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.
Newsletter - August 15, 2024
Turbulence ahead!The last couple of weeks knocked me around. Intel, where I work, announced 15,000 job cuts, which is 15% of the workforce. My projects are quite safe, for reasons I'm sure it would be improper for me to share, BUT for the first time, I'm old enough that I've been offered a retirement package. I've worked there 27 years! That's kinda crazy to think about. Longer than I've been married. Twice as long as my youngest kid has been alive. I don't have enough money to retire--I still have three daughters in high school (okay, one in 8th grade), who will either need money for college or bail money. Either way, if I take the deal, I have to find another job, and finding another job is SCARY (see the 27 years clause above). I know how my job works; I'm scared to death that I've become too Intel-centric and will fail with similar companies. Also, there's lots of warning signs that the tech industry is about to take another nose dive. It would be disastrous to take the early retirement and then NOT find another job. Yet, I hate not doing things just because they're scary, so I've got an internal tug-of-war going on. Right now, I'm leaning towards taking the offer. I am loyal to a fault, but Intel would rather pay me a chunk of change than have to keep paying me--in other words, in their eyes, they're so much better off without me that theyβre willing to pay me to leave. I've worked past feeling disloyal--in a financial sense, the loyal thing for me to do is leave, since that's what they think is best. π€― Anybody gone through this choice and want tell me about the light at the end of their tunnel? Or the train it was attached to? π«£ In addition to the work drama, we have multiple elder-care situations going on. Tough decisions to be made. I can't help but feel a little sad thinking about my kids having to go through this with me and my wife some day. :( On the seemingly bright side, my oldest daughter turned 18! It did have a lot of positive points. But it also came with more drama than I expected. There were conflicts of expectations between my daughter and me that caused grief. I grew up with three brothers and a sister in a rural tableau, and now I'm raising three girls in a more urban setting. Let's just say my "normal" from my youth didn't mesh. I wish I could have a do-over for her birthday, now that I understand the expectation on things my daughters all agreed I should just know. π€·ββοΈ The deal for that litRPG Iβd mentioned seems to have fallen through. We had a verbal agreement on contractual points. Their lawyer was going to write it up, and I never heard from them again. π€·ββοΈπͺ Moving on... I canβt remember whether I mentioned redoing the cover for Mother of Trees. I tried to create something that aligns better with genre expectations in order to get more click-throughs to purchase. Let me know what you think. It hasnβt gone live yet, but Iβm locked into the image. Book 2βs cover will align with that theme (scheduled to start that cover late August). I have the structural edits back for Book 2, and Iβm working through them. Itβs not going quickly, but not a snailβs pace either. Iβve sent out some independent emails for writers (about marketing, not writing)β¦ if youβre interested, let me know and Iβll tag you to get them too. My next one will be learnings on Facebook Ads. βAll books by Steven J. Morrisβ Indie Author ShowcasePrevious Newsletters
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βSteven 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.
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...
Click here to rejoin family content. Oddly enough, the twice-a-month cadence for newsletters won out over once-a-month, by one vote. So twice a month is borderline. Maybe I'll skip a newsletter once in a while. And more people liked seeing the indie book options than didn't, so I'll keep them, but I set up ways to opt out of both the non-writing updates AND the indie book showcase. So you should be able to click on your choices in an email, set your preferences, and future emails will be...