Happy New Year! I should probably wait until the 2nd to send this out, shouldn't I? Everybody sleeping off New Year's Eve. I hope all your dogs survived the scary fireworks. I have lots of polls this newsletter. All really important, world-changing stuff. To get started:
(For the record, my wife disqualified herself in a Godzilla-like fit of rage when her roof slid off.) I sent an out-of-cycle newsletter about finishing the first draft of Secrets of Deara. Since then, I've gone back and written a couple of chapters that I thought tied a few specifics together a little more cleanly, and cut a few sections, but I've mostly worked on other things to take a little break from Secrets. The story is at about 70k words right now, so a bit on the short side. But there's still one character whose story isn't fleshed out, and weaving that in will probably get me at around 80k. Maybe. I'd intended to start my second pass this morning, but instead I'm working on this newsletter. 🙃 Anyway, what else have I done instead of working on Secrets? One, I updated the covers for Guardian League. I also updated the backmatter on Mother of Trees, and somehow managed to push the update to the wrong book... I pushed the changes to Bones. So I received a rather disgruntled review. I'm glad someone told me though... it had already sat there for twelve days with the wrong content! Meh. I also created new ads for Guardian League and Mother of Trees. I'll share here and, heck, I'll put some links if you want to go upvote ("like") the ones you like--I don't think I need you to, but feel free. I'm using something on FB called a DCT (Dynamic Creative Template). It mixes up those three images with two headlines and two descriptions, so 12 combinations of ads. Since I'm only providing three links, those are just three of the variants (one for each pic). Heh, I guess that means it might actually hurt me for you to "like" an ad... it will bias the FB algorithm toward thinking that ad is the best combo and start sending it more. How about this--I'll set up a poll. You can just vote. But I'll leave the FB links there in case you want to tell FB that you'd like more fantasy ads in your feed.
Oh, I didn't want Grundle blue. As soon as I push midjourney toward the style I want, it turns Grundle blue. I haven't figured out how to get past that yet. Moving on to Mother of Trees:
I can tell you, the "Elliah on the run" pic hasn't done well at all, but the "MoT Face" is getting clicks. But I may try more variants of the "Elliah on the run" pic. All books by Steven J. Morris Indie Author ShowcasePrevious Newsletters
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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. 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...