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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My oldest daughter's first weeks in Arkansas have been exciting--including a "live shooter on campus" incident that turned out to be a hoax. I think my wife and I worried more than my daughter did. But she's making friends and getting her work done, and I couldn't be more proud. My other two daughters started school as well--my youngest is in high school! Crazy. I know I keep saying this, but it's gone by so fast! We are back into the help-me-with-homework evenings, Friday-night football...
My oldest daughter left for college! Arkansas... an 8-9 hour drive on a good day. My wife and I have definitely fought strange battles with suddenly watery eyes since dropping her off... some kind of strange allergy attack no doubt. From the verdant growth in Arkansas. We miss you tons, Sienitas! Dorm drop-off Click here to be removed from 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...
We took our final family trip before my oldest goes off to college. I'm guessing family trips get successively harder after this year, and, frankly, I'm not ready for this stage of life to end. I know it's cliche, but it sure went by faster than I thought it would. Do you remember how slowly the days seemed to creep by when you were a child? How exciting a birthday was? It's really crazy how quickly the years whip by as you get older, and that birthday feeling swaps to, "Really? Another one?...