Monthly Wrap Up
January Progress with Mayhem
We’re one month into the New Year and boy, did it prove entertaining. I didn’t quite accomplish everything I wanted to, but I’m rather impressed with what I managed around some interesting and not so fun interruptions. We’ll cover the not so good first so then we can dive into the fun stuff.
Computer Update Forced Restore
It all happened with a drive and/or bios update that my Alienware computer thought it must have. We think the main issue was the video card driver corrupted somehow, but it didn’t explain the web cam not working. Because of a mix of issues, we thought it best to do a restore. It turned into three because of not so great directions. Overall, support was good, but my feedback gave suggestions of how to do better next time.
On the good side, most everything was backed up properly. For what wasn’t, I could find the items in posts on social or on my Substacks. I had to copy paste last month’s wrap up back into Scrivener to be sure I had it saved other than here. I lost one set of critiques from my critique group, but in the end I had some updating to that section based on the new restart to the story they encouraged.
I wanted to imitate my cat after the computer was back to normal and all the final email changeovers were completed. There was more to that email thing than I thought, though thankfully most of it was done in December.
Writing Update
Truth Bearer just received an updated format after the cleanup it required after advanced reader feedback. No major issues, but probably a few more typo/consistency issues with word spelling than I liked. I had two minor tweaks to do with great feedback from someone who did not read book one before this one. I wouldn’t have received those otherwise.
I’ll be having someone help me with some Amazon nitty-gritty things on Friday that may help the books be found a little better. Thankfully, I have until the 8th to finalize everything before it locks down for the launch on the 14th. It’s only two weeks away!
A couple of opportunities came up to help with getting the book out there. As a published member of Realm Makers, I can share book releases. The awesome thing about this time, I put it in early enough they will post it to their online book news on release day. It will be part of the March newsletter that lists all the February releases as well. The other opportunity is guest blogging and the post will come out on the 14th. I have to write this yet, but I plan on having that ready by the end of next week, if not before. I technically have until the 12th to get it to her, but I’d rather be early.
Book three of the Light Series, currently called Council of Light, has had its high level plot and character arcs mapped out. I then decided on what to do with the first seven chapters. As of writing this, I have six chapters done. I’m finding the more I write, the better I can make my initial drafts. Oh, it has ugly stuff as I do more pantsering at the scene level than plotting. My chapter summaries have a couple of sentences on what the primary goal is and then I go see how my characters want to play that out. My goal is to have the draft written by the end of March, but it may wind up mid-April.
I still have short stories I would love to write that mix in with this series, but we’ll have to see how they fit in the ebb and flow of writing Council of Light. I’m enjoying this writing journey and I hope you are enjoying what I write and share.
Book Review
I have one book review for this month. The other reading I did was beta level, so I can’t share that with you. One was a fun middle grade fantasy read of a friend from a small writing group I’ve been with for two years now. It’s been fun seeing how his writing has improved over that time. Here’s to all his hard work leading to deeper interest by agents this year.
The one book I read this month I can review was book 2 of Jenelle Leanne Schmidt’s Turrim Archive series, Mantles of Oak and Iron. I really enjoyed this book and loved the deeper twists that she planted into it. Now I have to wait for book three to come out, perhaps around late summer. I know she has the series completely written. It is a matter of final editing and working out the launch details.
You can check out my review in the Book Reviews section of Tales of Karnum and you can reach it by clicking - Mantles of Oak and Iron.
Goals for February
Launch Truth Bearer on the 14th and have my guest blog post ready in time to go with that.
Have half of Council of Light written, approximately 45K words added to what I have done already.
Post weekly at An Abundant Life
Not sure if a fun short story will pop out in the mix or if I’ll have time. I may have to write these up in April while I let Council of Light have a breather for a month before editing.
Expect a mail on the 14th for the launch of Truth Bearer for this special event. At this time, I am only doing a monthly newsletter and linking what I put on the blog for the month in it. If you would prefer to see emails for whenever I add something, let me know.
I hope you all had a great January and if something bad happened, that the overcoming of it brought you to a better place.