Newsletter - April 15, 2025


Belated Happy Birthday to me!

I'm 55 now, so 'bout time for a mid-life crisis, no? One-hundred and ten!

We have a lot of dark clouds hovering around us right now, so it was nice spending time with friends and relaxing a bit this weekend. Friday night, we played pool and listened to an 80s band with good friends. Saturday, my oldest had prom while my wife and I went to a fundraiser for a group that does surgeries for children born with congenital heart conditions. Sunday was relaxing--we took grandma out for my birthday dinner (a nice heart-healthy chicken-fried steak for me, followed up with cake...)

I put Secrets of Deara on pre-release at Amazon. To be transparent, I might have to move the date. I haven't finished my edits, nor checked with Marla, my traditional copy editor, to see if she's available. But, I'll start collecting email addresses for the ARC. I think, this time, I will wait until after the copy editor has done her magic to send out the ARCs. Feel free to send the link on to others or post it or whatnot.

Signup for Secrets of Deara ARC!

All books by Steven J. Morris

Indie Author Showcase

Sanguineum Harenae: Winds of Fury 1

C.L. Brown

Molly Padia wants to bury Molpadia—a nigh immortal Amazon who spent centuries policing the supernatural world and keeping it hidden. Albany, New York, seems like a great place to lead a boring, mundane life. No monsters. No magic. No more blood and violence.

She should’ve known better.

What starts as a one-night stand spirals into a situationship with legal baggage. A body turns up, drawing an old friend to town. And one of her neighbors is missing. A three-layer problem Molly finds hard to resist.

Something is lurking beneath Smallbany’s sleepy surface. Neither the city nor its newest resident are what they seem. Moving into a new home requires a little cleanup, and Molly doesn’t mind getting her hands dirty—or bloody.

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​​May you get lost this week in another world.

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Steven J Morris

Hi! If you enjoy fantasy with snarky humor, I've got some books for you. My newsletter takes you along the creative journey, and keeps you informed of what's brewing.

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After the discussion in the library, I thought I would write up some of the things we discussed and provide you all links. To quickly reset context: I do indie publishing (self-publishing) not trad. Never tried trad. I have a day job, which means (1) I have money to invest in writing and (2) I have little time for writing/marketing Advertising For advertising, I historically used (1) Amazon, (2) Facebook/Instagram (FB/IG), and (3) Bookbub. To start with some helpful guidance. I have used...

The Dripping Springs Community Library invited me to be featured in their Author Spotlight. Date: Wednesday, Feb. 11thTime: 5:45-6:45 PMWebsiteInstagramFacebook Okay, admittedly, it was because they had a sudden cancellation, and they were clearly desperate, but I'll take it! I know most of you are not local to Austin, but a few are, so I wanted to send this out. I thought I might talk about what I included in my last email: learnings about marketing from being hacked and losing FB Ads. At...

dragon at church

Kids are back at school and I’m back at work. Had to cancel a vacation to Venezuela. Then I took that money and almost bought Greenland, but the price jumped up. Weird, right? Maybe I’ll head to Iran. Busy month. My last email was a pretty dismal writing update: FB account hacked, no story progress. This newsletter gets to smack that one around a bit. 🥊 FB Hack Update No, I don’t have my Facebook account back. But I learned something genuinely valuable when my ads shut down—something I...