Adventure is Calling

It's August already, halfway through the summer, and here's the next step...

Aug 1, 2022

Well, hello there!

Great news! I’m going back to the once a month newsletter! Thank you for being patient as I sent out multiples during the Kickstarter campaign. I’ll talk more about that in a moment. I will also cover what progress I’ve made on my current projects, and what the next projects will be.

Kickstarter

The Kickstarter was a success and has funded. I originally created the campaign to help publish three books, but sound that was a level beyond my reach. I cancelled that one and created another for a single book and with a goal of $750. Thanks to some pretty awesome folks, I will be publishing Book 4 of the Portals Series, Sigils & Satyrs, later this year.

I will still attempt to publish Book 5, Towers & Trolls, and Book 6, Legions & Liches, this year, as well as Book 2 - 6 as audiobooks. These may take extra time because of costs related to cover art, editing, formatting, etc. But they will all be published in time.

I have also recently updated my Patron and Ko-fi pages. In case you don’t know what those are, they are places people can go and show support. The same way you can pay to subscribe to this newsletter, (you did know you can do that if you choose, right?) you can subscribe to them, or send a one-time donation. And it all goes to the books!

Current Projects

I do all of my writing and recording on a live stream. I set it up as a co-working stream, and I get lots of folks who come in to hang out while doing their own thing. It’s like having coworkers in my office, and it’s nice to have a few people to chat with when I need a few minute break.

Portals, Book 4, Sigils & Satyrs is completed. I’ve sent it to alpha readers, got it back, and it is with the editors. When she sends it back to me, I will clean it up, and then send it to beta readers. Once I get it back from them, it will be one final run through, then time to publish it.

Portals, Book 5, Towers & Trolls is completed. I’ve sent it to alpha readers, and am waiting to get it back. Once I do, it will follow the same path as book 4. Portals, Book 6, Legions & Liches has been started and is outlined.

In the meantime, while waiting for various books to come back from one place or another, I will begin recording Portals, Book 2, Demons & Daggers as an audiobook. I have already re-proofed Book 2, and Book 3, Mystics and Monoliths, am planning on starting the recording process tomorrow, Tuesday, August 2nd.

A Literal Epiphany

Oh, and my writing has made an incredible jump! In January of last year (2021), as I was editing Silver & Smith and the Doppelganger’s Gate, I realized that my writing had advanced. I was noticing things in the rewrite I’ve never realized previously, and my book came out so much better because of it.

Well, guess what? It happened again. Then I decided to help it along, and I began researching the basics of plotting, structure, etc. all over again and relearning everything I thought I knew. I studied my own work, and writing guides.

But that wasn’t enough. I felt like I was on a roll, and if I wanted to create better stories, why not go all the way? I took classes by authors such as Brandon Sanderson, Dan Brown, James Patterson, David Sedaris, Neil Gaiman, N.K. Jemisin, David Baldacci, and others.

I also took classes by Nancy Cartwright (Simpsons) for voice acting, as well as Samuel L. Jackson, Helen Mirren, Steve Martin, and Jody Foster for acting to help improve my audiobooks. And since I find promoting myself is one of my weakest points, I decided to take classes by Kris Jenner, David Axelrod, Karl Rove, Jeff Goodby, and Rich Silverstein for branding and marketing.

The point of all this is that I am improving. If you’ve enjoyed my work in the past then you’re in for a treat, because I’m taking it to the next level!

Next on the List!

This is a bit of a review of the above, so I shall summarize what’s next on my creative agenda. This year is write and publish 3 books in the Portals Series, and record 5 audiobooks in the same series.