Work and school picked back up to normal after the long break: work kicks my butt during the day, and then homework and unpaid-kid-ubering fills my evening. We managed to wrap up a lot of little things around the house--painting outdoor chairs, painting the office and bathroom, removing stumps of trees that died over the dry summer, raking up the leaves of the trees that didn't die. But, as always, there's countless issues still waiting for resolution. One of the more pressing issues is that my poor 2010 Honda Pilot is on its last leg... last tire? We've put something like 215,000 miles on it--proud of that. Since we don't have enough money sitting around to replace it, I'm trying to figure out if the smarter move is to sell part of our retirement money (and take the 10% penalty but not have a loan), or use a home equity loan. Number-wise, the loan might be better, but taking on loans when I've got three kids edging closer to college does not provide me peace of mind.

Continued work on the logo for Thaumatropic Roots. I'm happy with where it is going, though I'm not quite feeling it yet.

Logos are supposed to be simple, partly because they often have to be printed quite small. I don't think I accomplished that. The rock has too much texture. Let's make it tiny and see...

Well, the rock doesn't look bad, but the magic lighting in the tree leaves gets lost. Maybe acceptable. Thoughts? I know, most of you don't know the story behind it, but trust me, it encapsulates a lot of what the series is about in one picture, without actually being a part of the story directly.

Thanks to a response from last week's newsletter, I connected up with a young man from one of my daughters' schools. He draws amazing dragons, and the new series has got dragons. So we are talking (emailing, but will actually talk at some point soon), and I am optimistic. I also have the high-schooler from down the street (another daughter's school) who was working on the re-do of the cover for Book 2 of The Guardian League, but after meeting this weekend, he's going to work on some different scenes--so I still need to find someone to help with the Book 2 cover do-over.

Thank you to those who replied that they went and checked that they'd reviewed my books on Amazon/GoodReads. I looked on Amazon and saw I had new review on Book 3 where the reader said she wished I hadn't included any pictures, because it ruined what she was imagining. Funny, that. I had so many people respond positively when I added pictures (they weren't there originally). She also hated that the romance got more page time. I've had two people tell me that, while I've had others tell me there wasn't enough romance. There's a nice lesson in there about ultimately writing what you want to write. Annnnd, I still appreciate the review! The greedy part of me wonders why she didn't review Books 1 & 2! Honestly, I've been on the site since Nov 18th, and even that review wasn't there. I suspect sometimes the reviews do not show up for quite a while, so maybe the others will magically appear soon.

o To-Do list for writing last week:

• Email updates
• Honestly, with where my head is right now, my goals this week are rather small -- find some next point in the story to latch onto and start writing. (Get out of the funk of the missed waypoint in the Faelian Swamp). [I'll give myself a B on this. I have a toe-hold beyond the Faelian Swamp, and while it's not much, it enables me to plow ahead.]

o To-Do list for writing this week:

• Email updates
• Keep working on Part 2 of Mother of Trees. I don't expect much progress this week for time reasons.
• Plant some seeds in my own mind about the Faelian Swamp - there's definitely a gap in the story there.

Previous Newsletters

• ​Newsletter - January 10, 2022​
• ​Newsletter - January 3, 2022​
• ​Newsletter - December 27, 2022​
• ​Newsletter - December 20, 2022​

​​May you get lost this week in another world.

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