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.
Newsletter - July 12, 2022
We are in the final mile of a marathon for a project at work. Several projects, actually, but I'm more tightly bound to one of them. I'm barely clawing my way through, week to week, day to day... often amazed that the day has wrapped up. I've got a really great group of people to work with, minus one foul individual who adds spice to the story of my life. On the bright side, I hope to use what I've learned from working with said troll in the writing of the fabled elven civil war. When life gives you lemons and all...
Book 4 of The Guardian League has been out for a couple of weeks now. It seems natural to somehow take advantage of the series being complete, but I don't know exactly how. There's got to be some kind of deals or discounts I should be creating, or change in advertising, that I should shift into. Some of you avid devourers of words let me know--what have been your favorite things to see after a series is done?
I talked about crazy detective walls last week. I poked around a little, because I really did need something to help hold my ideas together for the prequel to The Guardian League, and I knew my wife would not let me get away with a literal crazy wall (though my youngest girl would LOOOOOVE it). I tried a few apps, and settled on one called popplet. It has a free option, which is all I'm using for now. Writing this stuff out doesn't help clarify anything--at this point I am not a detective solving a mystery. What it does is free up my mind to consider the next steps. Until I do something to capture my thoughts, my brain keeps tripping up on them, out of some kind of fear that it will forget those pieces. So without SOMETHING, I just rethink the same scenes, the same connections, the same problems, over and over.
With some of my ideas pinned down, I find I am able to progress others, and my virtual pen moves a little faster than before. Though, admittedly, I still crawl at a snail's pace compared to most authors. Anyone who has similar tools to help them flesh out ideas, let me know--I'll gladly take a look.
o To-Do list for writing last week:
Email updates- Make a pass at Crazy Detective Wall and see if my wife kills me (oh, the irony...)
o To-Do list for writing this week:
- Email updates
- Plug away at Book 1 of Thaumatropic Roots
Previous Newsletters
- Newsletter - July 5, 2022
- Newsletter - June 21, 2021
- Newsletter - June 14, 2021
- Newsletter - May 31, 2022
- Newsletter - May 24, 2022
- Newsletter - May 17, 2022
- Newsletter - May 10, 2022
- Newsletter - May 3, 2022
- Newsletter - April 26, 2022
- Newsletter - April 19, 2022
- Newsletter - April 12, 2022
- Newsletter - April 5, 2022
- Almost done Marching - 3/30/2022
- Spring Break - 3/22/2022
- #weekendgetaway - 3/15/2022
- March Merch... - 3/8/2022
- March on! (yeah, that's terrible) - 3/1/2022
- Late-Feb Slog - 2/23/2022
- No rest for the weary - 2/16/2022
- Book 4 of The Guardian League, The Song Unsung - 2/9/2022
- Happy Birthday to my Wife - 2/1/2022
- Finding Books "Connected" to mine - 1/25/2022
- Hunting for Silver Linings - 1/18/2022
- Starting off the New Year with a Bang - 1/11/2022
- Happy Neo Year - 1/4/2022
- Treasure - 12/28/2021
- Happy Holidays - 12/21/2021
- A week of promotions - 12/14/2021
- Elf on the Shelf and the Bless-Yous of Winter - 12/05/2021
- Thanks have been given - 11/30/2021
- Reviews, but not bookish reviews... - 11/23/2021
- Lights, digital recording device, action… - 11/16/2021
- Annnnd... cue Christmas! - 11/09/2021
- Book 3 Hype-Up Coming Soon - 11/02/2021
- 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
May you get lost this week in another world.
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.
I promise I’ve 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 I’ve 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 — 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 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...