If you read fantasy for the magic, the world-building, and the occasional moment of dark humor—I write that. One urban fantasy series, one epic fantasy series, both set in the Fractured Arcana universe, with more coming. My newsletter takes you deeper into the worlds, the characters, and what's next.
Newsletter - July 1, 2025
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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 tailed to you. (I can't change the one already in your inbox). Hmm, maybe I could do the same with the frequency of emails too. The mid-month has less critical writing updates, perhaps, and one could opt out? Still, I have a first pass at the first chapter of Shepherds of Truth. Typically, it takes a few chapters to get the ball rolling, and then the story flows for a while, and then I have to circle back and adjust--that's my process. But because I keep switching to marketing topics, I'm not getting a rhythm going for my writing. That's okay though... I'll come back to the writing with more energy. I have an embarrassing mistake to tell you about. I had to go back and revise Book 2, Bones, because I had a mistake in dragon genealogy. I think you all know that there was a mistake caught in Book 3 just as it was released—same issue. Well, when I started Book 4, I needed to refer to something from Bones, and it looked fishy. So I went to my character database (yes, I have a literal database, on my phone), and finally figured out the problem. I had a circular reference for the genealogy of the white dragons. In other words, depending on which dragon you picked, you would see a different set of parent/daughter relationships. I don't know how I punched it in wrong in the first place, but I did. SPOILER ALERT below. I'll leave a little gap so that people can look away. This is the correct genealogy for the whites: Kryhryzar - she was the last white dragon alive during the Breaking. Jenat, First of the Lost - daughter of Kryhryzar - those who have read all three books should know why she is the First of the Lost. Arsyli (Flurry) - Jenat's daughter. The bit that was hugely messed up in Bones was the info recited by the magical statue in Fael Themar. It referred to Jenat, when it should have referred to Kryhryzar. It's all fixed now, and to my understanding, anyone with an ebook will automatically get the change. I don't have the magic to change printed versions. Hopefully some day I sell enough copies that those with the errors become collectors editions. All books by Steven J. Morris Indie Author Showcase
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Steven J Morris
If you read fantasy for the magic, the world-building, and the occasional moment of dark humor—I write that. One urban fantasy series, one epic fantasy series, both set in the Fractured Arcana universe, with more coming. My newsletter takes you deeper into the worlds, the characters, and what's next.
Yesterday I needed to remember exactly how a character destroyed a dragon artifact three books ago. I didn't dig through my own novels to find it—I asked an AI I built to search them for me. It's called the Grimoire: a mini-AI system I put together with Pinecone that I can ask questions about my own books—hair color in a different epoch, a side character I want to bring back, a detail I'd otherwise lose momentum digging for. It keeps me writing instead of hunting. That's the quiet way AI has...
In this one: an old friend from way back, 20k words of progress, and a new reel from Thaumatropic Fractures. Last newsletter I asked for some accountability help. A few people reached out. One was someone I think of as an old friend from high school. But I've got to tell a little story about him. Way back before high school, in 5th grade, I transferred into a new school roughly mid-year. In one of my classes, the teacher insisted I do a placement test. But the placement test was this set of...
Hey Reader, Quick fun bit before today's update: the polls from my last email are in. I'd asked how many of you had actually read the three portal fantasy books that made me want to write the genre: Mordant's Need: 14.3% have read it The Darwath Trilogy: 0% have read it War of the Flowers: 14.3% have read it Almost nobody has read them, which tracks. They're buried treasure. If any of them ended up on your list because of that email, I'd love to hear how it goes. Okay, the actual update. I...