Monthly Wrap Up

February Relaxing and Redirecting

I’ve been joking that I am ready to March into spring. We don’t get our first true taste of a full warm up until April and we are usually frost free around Memorial Day. Though the last three years of have been downright warmer. Who’s with me in wanting to get out of hibernation mode?

At least my brain is not frozen. I’ve enjoyed this deliberately slower month. I finished a short story that is now through its lore edits and with the publisher’s editor for the anthology. I can’t say more about this project yet, but I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of writing something for someone else’s world. The other items I will share in their own sections.

Book Launch and Sale

As you know, book 3 of the Light Series, Council of Light, released on January 28th. It had a stronger launch than book 2 last year. I had fun running a sale during Valentine’s Day weekend to celebrate the first birthday of Truth Bearer. Thank you to all that bought my books during that sale. It pushed my books into the top 100 for a couple of categories for the weekend.

But now we are into what has always been a quieter period of sales and why I will never launch in February again. At least January has people still figuring out what to do with Christmas money. I’m even guilty of not wanting to spend much in February and March unless I need it.

The ad I pictured above will appear in Clean Fiction Magazine once again with its spring issue. I enjoy how they do full page reviews of each book and have an 8 level rating system for how clean it is. It is a quarterly magazine that you can get by subscribing for only ten dollars a year for the digital version, which they mail to you as a pdf. You can also pay more to acquire print copies or buy them on Amazon. I would check them out to find your next read.

Cyborg Claude

Cyborg Claude has finally made his appearance! Four episodes are live, with more to come every Friday. Besides posting on Tales of Karnum and Beyond, they also should arrive in subscriber emails every Friday. They will remain free as I spin the tale.

There are dark elements to this tale and some may not find it clean enough. However, the universe is not a clean place, and the goal is to shine some light and hope into it. Maybe Claude will latch onto his own ray of hope to help him out of his trauma. He still believes he should be dead and the memory of that time drives him to stay active in the field and any other distraction he can find. Of course, if you read, you’ll see how this latest adventure to Goeken does not help.

Feel free to give me feedback whether you do so via the comments or in response to the emails. It will help me know what you liked and what didn’t hit the mark for you. I’ve already made a couple of minor corrections and I shared them in the comments. I look forward to future feedback to help catch things I missed or see what you think should or could happen next. Thanks for reading.

Book Review

I still haven’t finished Sanctified, but I keep reading here and there. Reading time needs to be carved out to complete this and to dive into my TBR pile.

I wrote up a review for Illusion’s Reign by Sara Pennington. I enjoyed the world with its Celtic flair, interesting faerie folk, and the battle of a princess caught in an illusion. She can’t do anything against the imposter that looks like her, and she has only so many days before the illusion sticks forever. As the goose girl, she can move about near the castle, but that is about it. She must gain allies and she finds some in the least likely places.

This is book two of the series, but it is a prequel to book one. The first book, Song of the Selkies, is the RealmMaker’s book of the year in 2024. Each book follows a different sister through a story which can definitely standalone. I have Song of the Selkies on my to be read list. Yes, I am reading them out of order and it was partially on purpose.

March Plans

I am pulling out a half written novel called Last of Dragons and reacquainting myself with it. It may take most of March to do that and then map out where the rest of the story should go. Once that is done, I’ll resume writing. Since it is not the only project I have in the works, it will probably take me until the summer to finish the draft. It will probably be my book for 2026. Other ideas brewing out of my trilogy will find a little love this year in the natural breaks between drafting and editing steps of Last of Dragons.

Speaking and sales events would be nice in the warmer months. I need to reach out now to local libraries and schools to see what I can do there. Spring used to be book fair time, but I’m not even sure of that. On the library side, I want to join with libraries for town events where I sell my books and donate some proceeds to the library. I think that would be fun. We’ll see what I end up doing. I can also do author talks.

I want to create some courses I could teach at writing conferences or online that work with my coaching business. I’ve had ideas of how to update this side of the business, but things didn’t really settle until this week. One opportunity for later this year is not an option because I don’t have ideas developed enough and they needed submissions by the end of February. That spurred me into wanting to figure this out, but I’ll be aiming for online ideas first and then see about teaching at conferences in the 2026 season. I started this coaching idea because I know a lot of writers who want to have their stories out there and I want to be a voice in the noise that helps them find their way at their pace.

I look forward to sharing with you how all the fun of March truly worked out. Again, never hesitate to reach out to let me know what you think of my books, stories I share here at Tales of Karnum and Beyond, or any of the other parts of the writing business.