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 - January 15, 2025
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I came close to missing the newsletter this time--just wrapped up in other stuff, and the date snuck up on me. In terms of life news, it looks like I'll be exiting retirement soon. I have an offer, but since I haven't accepted yet, I'll just hold off a bit on the details. The job would be a jump back into the semiconductor industry. I'm still working through my second pass on Secrets of Deara. It's fun that the pacing problems of this book are entirely different from the last book. Bones of Cenaedth was very linear, which is unusual for me, and I struggled getting the timing right in terms of the pulse of reading. The new book has several threads that need to diverge and then come back together, more than once. So it presents a different sort of pacing problem, one more like what I dealt with in The Guardian League series. Because I've learned, and gotten better at this craft, I'm more particular. That generally means it takes longer, but ends up with a better result (hopefully). Let me put it this way--when I wrote Guardians, I didn't think about pacing. Or sentence structure and how it relates to story pacing. How narrative versus exposition can be used to speed up or slow things down. Does being aware of it make me better at it? Ultimately, probably. What else is going on? A couple of things. One is that we should start the cover for Secrets in Feb. I have another, but I'm going to wait until it solidifies a bit more before I bring it up. Next newsletter I think. I wrote an update to my writer friends on my marketing efforts. That's just so others can learn from my mistakes. If you're new to my group and a writer, AND you're interested, let me know and I'll add you to that email group. I already put the results of the last polls in my unscheduled newsletter, so nothing new to share there. That's all I can think of! I hope you all have a great couple of weeks. All books by Steven J. Morris Indie Author ShowcasePrevious Newsletters
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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.
Elliah was never meant to carry this. She was born without magic in a world built on it.She was told what she could not be. Very few asked what she would become. And yet here we are. If you came to my work through The Guardian League, this is where the deeper current begins—the prison that holds the Father of Stones, the fracture in magic that echoes forward into Red’s world. The modern story stands on what happens here—even if it doesn’t know it yet. And Elliah’s world was not built for...
Before we finish this, let me remind you where we left off. The world is fraying. The Father of Stones presses at the edges of the cage.Dragons carry memory like a wound.The elves gather for a final strike at the trolls, while mutual distrust keeps them apart.And the cost of holding the line has only grown heavier. Shepherds of Truth does not introduce a new conflict. It answers the one we’ve been circling since Book One. Here’s a brief moment from early in the book: He lay curled on the...
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...