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.
Newsletter - June 21, 2022
First, Happy Birthday, Sean & Noah! ππ (No, I don't have every subscriber's birthday on file... that's my brother and nephew in Colorado.βΊ).
I'm glad I kicked off the book tour & uploaded the final copies of book 4, b/c work was demonic last week, and it made some gruesome promises regarding the upcoming weeks. Before I get to writing, I'll share some paintings from my youngest. Pretty cool, right?
My middle daughter has a dance competition in Florida next week, so we have another big family road trip planned, except we are leaving our oldest behind for a basketball tournament. It's that phase of life... the first stumbling flights from the nest. Happy/sad about it.
My youngest and I did our second farmer's market, and my wife & middle daughter stopped by. We had a couple of improvements over the previous attempt -- bookstands, weights for the tent, and a "square" credit card reader. We had our first credit card sale -- thanks, Andrea! (It took me about ten minutes to get the square to re-pair with my phone, and the screen and phone were trying to shut down because they were overheating... yikes!) I met another local author, Demetrye Isoldi, and an upcoming Indie book store had a booth set up. Their bookmark reads Vintage bookstore & wine bar, but their brick-n-mortar isn't open yet. (B.K, it might be another good place to try an event.)
I have a couple of pieces of art from Book 4 to share - they didn't make it into the ARC copies, so I wanted to get them out to folks. ARC readers, you'll know where they go.
It's a bit of a long newsletter, but I'll be traveling next week, so it might be the last one before Book 4 is released. I created hardbacks of the other books, including Book 4.
β@ladyug_shirls kicked off the Book Tour for book 4 with a remarkable review, and the Goodreads giveaway hath commenced. I'll be spending a lot of time on social media to get the word out for the next couple/few weeks. Please feel free to send out the newsletters to your friends who love fantasy. They can connect through my web site.
Countdown for Book 4 Release
o To-Do list for writing last week:
Email updatesSend bookmarks and bookplates out to ARC readersMaybe create hardbacks for other books in the series.
o To-Do list for writing this week:
- Email updates
- I started writing the next series, but I am not setting any goals yet.
Previous Newsletters
- βNewsletter - June 14, 2021β
- βNewsletter - May 31, 2022β
- βNewsletter - May 24, 2022β
- βNewsletter - May 17, 2022β
- βNewsletter - May 10, 2022β
- βNewsletter - May 3, 2022β
- βNewsletter - April 26, 2022β
- βNewsletter - April 19, 2022β
- βNewsletter - April 12, 2022β
- βNewsletter - April 5, 2022β
- βAlmost done Marching - 3/30/2022
- βSpring Break - 3/22/2022
- β#weekendgetaway - 3/15/2022
- βMarch Merch... - 3/8/2022
- βMarch on! (yeah, that's terrible) - 3/1/2022
- 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.
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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...