Happy Easter!

For my Christian brothers & sisters:

I don't usually mention religion in my newsletter... I'm no C.S. Lewis. My characters cuss. Even the good ones. My latest story involves a dying goddess, and some pretty nasty fantasy creatures. I don't think I'm someone that people look at and wonder, "Whatever he's got going, I want to know more about it." Not exactly a light on a hill. But underneath all that, I love the idea that the Creator of the Universe sacrificed to draw us close.
We try to celebrate Easter at my father-in-law’s ranch every year. It’s always a good time with cousins and country living.

And we slip right into April Fools

I’ve got a couple of friends at work that rebuild classic cars for fun. They’re into cars. So when one needed to “get even” with the other for accidentally poisoning his dog (dog is okay), he did what anyone would do. He zip-tied an harmonica to his friend’s exhaust pipe, then proceeded to suggest things to take apart on his car to find the “strange noise”. Last I heard, after telling the friend to let him know if things got any worse, he zip-tied a second harmonica. I will take extra caution not to poison said person’s dog.

To celebrate April Fools’ Day (🤷‍♂️), I’ve got Guardian of The Palace on a freebie deal at Amazon. As always, I’d love folks to shout out to their friends and followers to grab the book.

Contest!

I have an idea for a contest, but I need at least a couple of people to reply and say, “I’m in,” or I’m not going to put in the effort to figure this out. I’d like to run a contest where the winner gets a signed hardback of whichever of my books they choose. Winner would be the person that brings in the most clicks for downloads of an Amazon freebie that I plan to run from April 21-25. If it goes well, I’ll run one each quarter, so you could get the whole series signed, in hardback, eventually. Y'all are my favorite peeps, folks who signed up to see more of my writing, and this sounds like a fun way to repay you and grow my audience all at once. Again, let me know if you’re interested, and if I get some positive responses, I’ll figure out the mechanics of it.

I had a pretty good couple of weeks of writing. I finally worked out the middle of Book 2 (I liked the beginning and the end, but the middle just didn't connect... now it does.) The words are flowing, but my time is limited, so I can't catch them and pin them down (pen them down... ha!) as quickly as I'd like. I'm at 49k words, and I can see this becoming a full fledged 80-90k book with the parts I haven't written yet. So... yay!

Spoiler section from the next book:

Until recently, I hadn’t believed it possible to imbue general spells into anything other than paper. One cast, invoked by fire, and the scroll was gone. Communication crystals were a well kept secret, but I’d known of them through Zoras. He’d never explained how they’d worked, but I’d known they existed. Why had I believed paper to be so special? Okay, to be fair, both the ink and the quality of the parchment influenced a spell’s efficacy. But why had I thought that pairing to be unique?

Several things had opened my mind to the possibility that spells could reside in more than paper. One, the High Elves had deployed something to defend the Mother of Trees. It wasn’t a scroll: it had triggered multiple times. Second, the armory in Alenor had burned to the ground after purportedly imbuing their armor with protective spells. That screamed of a secret somebody wanted hidden.

Third, my own scroll… the one where my blood had mixed with the ink. I’d felt the scroll activate in a way I’d never felt before, like a fish nibbling your line, making you wonder if you were about to pull in dinner, or something had nabbed your bait. In fact, I’d never felt anything when one of my scrolls had been activated. Not an itch under my skin, nor the hairs on the back of my neck rising. Until that scroll.

I'm toying with the idea of hiring a developmental editor for the next book. I think it might be a great learning experience. Edith Pawlicki (fellow writer... definitely check out her books) did that for me on Book 1, and I loved the feedback and want more of it. My only hesitation is the price. I've put out a request on Reedsy (new for me), and I'm learning the system.

I also put in a Reedsy request for changing the covers of The Guardian League, but I got so irritated (really the way Reedsy works more than anything... I wasn't happy with the interface) that I pulled the plug on that effort. I suspect my covers aren't right for the my audience, though I appreciate that some of you have said you think they're great. I'd love your opinion - do people dismiss The Guardian League because of the covers? (Really, tell me.)

Indie Author Showcase

The Love-Haight Case Files, Book 1: Seeking Supernatural Justice

by Jean Rabe & Donald J. Bingle

Supernatural beings are willing to fight for their legal rights!

Since the Summer of Love, the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco has been known for attracting weird and unconventional souls, but things got even stranger when the monsters moved in.

Magic has returned to the world and with it a host of supernatural creatures—not just vampires and ghosts, but sentient gargoyles, ghouls, sprites, faeries, and more. The frightened citizenry, holier-than-thou bigots, headline-seeking reporters, and harried police refer to them as OTs (Other-Than-Humans), but Thomas Brock and Evelyn Love believe even supernatural creatures have legal rights.

Delve into their case files for a genre-bending mix of mystery, horror, suspense, thrills, courtroom drama, and romance. The city’s OT element is sometimes malevolent, sometimes misunderstood, and often discriminated against. Brock and Love represent them all, dead, undead, or alive—whatever the case, whatever the species.

**Winner of three prestigious Silver Falchion Awards **

for mysteries, thrillers, and suspense novels: Best Fantasy, Best Urban Fantasy, and Best Multi-Genre Novel.

Writer's Corner

I'm going to throw out there that I'm tired of getting bombarded with information on improving my writing and marketing. And when I say bombarded, I mean it. Everyone and their dragon is trying to tell me what I could do better. Correction, they're trying to sell me something that will help me on my journey. So up front, I want to tell you that you are free to ignore anything I share for writing. Absolutely protect your time and money. That said, I'm going to share a few things that have worked for me.

One thing I've stumbled on that I feel has helped me grow my audience better than anything else I've tried is Story Origin. They enable cross-promotions through newsletters, and you can search/sort by categories... basically you find authors with similar audiences and agree, through their interface, to swap mentions. You've seen those in my emails for a couple of months now. There's a lot of up front setup, connecting your mailing lists and books to their system. But if you're at all tech savvy, it's not a problem.
Shoutout to April Gomez, who’s exchanged emails with me for week — stop reading this go write your book! 🤪

Rebel Writing Courses

by Libby Copa

I help writers strengthen their writing and creative practice, navigate the publishing world, and turn their art into an act of rebellion.

Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach

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May you get lost this week in another world.