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.
Elf on the Shelf and the Bless-yous of Winter
Minty is back! My youngest probably does not actually believe the legend of the Elf on the Shelf. For those that don’t know, it’s something like Alexa for Amazon, always listening for key info to carry back to Santa, but with the curse of losing its magic if touched by a human… much like a rare mint-condition comic book. Minty returns to our house each year when we all slumber from too much turkey after Thanksgiving, and disappears on Christmas Eve. And, as I mentioned, I don’t think my youngest daughter believes that the elf, who she sees packaged in a box when we visit Target, actually moves around our home every night. But, like me, I think she wishes it were true, and she’s willing to pretend it’s true. Especially when Minty brings donuts.
Anyone paying really close attention will draw a connection to Book 3 from our family’s Christmas ritual.
Sadly, Minty is not our only winter ritual. Like most families, we also pass around some nice winter head colds. This year, I elected to go first. But I did the handoff to my middle daughter, and she’s waiting to pass the baton to her siblings or mother. At least she made it through her school’s winter dance.
Despite the colds, we took a family drive to the local Pedernales River, and my wife spotted this slumbering dragon -- I was so proud of her. I guess our youngest came by it honestly -- I'm not the only one willing to pretend. 🐉 We skipped rocks and took pics, careful not to wake the beast.
On the topic of dragons, several weeks ago I talked with someone at our local Barnes & Nobles about a book-signing. They asked me to leave a business card. Which I don’t have. Had not even considered having. But now I wants one. Since I plan to stick to fantasy, I want a logo that calls that out, so I sketched something. You can all laugh, or cry, but let me know if the idea is sound. Now I’m looking for someone who can boil that down to a simple logo that I can slap on a business card. And print, you know, the handful that I’ll ever need. 🤦🏽
I tried a new Fiverr artist that didn’t really work out. Below are her attempts at my logo - I didn’t like any of them. I’m going to keep trying, but let me know if you think I’m wrong and one of these is gold.
Writing Updates
The Book Tour of We're Going on an Elf Hunt has begun. My attempts to compound the Goodreads reviews from the tour with the Goodreads Giveaway are off to a rocky start. If only that meant Grundle were in charge! But it is early, and I do intend to latch onto a couple of reviews once they are in GR, and push those on other social media. We shall see. In the meantime, I'm going through the formatting issues of getting the final version of the book (in multiple formats) out the virtual door. With every release of a book, the rules seem to change a little. And the tricks to get pictures centered are insanely difficult given that Kindle format (a special epub) is basically html. So it should be super-easy. I'm close to giving up and living with off-ceneter pictures.
o To-Do list for writing last week:
Email updates- Work the audiobook! About halfway done!!! (I'm marking it green)
- Complete logo order. Red on this one... I didn't like my options so far.
- Work the final pics into Book 3 and start the final formatting. I didn't think I'd be finished in a week, but I'm almost done. I've just about given up on trying to get the pictures centered on Kindle -- I've read enough about it that I think Kindle is finicky.
o To-Do list for writing this week:
- Email updates
- Continue on audiobook - I'd like to finish it this week.
- Update the Amazon downloads for ebook & print version.
- Hop over to B&N and get the 3rd book uploaded there.
- Poke on the new Amazon offering for hardbacks - see what it would take.
Previous Newsletters
- Thanks have been given - 11/30/2021
- Reviews, but not bookish reviews... - 11/23/2021
- Lights, digital recording device, action… - 11/16/2021
- Losing Faith, a Calyx Twins Story - 10/26/2021 📜 Losing Faith, a Calyx Twins Story.pdf
- New pics for Book 1 - 10/19/2021
- Happy Birthday, Middle Egg - 10/12/2021
- Age Before Duty -10/05/2021 📜 Age-Before-Duty.pdf
- Grundle's Hope - 9/28/2021 📜 Grundle's-Hope.pdf
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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.
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