerd?). I wrote a thirteen page, single spaced back story for her and the person running the game liked it so much I found my spark again. So I wrote my first draft of Book 1 of Red & Black, which was to be a 5-10 book series.
Then, my life shifted drastically. Just before my 23rd birthday, I lost my daughter at 6 months pregnant. Shortly thereafter, still bleeding from the loss, I entered a relationship with a wounded man—a person I refer to as The Love Bomber in my various writings. Whether he’s actually a narcissist or not, he was immensely abusive and constantly needed to take center stage
Along with my now partner and best friend Justin, the Love Bomber was amongst the first 5 people to read the Red and Black manuscript.
“It’s good,” the Love Bomber told me. “But it’ll never make it without my help.” He didn’t touch it for years, thankfully, and so in 2014, I wrote the second book in the Red & Black series.
Long story short, The Love Bomber got into my first manuscript sometime around 2016 and mucked it the fuck up. He added new characters, inserted his world views, amped up the action sequences (sort of) and wrote over portions of my work. While he probably only added or altered about 15% of the manuscript, it was enough for me to no longer feel like I had agency or like Sahj’s story was fully her own.
We split years later, and I finally started writing again. After too many years of keeping my writing to myself lest it be defiled, I reemerged with fresh ideas—but felt I couldn’t touch Sahj’s story at all. The thought of trying to recover and recreate my work was just too much to attempt. There was just too much to untangle.
In 2020, I wrote another full manuscript, Bumble Bees & White Balloons, processing my pregnancy loss through the lens of a queer set of characters pitted against the backdrop of COVID-19. While I wouldn’t go on to publish it until 2023, it still thawed parts of me I didn’t know were frozen and opened a new chapter of literary reclamation.
In 2021, I published my first short story, A Gift of Gold, under my pen name AJ Eastwood. This was a HUGE turning point, as I had yet to actually publish any work at the time. But, my story won 3rd in an international eco-lit contest (and fun fact, is a precursor to my sci-fi universe). I was so thrilled to see it in print, and I began to consider—maybe I can reclaim my dream of being an author!
In 2022, I published my first non-fiction chapter in a book, then a second. In 2023, I published two more. While these are great works and I’m proud of them, in the larger scheme they were like in vivo therapy helping me overcome creative blocks and put my name in the world as an author.
That gave me the capacity to finally publish Bumble Bees & White Balloons at the end of 2023, which as a new and indie author didn’t reach a wide audience. But, everyone it did reach was deeply impacted. The feedback I received was tremendous and affirming. My writing was making an impact!
In 2024, I published both the first edition of A Woman’s Work, as well as Daddy’s Girl about six months later. These pieces were collections of poetry written between 2005 and 2024, all in the style of memoir and processing trauma. A Woman’s Work helped me process the wounds of being born a woman in a patriarchal society, while Daddy’s Girl is a more masculine side of things, exploring my relationship with my late father—both collections I’m deeply proud of and that show me just how far I’ve come on this journey.
After publishing Daddy’s Girl in October 2024, I wondered… What is next? I had several novels on my brainstorm list, some even with starting chapters I’d already written to test out the plot. Between 2022 and the end of 2024, I wrote the first several chapters for two entirely different manuscripts:
1) A young adult novel about a high school senior who gets whisked away into a magical school—like a spicy, woke Harry Potter. In my head, the series would be about 5 (maybe 6) books long, one for each year of the school.
2) An alternative historical, high-fantasy Earth where a genetic mutation leads to “Elves” with long pointed ears and a whole lot of political intrigue. This was going to be my way to explore the eras of human history, but without skin color based racism. What would happen if instead prejudice was based on another physical feature, and we throw magic into the cauldron for fun?
While I’m excited to write both of these stories, eventually, neither felt like the right story to tell now.
I played with various oracle decks and began to dream up characters for a new story. Midsummer 2024, I started to dream up a historical fiction story about queer pirates sailing the high seas and getting into trouble for being who they are. It was going to feature a “cross-dressing” captain, a gender bending thief, and of course sapphic lovers. But that’s when Justin gave me the nudge.
“I think you should write your Sahj story,” he said.
Every fiber in my being flared with old trauma responses. “I’m not ready to confront that book yet,” I told him. Hell, it’s not even been a decade since I realized I’m going to have to completely restart my 100k+ word manuscript over from scratch to salvage the character.
“It doesn’t have to be directly about Sahj,” he assured me. “But it could be set in the same universe.”
Thus, The Wind Sings Sorrow, was born—and gosh is she a doozy of a book in what I hope is the best of ways.
The story takes place during the first few years of the original Sahj story and has shaped up to be the prequel series to the larger conflict in the setting. It is a book about the start of a revolution and the immense feelings we experience as human beings. This is my first step into fully reclaiming Sahj’s story, and starts to shape the larger story arc that will be a key conflict in the Red & Black series. My hope is that by the time readers get to meet my first alien protagonist, they’ll be well aware of the backdrop her story is told against.
And thus,The Wind Sings Sorrow, my debut science fantasy novel, is finally ready to take flight! Will you help give it the wings it needs to soar?
About The Wind Sings Sorrow
Mix Star Wars, The Expanse, Mad Max, and Avatar the Last Airbender, but make it a whole lot queerer, and you have the essence of my science fantasy universe. Sure, it’s ultimately a sweeping space opera – but, it’s also a deeply personal exploration of love, loss, and what it means to rebuild when everything falls apart.
The “Back Cover Description”: Three hundred years after greed drove humanity to the stars, those left behind have rebuilt amongst the ruins. Atalanta—gifted with the power to control the winds and speak directly to the planet—leads her polyamorous crew on missions to restore life to barren lands. But when they discover unmarked forces destroying their revitalized forests and abducting locals, an attempted rescue ends in the unthinkable.
With tensions threatening to tear the crew apart, they must find the strength to rally against an enemy with resources beyond their imagination—or watch Earth's rebirth be strangled in its cradle.
This series features highly diverse leads across shifting perspectives, diving deep into the human psyche and exploring what lengths we can be driven to when facing grief and change. It's the kind of book I wish I saw more of when I was younger, one where queer and polyamorous love is represented (even if it’s just as messy and chaotic as the heterosexual, monogamous stories) and those kinds of relationships aren’t just to be the butt of jokes at their expense.
How You Can Help
I am raising money to go towards the final production costs on this novel. It is currently with my beta readers, and my heart and soul-aligned goal is to publish the book sometime in June. I’d be forever grateful if you considered pre-ordering a copy of The Wind Sings Sorrow to help me raise funds necessary to produce a stunning paperback copy!
Primary Goal: $500 – Professional Cover Design & Summer Launch (June-July)
Stretch Goals:
$750 – Interior Chapter Divider Design
$1000 – Custom Ship Blueprint Design (included in final book!)
$1,500 – Full color group character art
$2,000 – Special Edition Hardcover with behind-the-scenes essays/additional bonus details
Pre-Order & Support Options
Ready to join Atalanta's crew on their mission to stop greed and violence from spreading? Here's how you can secure your copy and support the campaign:
Payment Methods:
Venmo: @Safrianna
CashApp: $Safrianna
PayPal: paypal.me/safrianna
Pre-Order Tiers:
$10 – Ebook at launch
$20 – In-person pickup signed paperback
$25 – Mailed signed paperback (please message your address or email Support@Safrianna.com)
Anything over $25 – Because you believe in supporting indie authors!
The Timeline
If we can hit that $500 minimum by June 1st, I’ll definitely be able to launch the book in June! I'm so close I can taste it, and with your help, I can make this happen! If I don’t hit my goals until a little later, I still plan to release The Wind Sings Sorrow by the end of July at the absolute latest. If the Universe really aligns in my favor, we’ll hit the stretch goals and I’ll plan for a July or late summer launch of the hardcover as well.
I’m Making Progress! 🎉
I'm thrilled to announce that as of this newsletter, I've already raised $388 out of my $500 goal towards a cover! That's over halfway there with 8 people chipping in so far! I'm so grateful for the support and blown away by the fact that many have contributed beyond just preordering their own copy. I feel like I’m finally living such a big part of my purpose. Every single contribution brings me closer to making this dream a reality and officially kicking off the sci-fi universe I’ve been dreaming up since I was in elementary school.
Thank You For Believing in Me!
Writing this book has been a journey of healing, discovery, and pure creative joy. I’ve enjoyed every moment from the first three day writing binge to get the first chapters out there in November 2024 to the revisions and additions all throughout the beginning of this year. This novel is a story that celebrates found family, environmental restoration, and the kind of love that changes worlds. It’s also the kind of story that will potentially rip your heart out and wake you up to the underlying struggles in human nature.
In a time when we need inspiration and representation more than ever, I believe stories like this matter.
Every pre-order, every share, every word of encouragement brings me closer to getting this book into readers' hands. You're not just supporting my book and dream – you're also supporting queer storytelling, diverse voices, and the wild dream of an indie author who believes words can change the world.
Thank you so much for believing in my writing dreams.
Let's make some magic happen together!
With love and endless gratitude,
Safrianna / AJ Eastwood
Want to share about this fundraiser with your own friends or audience? Feel free to use the copy below to share:
Support an Exciting New Voice in Science Fantasy!
My friend Safrianna Lughna (writing as AJ Eastwood) is launching her debut science fantasy novel and needs our support!
THE WIND SINGS SORROW
Three hundred years after greed drove humanity to the stars, those left behind have rebuilt amongst the ruins. Atalanta—gifted with the power to control the winds and speak directly to the planet—leads her polyamorous crew on missions to restore life to barren lands. But when they discover unmarked forces destroying their revitalized forests and abducting locals, an attempted rescue ends in the unthinkable.
With tensions threatening to tear the crew apart, they must find the strength to rally against an enemy with resources beyond their imagination—or watch Earth's rebirth be strangled in its cradle.
FUNDRAISING GOALS
Primary Goal: $500 for professional cover design with a planned launch this summer (June-July)!
Stretch Goals:
$750 – Interior chapter divider design
$1,000 – Custom ship blueprint design included in the book
$1,500 – Full color group character art
$2,000 – Special edition hardcover with behind-the-scenes access
HOW TO SUPPORT
Pre-order now via:
Venmo: @Safrianna
CashApp: $Safrianna
PayPal: paypal.me/safrianna
Pre-order Options:
$10 – Access to the ebook at launch
$20 – In-person pickup signed paperback
$25 – Mailed signed paperback (message your address or email Support@Safrianna.com)
$26+ – Any additional amount to help make this dream come true!
The goal is to raise the $500 minimum by June 1st to support a June book release!
Let's help bring this queer-positive, eco-conscious science fantasy world to life! Every contribution brings Safrianna’s unique story closer to readers' hands.
Thank you for supporting independent authors and diverse voices in science fiction and fantasy!
#IndieAuthor #ScienceFantasy :SciFi #BookLaunch
