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My wife and I had a nice little long-weekend trip in the middle of what is otherwise a very hectic and stressful juncture of our lives. I spent one amazing day fishing with my buddy, Bobby off of Anna Marie Island, FL. Other than quick, and much needed, breaks, we’ve been tackling family medical issues, helping with hurricane recovery, and prodding our oldest (often kicking and screaming) toward all the college application stuffs. Bit of a madhouse these days. I'm expecting the structural feedback on Bones of Cenaedth any time now. I don’t have it as of writing this newsletter, but I bet I get the feedback before the newsletter actually gets sent. Bottom line, I plan to switch back to working on Book 2 in August. Ironically, my fishing adventure was a nice but unintentional immersion technique for the reality of being out in the ocean with the sun beating down. 🤣 (Yes, we take to the seas with the Salts in Book 3). There was a freebie on Amazon Ad school since my last newsletter, and I spent time learning a little more about marketing/advertising my books (and slightly less time writing). If you’re interested in what I’m taking away from the Ad School lessons, I’ll have that in a separate email for writers. Send me a note if you’d like to be added to that and don’t already receive it. My wife has a comfort movie, You've Got Mail. When things get too rough, that's often her go to. When I hear it playing in the background, I know she needs a break. (Incidentally, Red's mother did the same in Book 1 of The Guardian League). I have a go to book -- Mirror of Her Dreams. I started reading it last night when I couldn't sleep because I was too worried about all the things. Do you have a go to book or movie that helps you de-stress? Okay, I am hesitantly slipping a short story into this newsletter. I'm pretty overwhelmed right now, but I sometimes turn to writing as a release. As I drove down to Houston, I was thinking about short story ideas for the Thaumatropic Roots series. I wrote something quickly over the last couple of days that I am calling (for now) "Blood Bound." It's the origin story for a character named Trentius, who you met briefly in Mother of Trees (bonus points to anyone that remembers who Trentius is and what "his thing" is... before reading the short story). What, you may ask, will those bonus points get me? Street cred. Massive street cred. Trentius continues on in Book 2 (unless the structural editor cuts him, and I don't think she's going to), and this story ties in nicely. Cut me some slack -- I didn't so much as run it through a spell-checker, must less the more advanced proofing tools I use. I'll clean it up when I get more time. Blood Bound.epub <-- On an iphone, if you have kindle, you can get this to your kindle by downloading it, then clicking it from whatever tools you use to look at downloads on your iphone and share it to kindle. It takes a few minutes, as I think it uploads the file, sanity checks it, then pulls it back into your kindle. Indie Author ShowcasePrevious Newsletters
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Subject: It ends April 13. It’s strange to write this. On April 13, I release Shepherds of Truth. Book Four. The end of Thaumatropic Roots. When I started Mother of Trees, I didn’t know how far this story would travel. I didn’t know who would live. I didn’t know what it would cost. Now I do. This final book pulls together threads that have been tightening since the beginning—the Mother of Trees and Father of Stones, dragons, elves, and their ancient troll enemies, the choices that were made...
Sorry, I know this is little warning even for locals. But there will be a book signing at Beerburg from 5-7pm tonight. I'll be one of the authors. And... beer. https://beerburgevents.com/the-brewery/ Come say hi. Anyone too far away, drop me a note and I'll send a dragon to fetch you. I set a release date for Shepherds of Truth. April 13. Had a little snafu with my editor, but I couldn't find someone else to give it another structural pass in time, so crossing my fingers. It did get the...
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...