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 - Out of Cycle - Dec 20, 2024
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Yup, a rare, out-of-cycle email. I wanted to share that I finished the first pass of Secrets of Deara. There's a ton wrong with it, but (and this was a better turn of phrase for the previous book) the bones are good. That's the crux of this email. The cycle between books should be shorter than usual. It's ironic that after asking ya'll to rate my books, yesterday I received the worst review I've ever been given. The person clearly hates my writing style of switching between multiple first person PoVs, and jumping in time. Totally fair--I like my style (obviously), but I don't expect everyone else to like it. It's still a bit of a dagger in the gut, not because I take the criticism personally, but because there are so few reviews that the one really prominent negative review will hurt sales. I was considering my options to bolster reviews. My plea in the last email didn't amount to much. There's the carrot option--offering some kind of freebies to you, my friendly and loyal newsletter readers, for leaving a rating/review. Then there's the stick option--threatening to kill off main characters if ratings/reviews don't increase. ("The beatings will continue until morale improves!") Since I'm writing a prequel, the stick option eventually leads to causality problems as I wipe out main characters who are alive in the future. Such a conundrum. But I don't have anything to give away! Well, maybe some book marks. It's also worth mentioning that the face lift for the Guardian League series finished this week. It takes time for the changes to propagate through the Amazon system though, so I sometimes see the old covers pop up. I'll wait and send out updated pics for the next (intended) newsletter. May you get lost this week in another world. Follow me on Goodreads. |
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.
I want to invite you to try a new game I've been building, an idle farming game in the world of Thaumatropic Roots. More on that in a minute. First I want to prove that progress continues in my next book, despite my game-making side-efforts. I finished one of two intertwining storylines. The unwritten storyline has little more written than its foundation, and it is the much more complex storyline. So, either a bunch of this book is going to get cut, or I'm writing a longer book than usual....
I promise I’ve made progress on Father of Stones (FoS). Here's a screenshot to prove it: click the photo to get to the live data showing progress But... I have put a little time elsewhere. I want to invite you to try this web-game I’ve been building out. It was meant to be a role-playing game around Thaumatropic Fractures, but ended up being focused on Thaumatropic Roots. https://tfrpg.sjmorriswrites.com https://tfrpg.sjmorriswrites.com The game will ask you to use your email to associate...
I built a tracking page for Father of Stones (FoS) this week. I did not, notably, write very much of said book this week. There's a joke in there about creative avoidance and I'm not going to pretend I don't see it. Anyway — here's what I made instead. Word Count Over Time A live chart of Father of Stones' progress since late June. I'm not smoothing over the slow weeks. There's a very flat stretch from June 'til August where I worked on the Eigenthrope story, then another flat stretch through...