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.
Hear Chapter 1 of Mother of Trees
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Last week was Homecoming week, and my younger two girls are both now in High School. It's really something watching how much effort the girls (and their mom and other girls' moms) put into the preparation. Meanwhile my oldest had a rugby tournament, where they awarded her MVP. Certainly a better way to spend her time than watching that Arkansas v Notre Dame football game. Brutal. Yes, to relax, she does rugby and boxing. Any wonder I came up with Red? Really miss having my oldest girl around. Same stories, new formats! I also made a boxed set for Guardian League, ebook only. If any of you started with my newer series, you now have an easy way to grab the entire first series. Over the last couple of weeks, the third thread of Shepherds has begun to pull together. Two and a half chapters written, plus lots of notes and a fair bit of deleted data in the virtual recycle bin. Closer at hand, the evidence lay at the base of the crack. Broad scrape-arcs scored the stone leading from the dragon’s remains to where we stood—marks too wide for feet, too shallow for claws. Someone had hauled something massive here, then up. In the grit lay a snapped length of braided line and a shard of green resin, the kind Wood Elves use to bind ropes. That explained the grooves in the stone at the fissure—places where the lowering line had scored the rock as it bore weight.
“They’ve taken bones,” I whispered.
Speaking of bones, I'm still a long way from even having the bare bones of this story pulled together. It's been a crazy heavy lift. Or maybe I've divided my time more than with previous books by leaning into the marketing. Which has not gone well--my efforts pretty consistently backfire. I hope there's some kind of rule about how many mistakes you can make before something works. All books by Steven J. Morris Indie Author Showcase Previous Newsletters
May you get lost this week in another world. 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.
Hey Reader, I don't send a lot of these "here's what's going on behind the curtain" emails, but I've been heads-down on some things this year that I think are worth sharing — especially if you're navigating the same chaos the rest of us are. The short version: the books are selling steadily, the Shepherds of Truth launch cost me more than I made, TikTok taught me an expensive lesson, I've built some automation infrastructure that's genuinely changing how I work — and I have a marketing...
I've been having a lot of fun creating things lately. Not just books. Shoe shelves for my wife. Reels. Sometimes even novels. 🙃 I finally figured out how to tell a story in under thirty seconds. If you're curious what I've been experimenting with outside the books, here's my latest attempt: sjmorriswrites Every second she fights, another elf dies — and she can feel each one go dark. This is the cruelest trap in all of urban fantasy. Book 1 free on Amazon Prime for a limited time — link in...
We're a month past the release of Shepherds of Truth, the final book in the Thaumatropic Roots series, and this feels like a good time to share some of the deeper lore that exists beneath the surface of the story. The kind of lore the characters themselves rarely understand completely. If you haven't read the series yet, consider this your spoiler warning. *************** [ HERE BE SPOILERS ] *************** Long before the Breaking, before the elves fractured into isolated peoples and...