Monthly Wrap Up

October Obstacles to Opportunities

October has proved most enlightening around new, but thankfully temporary, unexpected trials. Namely, a major bought of digestive issues that hit my hubby and had me running him to the doctor twice and going a third time to hand in a sample. He did not have many volunteer appointments that week, and he felt fine for the next. The only thing it did on my end was slow down my work on the last section of Council of Light.

Council of Light

The ending has been totally revamped and it took a lot of work. It’s out for review by my team to determine what level of tweaking it needs. I expect more since it is fresh writing with only my self edits. I like it a lot better and this should make the book far better for all the effort.

Because of the extent of what I realized I had to do and somewhat because of three busier days around hubby’s sickness, I got done a week later than I expected. I was aiming for the middle of the month, which was the 16th, but handed off the ending on the 23rd.

Those reading this round have a due date of November 15th for final revisions this may need. I would love to have final edits done by Thanksgiving but that leaves only thirteen days. I still feel on track to have this in preorder no later than the first week of December and have a release date around the 21st of January.

Writing Life

Writing a novel is not for the faint of heart. There is so much to learn and then you will always improve or streamline your process. This year’s test of completing a novel in nine months proved doable if I had nothing else going on. Why? Because I also had four months of coach certification and then the past two months a core of us who graduated at the end of August have been figuring out how to set up our businesses. The combo is pushing the full production of a novel from scratch to eleven months. I can live with knowing this.

This leads to plans of what to write for 2025.

Some of you would like stories about some of the prominent side characters. One of them is Jules. Ideas are percolating for him. I’ve toyed with what to do with a story for Lojowik, my boisterous ice elven prince, who walked in on the scene in the middle of Champions of Light and is a close friend of Versont. There is so much I can do with this, but I also have to remember it takes time to produce each idea.

The project for a series that spins off of this one for the future of Karnum and where I parked it with Council of Light already has a Scrivener project set up with some rudimentary ideas of where to start and a bit of character development. I may work on multiple ideas and see which gets done first. As long as I make progress.

Then there is the project out of the history of Karnum I started a couple of years ago around a prophecy that tells of the Last of Dragons. I have a short story and two-thirds of a novel written for this idea.

There is no worry that I won’t keep producing books. The fun will be the timing of each as I work through them and turn them into worthy reads. The slow process of people reading and reviewing my books, primarily Champions of Light, continues to inspire me. I’m here to produce quality books, whether one person or hundreds read them. Of course, I would love a lot more to read them, but it takes time to rise above the slush since around three million books were published in the past year in the US alone. Thank you Amazon for making it far too easy to publish anything, which helps all of us produce more books, though it is harder for readers to find the gems.

Coaching

I’ve had many great people, some famous, feed into my writing life to get me to where I am today. After seeing a lot of the same questions arising in various writer groups, I became certified with Hope*Writers this year. This has been a great learning experience, but also quite the challenge. There was a lot more to figure out than expected, but I like where Hope*Writers is trying to go. Most of the coaches are pointing at nonfiction, but I’m there for the fiction writers.

There are so many great ideas in progress by writers unsure of where to go. Sure, there are a lot of coaches, but just like books, we are not a fit for everyone. We also do not have the time to help everyone at a quality level. I know the variety of professionals that have come into my life were a godsend. Without them, I would never have pushed to the author stage. My target writer to help is a fellow Christian ready to seriously take on writing and publishing their novel idea(s), but who find themselves lost in the weeds of too much information about how to do it. I want to help them find great resources faster than I did and to help them dig deeper to produce captivating stories.

As part of this venture, I’ll be at the Hope*Story Conference in January and people can sign up to have a one-on-one with me. The final details are still in the works. It should prove interesting as my first time in person at a conference and the first time on a multi-day trip in years. Pray it goes well

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Reading and Reviews

I plan on catching up on my TBR and sharing more reviews. I love reading as much as I love writing. However, I’ve been far more into craft books and some non-fiction lately. I am currently reading a book that comes out next month that is turning out to be a great speculative fiction. Look for more book reviews as we head into the holiday and winter season.

I am currently reading Fragments which is book one in the Seeker Series by A. G. Wells. I’m finding the premise and the world quite intriguing. There are several main characters I’m still learning about, but the entirety is keeping me reading to figure it all out. It is available for preorder on Amazon and releases November 26th.

The following is the detail blurb from Amazon.

It is the year 2158, and Hegemony has fallen.

But the Order, the one-world religion, remains . . . securely ensconced as the unseen power behind all human government.

Should any desire for truth be rekindled in the hearts of men, the Order stands ready to stamp it out. . . .

Father Curtis, priest of the Order of the Eternal, seeks solace in his secluded parish, sheltered from the oppressive regime.

But then, unjustly branded a heretic, he must flee for his life- all while confronting the stark realization the world he once trusted is a labyrinth of deception, orchestrated by the Order’s tyrannical forces, and that his understanding of the world is built upon a foundation of lies.

Now, his fate and the fate of humanity hang in the balance as he and his former parishioners battle to find the truth about themselves, the Order, and Creation . . . in a world where seeking truth is a capital offense.

What do you think?

I know these newsletters are the monthly run down of me and what to expect, but I would love to hear from you. Tell me what side character you loved the most in my Light Series. Or did you read something shared here, flash fiction or serial, that you would like to see more of? Your comments and thoughts are always appreciated. After all, I’m not just writing for myself, but for anyone who loves a fun reading journey with characters that learn how to overcome by faith.