New Release: Everyone Dies - A Collection of Dark Tales

 It's release day for Everyone Dies: A Collection of Dark Tales!

Twelve short stories, some newly written, some pulled from the story vault, all tied together with one common thread. Everyone Dies.

Death lurks in the choices we make.

Alex is awarded the best birthday present ever, a full exclusive weekend pass to the Spindle, a space station high above the Earth. There, everyone is healthy, the food is real, and there are even living trees. Being one of the chosen will set him and his family up for life, but in winning he may lose everything.

 

Fray Farm is up for sale but the current occupants are very particular about who the new owner will be. They have no intentions of leaving. Long-term ownership only, no kids, cats are optional.

 

Fate landed Ashleigh in a thankless job. At thirty, she’s nowhere close to what she’d envisioned. She never saw herself in a dungeon-like basement at any age, but no one ever said fate was good at do-overs.

 

Otherworldly creatures, the not-so-dearly departed, fellow man, and creations of our own demise patiently wait while we bumble through life, thinking we are in control.

The end is always near.

Click the link off on the left for Amazon, Barnes & Noble, get your signed copy shipped from me to you (US only) from the tab at the top, or find me at any of my upcoming events over there on the right. More online shopping availability is still being populated. Ebook links should be live soon as well.  

2023 and GO!

January was a productive month! Hooray! Each year I try to get the behind the scenes stuff done that I don't necessarily enjoy doing but must be done. Kind of like cleaning the toilets first thing in the morning so you can enjoy the rest of your day with the dirty work out of the way. Does anyone else do that or just me?

Things I accomplished in January:

Updated my blog, joined IBPA, bought Publisher Rocket, explored a lot of publishing resources, watched several publishing related webinars, created new book display racks and book labels, reorganized all my event gear, and developed new promotional items 

On my existing books: updated book descriptions and online formatting of them, tweaked cover artwork on existing books, updated book content on all platforms to the most up to date versions, changed Amazon keywords for e-books and print books, took inventory and ordered books for upcoming shows and sat down and updated my schedule with everything I currently have booked/confirmed. (You can find that over to the right -->)

Awards: Both Not Another Bard's Tale and Spindelkin were announced as "Recommended Reads" by the 2023 Author Shout Reader Ready Awards.

And on a new book note: Everyone Dies will be released in just a few days! Which means I've been busy creating the cover, doing the formatting and drawing the interior illustrations. I also planned out the artwork for Kay-Kay and sent the story through my critique group. 

Unplanned: after another editing pass on a yet untitled project I'd wrapped up... surprise it's another Narvan Novel...I decided to move forward with publishing it. I also gave it a title: Tears of the Tyrant. If all goes well with editing, that will be out later this year.   

2023 is off to a good start!

If you're not familiar with 

the Insecure Writers Support 

Group, check it out here 

and find links to all the other 

participating writers.

Let's get to this month's Insecure Writer's Support Group question: If you are an Indie author, do you make your own covers or purchase them? If you publish trad, how much input do you have about what goes on your cover?

Covers are one of my favorite parts of putting a book together. So yes, you can gather that I put my own covers together. Trust is the only cover that was done by the small press that originally published the first books of the Narvan series. 

Most of my covers are composites of artwork that I purchase from art sources, alter, and put together. Spindelkin is my own original art. 

I'm fortunate that I do design work as part of my day job so I have the programs and resources readily available.

When I was with a small press, I did have input on the cover art, but with my first two books - A Broken Race and Trust, I really didn't have anything in particular in mind other than I wanted Trust to have a green tone. That left a lot of leeway to come up with something. Now that I've been doing this on my own for a while, coming up with ideas for cover art is much easier and integrated into my whole writing process.

Heading into 2023 with Goals and One Word

After a successful and fruitful 2022, I'm gearing up to continue the wordy ride in 2023. I've already got 25 book signing events lined up, one new book slated for a spring release, and lots of projects in the works.

Let's start with a glance at how I did with my 2022 goals: #1 - Publish Seeker and Spindelkin. Check and check! #2 - Cut back on my event schedule from 28 to 26. I ended the year with 27 so...sort of check. Sometimes opportunities pop up that I can't refuse.

2023 goals:

• Release Everyone Dies: A Collection of Dark Tales

• Finally finish Frayed, because OMG this has been a tough one to get from brain to page.

• Illustrate Kay-Kay: The Littlest Chicken (new)

• Write/finish one of the following projects: Godmother (new), I9 (new), or Interface (2016 WIP). 

• Release one of those five projects.

• Don't keel over.

If you're not familiar with 

the Insecure Writers Support 

Group, check it out here 

and find links to all the other 

participating writers.

Which brings us to... This month's Insecure Writer's Support Group question of the month: Do you have a One Word resolution for 2023?

As a matter of fact, I've had a one word resolution since 2012, so yes, I do! My 2022 one word was: Recover. I did a pretty good job of that. I wasn't near as burnt out at the end of the year as I was in 2021, so hey, I might have found a bit more balance for once. Hooray! 

Previous words were: (2021) Better - the year HAD to be better than the previous one. (2020) Read - joined a book club so that helped me make time to read more. (2019) Sleep - still struggling with this one. (2018) Speak - started doing panel presentations at cons. (2017) Enjoy - indulging in quiet moments with candles, warm blankets, binge-watching, and non-mom-duty time. (2016) Relax - still haven't figured out what this is. (2015) Time - allowing myself to take the time to write. (2014) Write - making an effort to write more regularly. (2013) Me - remembering to make time for myself.  (2012) Less - put an end to over-obligating myself for other people. 

And the word for 2023? Embrace

The chaos. The moment. The whim. The idea. <— All of this.

Looking at my schedule and my goals, it's going to be a wild ride even before whatever life throws into the mix so I'm just going to embrace whatever it is and roll with it. We'll see how I come out at the end. 

Thank Goodness It's December!

 I lived through another November! Whew! Deep cleansing breath.

Let's see what was on my list for the crazy times:

Yard work: Pond goldfish moved indoors, stuff put away, and chicken coop winterized. DONE

Day job: Still going crazy, but hey, bills are getting paid. SURVIVED

Comic Con: It was a loooong three days, but I met so many new readers and had good turn outs at both of my panels. And people asked questions. We love when you ask questions! Can't wait to do it all again in 2023. SURVIVED

NaNoWriMo: I wrote several short stories for my collection, mostly wrapped up the personal project, wrote the rough draft for my children's chicken book, and made progress on Frayed. WON

In other winning news... Spindelkin is a Fantasy novel finalist in the 2022 American Writing Awards.

If you're not familiar with 

the Insecure Writers Support 

Group, check it out here 

and find links to all the other 

participating writers.

What's on the agenda for December? Funny you should ask, since that's this month's Insecure Writer's Support Group question:

Are the holidays a time to catch up or fall behind on writer goals?

I think the trick there is setting workable goals fit your holiday schedule, but to answer the question...

Mid-December things start to slow down (typically, knocking on wood) at my day job so I have more time and energy to devote to editing or completing NaNo projects. I also only have one book event in December so that will leave some weekends free to enjoy my comfy writing chair. I suppose that means I will be "catching up". Which is good, because I need to work on getting books ready to publish for 2023. 

Happy Holidays!

November: The Crazy Times

And so we again arrive at November, AKA The Crazy Times. 

Why so? 

1. November is the busiest time of the year for all aspects of my day job so, yay...overtime. 

2. It's NaNoWriMo - 50,000 words in 30 days

3. It's Comic Con month - meaning there are 4-5 days I will likely not have any time or energy to write and also work will be piling up at the day job while I'm off signing books at cons. 

4. It's prep for Winter month. In addition to everything above, I'll have to find time to winterize the pond, hopefully pull out the goldfish that have survived the ducks and set up a tank inside for them, get the plastic up on the chicken run, and put all the yard stuff away before snow starts to stick around. 

Can she do it all? Tune in next month to find out.

You can find me this month at:

Nov 11-13 Grand Rapids Comic Con where I'll be doing two panels

Nov 19 - Fantasticon 

Nov 26 - The Bluestocking Bookshop

Which leads neatly to this month's Insecure Writer's Support Group Question: 

Have you ever participated in NaNoWriMo?

If you're not familiar with 

the Insecure Writers Support 

Group, check it out here 

and find links to all the other 

participating writers.

This will be year 17 of NaNo for me. So a resounding YES on participation.

I've won 15 times so far. The only year I didn't (2014), I was in the middle of building our current house, as in doing the general contracting, installing cabinets, helping with wiring, and doing a lot of tilework. I was kinda busy, but I did manage to get 25K in on a project I haven't touched since. Someday, I'll get back to it.

10 of those NaNo projects have gone on to be published.

Knowing this is crazy times, do I intend to win again this year? Yes, unless something major gets in the way. 

What will I be working on? I'm spreading my 50,000 new words over several ongoing projects and one new one. Last year's half finished Urban Fantasy, a horror themed short story collection, the mysterious personal Narvan project, and a children's book centered around my tiny handicapped chicken.

This is Kaykay. She fits in one hand.

Tips for NaNo success:

Write something everyday. On days you have more time, write 2K instead of 1,667. 

Build a buffer in the first week while your ambition is high so when life gets in the way, you can squeak by with a few 500 word days and still be on track.

Know that you can pound out 10K (or more) a day if you really put your mind to it so if you fall behind, all is not lost.

Realize that the middle of the novel is often a slog for first drafts. Allow yourself to make notes in slow sections and jump ahead to where you're motivated to make words happen.

Don't have two or three consecutive hours a day to write? Write in 15 minute bursts scattered throughout the day. I often find this my most productive way of writing.

Do most of your writing NOT AT THE KEYBOARD. When you're washing dishes, taking a shower, are doing something mindless at work, in the bathroom, driving, or eating lunch, think about your next scene. Then, when you have a chance, sit down and write it. Get back up and go for walk, give the kids a bath, ride a bike, fold the laundry, and think of the next scene. Repeat = novel.

Get involved with your local region or, if you don't have one, connect with others doing NaNo and support/encourage each other. This is one of those times when peer pressure is a good thing. 

Good luck to those participating this year! Go make words happen!