We took a family vacation to Colorado for the kids’ Spring Break. Probably the best story was that my wife, who tore her ACL on our last ski trip and only planned to ski one day, finished her practice run on the bunny slope and accidentally got on the lift that only leads to blue and black slopes. On the day with bitter winds and snow. She cried her way down, but made it in one piece, turning in her skis as soon as she reached the bottom. Done! My kids are all teenagers and don’t really “flock” together the way they did when younger. My poor oldest was too banged up from basketball and early crashes to enjoy herself. My youngest ran off with friends for much of the time. But my middle girl stuck with me for a lot of the slopes. On my own, I did one black and one blue that had a warning/hazard sign, and I’m old enough that those were enough. With my oldest going off to college, maybe we will have one more trip in the summer where we all travel together, but after that, the dynamics will get complicated, and that’s kinda sad. With Secrets in the hands of the structural editor, and either family vacation or work taking the bulk of my time, I’ve limited my writing efforts to “advertising”. Okay, I received edits at the end of March--so I'm back to writing on Secrets. Very good input from the editor, and I think I'll make changes and be done with structural edits on this book. For our anniversary, my wife booked a place in Wimberly to stay next weekend. What I didn't understand until a couple days ago was that she booked it for ME to go ALONE and WRITE. Isn't that cool! I've never done a "writing retreat." Now I'm trying to decide whether to spend it wrapping up Secrets, or scribbling out Shepherds. Probably a little of both. All books by Steven J. Morris Indie Author ShowcaseSomehow I ended up with a week that had no swaps materialize. 🤷♂️ Previous Newsletters
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Click here to rejoin family content. A Dragon's Egg and a Full-Circle Moment Okay, I have to share this—because it's one of the coolest things that’s happened to me as an author. A couple of weekends ago, my family went to one of those paint-your-own pottery places. My wife and kids picked bowls and plates. I chose… a dragon’s egg. (Of course I did.) I had a reference image on my phone—Elliah and the black dragon’s egg from Secrets of Deara—and I was doing my best to recreate it in glaze. An...
Click here to rejoin family content. Not a lot of updates. Between the family trip to the Keys, and a trip to see a set of grandparents, I didn't get much writing time. That's okay... sometimes I need a break from writing as much as I do from work. I did write one chapter, so not zero progress. I sent what I have to my mother, still my biggest cheerleader... the beginning and end of Secrets. She had questions about how it all connects to Guardian League. Maybe I hadn't said this before, but...
Click here to rejoin family content. Book 4 is well underway now. I took a different approach this time and wrote the first 4 chapters, then the final 5 chapters. The ending has weighed on me for so long that I just had to get it done. So now I just need the silly midling bits and it'll go out the door. :D Frankly, the parts I have written are missing things. Bits that it is hard to tie up in action scenes without distracting. It'll be fun and interesting to work that out. I'm still trying to...