If you read fantasy for the magic, the world-building, and the occasional moment of dark humorβI 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.
March on! (yeah, that's terrible)
Family events -- this wewk we had a dance competition for my middle daughter, select basketball tryouts for my oldest (no pic), and an attempted double-sleepover for my youngest, which ended in a fail on the 2nd night due to the Too-Much-Ice-Cream incident (definitely no pic).
We also had the pleasure of seeing our close family friends baptize all five of their kids on Sunday. Their church reminded me of my youth, with much more recitation from the congregation, traditional hymns, what I'm going to call costumes on their clergy (I know they don't call them that). My youngest daughter told me, "Their church is definitely more holy than ours." π€£
Writing Updates
βleidolfr completed the map of FreeWorld. I liked it so much that I went back and requested a color version for my web page (B&W for the book).
As a reminder, these pics were my chicken-scratch input. Pretty cool what he's done. Now I want more maps. On the flip side, I'm still dragging my feet on the rest of the artwork for Book 4. If I may psychoanalyze myself for a moment, I think it is because I don't believe what I have in mind can be conveyed and drawn without a great deal of frustration, and a hefty price tag, and I'm not ready to take it on yet.
I sent out book merch to my street team--some members have received the goods already. My thanks to them for all the help they've given me. I used a company called Printful, and through them, I could create my own shipping label. I'm not totally happy with the way the text under the logo on the mug isn't centered. But there's always room for improvement! (already updated... so easy on their web site!)
I'm still in the grammar and style edit phase of Book 4. inkqueenmarketing has put together a beta-reader team, but I'm waiting for her to catch up to Book 4 before I send out ARC copies to the others (so that she can help guide them on beta feedback).
I received a mid-read review of Book 3 that meant a lot to me. I've tried including IG posts in my newsletter before, and it didn't work out, but trying again. Thank you, Edith!
βhttps://www.instagram.com/p/Cafsc3nP7Qj/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_linkβ
On the drearier side, I spent a great deal of time this weekend working on taxes. Trying to sort through all my book stuff made me realize how terribly sloppy I've been in tracking my spending for writing. I definitely need to think through how to manage that better.
o To-Do list for writing last week:
Email updatesGrammatical and Style edits for Book 4 - through chapter 15.- list out the pics I want and decide whether they are truly achievable. Why can't I get the ball rolling on this? What the heck is my problem?
o To-Do list for writing this week:
- Email updates
- Grammatical and Style edits for Book 4 - through chapter 21.
- list out the pics I want and decide whether they are truly achievable.
Previous Newsletters
- βLate-Feb Slog - 2/23/2022
- βNo rest for the weary - 2/16/2022
- βBook 4 of The Guardian League, The Song Unsung - 2/9/2022
- βHappy Birthday to my Wife - 2/1/2022
- βFinding Books "Connected" to mine - 1/25/2022
- βHunting for Silver Linings - 1/18/2022
- βStarting off the New Year with a Bang - 1/11/2022
- ββHappy Neo Year - 1/4/2022
- βTreasure - 12/28/2021
- βHappy Holidays - 12/21/2021
- βA week of promotions - 12/14/2021
- βElf on the Shelf and the Bless-Yous of Winter - 12/05/2021
- βThanks have been given - 11/30/2021
- βReviews, but not bookish reviews... - 11/23/2021
- βLights, digital recording device, actionβ¦ - 11/16/2021
- βAnnnnd... cue Christmas! - 11/09/2021
- βBook 3 Hype-Up Coming Soon - 11/02/2021
- βLosing Faith, a Calyx Twins Story - 10/26/2021 π Losing Faith, a Calyx Twins Story.pdfβ
- βNew pics for Book 1 - 10/19/2021
- βHappy Birthday, Middle Egg - 10/12/2021
- βAge Before Duty -10/05/2021 πβ Age-Before-Duty.pdfβ
- βGrundle's Hope - 9/28/2021 π Grundle's-Hope.pdfβ
Steven J Morris
If you read fantasy for the magic, the world-building, and the occasional moment of dark humorβI 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.
I promise Iβve made progress on Father of Stones (FoS). Here's a screenshot to prove it: click the photo to get to the live data showing progress But... I have put a little time elsewhere. I want to invite you to try this web-game Iβve been building out. It was meant to be a role-playing game around Thaumatropic Fractures, but ended up being focused on Thaumatropic Roots. https://tfrpg.sjmorriswrites.com https://tfrpg.sjmorriswrites.com The game will ask you to use your email to associate...
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 β 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...
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 itβI 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 booksβhair 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...