If you read fantasy for the magic, the world-building, and the occasional moment of dark humor—I write that. One urban fantasy series, one epic fantasy series, both set in the Fractured Arcana universe, with more coming. My newsletter takes you deeper into the worlds, the characters, and what's next.
Behind the scenes...
|
I built a tracking page for Father of Stones (FoS) this week. I did not, notably, write very much of said book this week. There's a joke in there about creative avoidance and I'm not going to pretend I don't see it. Anyway — here's what I made instead. Word Count Over Time A live chart of Father of Stones' progress since late June. I'm not smoothing over the slow weeks. There's a very flat stretch from June 'til August where I worked on the Eigenthrope story, then another flat stretch through most of September in there that is more attributable to my getting distracted by shiny objects.
The Chapters Ahead Chapters are named for their POV character — no plot details, just a sense of shape. Each one's getting its own image as I go, so you can watch the cast (and the manuscript) fill in without me spoiling the story. And some small experiments I thought it might be fun to build a teaser version of the Grimoire. Something that knows the answers to your questions about FoS, but tries to be intentionally elusive. I dunno… probably more likely to leak a secret than do anything actually fun, but i kinda want to try it anyway.
And this is my real problem with AI: for me it’s like a shiny lure to a fish. All these fun things I can build, but then I struggle to get the hook out. My youngest daughter is great with drawing, painting, crochet, and pretty much anything crafty. Like her, I find myself jumping around between cool things I can make (now that I have AI). That’s hurting my productivity on any one thing. The page link is below — plateaus, chapters, and all. https://arcanum.sjmorriswrites.com/?page=coming-soon-fos&nmode=review Part of why I'm putting this out there in a newsletter is to understand if any of this would make the time between books more interesting for readers. And for me. Because I want to find a path that isn't too distracting, but has shorter term feedback than my book lifecycles. So hit reply if you have thoughts on it. All books by Steven J. Morris Previous Newsletters
Follow me on Goodreads. |
Steven J Morris
If you read fantasy for the magic, the world-building, and the occasional moment of dark humor—I write that. One urban fantasy series, one epic fantasy series, both set in the Fractured Arcana universe, with more coming. My newsletter takes you deeper into the worlds, the characters, and what's next.
Yesterday I needed to remember exactly how a character destroyed a dragon artifact three books ago. I didn't dig through my own novels to find it—I asked an AI I built to search them for me. It's called the Grimoire: a mini-AI system I put together with Pinecone that I can ask questions about my own books—hair color in a different epoch, a side character I want to bring back, a detail I'd otherwise lose momentum digging for. It keeps me writing instead of hunting. That's the quiet way AI has...
In this one: an old friend from way back, 20k words of progress, and a new reel from Thaumatropic Fractures. Last newsletter I asked for some accountability help. A few people reached out. One was someone I think of as an old friend from high school. But I've got to tell a little story about him. Way back before high school, in 5th grade, I transferred into a new school roughly mid-year. In one of my classes, the teacher insisted I do a placement test. But the placement test was this set of...
Hey Reader, Quick fun bit before today's update: the polls from my last email are in. I'd asked how many of you had actually read the three portal fantasy books that made me want to write the genre: Mordant's Need: 14.3% have read it The Darwath Trilogy: 0% have read it War of the Flowers: 14.3% have read it Almost nobody has read them, which tracks. They're buried treasure. If any of them ended up on your list because of that email, I'd love to hear how it goes. Okay, the actual update. I...