Monthly Wrap Up
A December of Joy and Project Completion
Welcome to the New Year! I’m excited by 2024 and the possibilities to come. They give me an upbeat feeling of anticipation and hope. Of course, on day two of this new year, we already had something unexpected happen and had to deal with that in the mix of what we already planned for the day.
Writing Update
Printing Truth Bearer as part of the editing process in December proved quite entertaining to my cats. I have one page with holes in it because Boots thought to keep the paper from sucking back in for the printing on the other side. Thankfully, that was the only issue other than one time two pages stuck together. I did not have to entertain the cats with reprinting other than one sheet when the ink ran out.
The editing found its end the day before the Christmas weekend. The next week led to organizing and all the fun of formatting in Atticus. The electronic version is already in preorder status on Amazon with a February 14th release day. My cover designer has all the information he needs and I’ll hear back shortly if they need anything or see the final product show up in my email.
Book three, currently dubbed Council of Light, has commenced the high level outlining phase with Act I done. It is proving fun, but challenging to dig into the simple ideas noted to see how they should expand into a story. My goal is to have the initial draft done by the end of March.
Advanced Readers and Launch Team Wanted
I have set up a form for those that wish to be advanced readers and launch team members, or both. The advanced readers have until February 1st to let me know of any final edits the book may require before I have to finalize it in Amazon to be ready on time. I’ll have the ARC ready as a PDF.
I’m going with a week shorter launch for this book. Things start the week of January 29th with a posting, then one the next week, and the final one falling on launch day, February 14th. I’ll be supplying some blurbs and graphics to make it easy, but if you want to do more, that is up to you. It’s to be a fun way for you to help spread the news on socials, emails or directly with people you think would enjoy knowing about the release of Truth Bearer.
The only other request that goes with this is writing a book review. It can be a few sentences helping others know what you think and what they can expect. I’m getting into the habit of reviewing every book I read.
To sign up, read and fill out the form at https://books.altheadamgaard.com/launchteamapp.
Book Reviews
It’s all about Jenelle Leanne Schmidt this past month. I learned about her via A Classic Retold, which I took part in for all nine book launches. I dug further and learned she has another book coming January 12th. Follow the links on the book names to find my reviews.
Steal the Marrow is her contribution to A Classic Retold. You will see how she rolled familiar Oliver Twist characters into her own version. I love how it showed me her world of Turrim.
The Orb and the Airship starts a series called the Turrim Archive. An adventure with political intrigue and the rising threat of war that brings together young cadets, a pirate crew and an old man with interesting magic abilities. I loved how the story unfolded and the way the characters developed.
Mantles of Oak and Iron is book 2, and it continues the adventure as things grow more dire for Turrim. I’m two thirds of the way through and hope to finish it this week. I’ll be posting my review when done and making sure I announce its release on January 12th via my socials.
You can find Jenelle Leanne Schmidt’s books on Amazon. Check out all her books on her author page.
2024 Goals
I have hopes of mixing some short stories into my writing time so they are not mixing with the writing of Council of Light. Depending on how they come out, I will share them in a mix of ways throughout the year.
The plan is to have a table at several local events throughout the year where people can meet me in person. I really enjoyed my talks at two local libraries as I got my feet wet with this endeavor.
I am looking into how Kickstarter works and seeing about possibly having a fun one this summer. I already have other authors that would love sharing short stories and novellas as part of the packages if I do so. They are all part of the Noblebright Alliance that wishes to share clean and uplifting speculative fiction in the world. There is plenty to learn and organize to see what I want to do.
Based on the first two days of 2024, I expect to find a good flow of productive days with about a 1/3 including some interesting twists and a sprinkling of the unpredicted that tries to derail the plans. But that won’t feel much different from 2023, that was full of learning, teaching a mastermind, launching a book and polishing off another. Maybe I’ll squeeze in another mostly drafted side project so that launches, too. We shall see!
May 2024 find us all thriving in our dreams despite what may happen along the way.