Tuesday, January 31, 2023

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 
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.

Tuesday, January 3, 2023

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 
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.