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 - March 14, 2023
Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's out there! Apologies to the vegetarians, but this was what my wife wanted for Mother's Day.
Our household has been dealing with whatever cold is going around. I've heard lots of hacking in my meetings all week, so I know many folks are fighting it across the country. My youngest and my wife have been coughing for over a week now. Luckily, it seems like there's only one day of actually feeling bad, and then it's just sounding bad... mostly. But sounding bad means losing sleep, and less sleep means slower recovery. Poor things. :(
Our middle child wrapped up a chapter of her dancing career. Endings are always a little sad, even when they're really just the beginnings of something else.
I had two daughters get their learner's permits. The older one is already putting in the time to master my vehicle (but the first few attempts were SCARY!)
Finally, I have one or two more crochet creations to add since my last update from my youngest.
I hit a few low points in the last couple of weeks around writing (more around the marketing thereof), and I'm re-thinking this newsletter, among other things. As I've mentioned, though, I'm a creature of habit, and the weekly newsletter helps me think about where I am and where I'm going. Without it, I'm more likely to wander into the weeds.
My writing also slowed down, and I can't tell whether that's because work has picked up, or because I'm frustrated with marketing. Probably a little of both. But I am still cleaning up Book 1 of Thaumatropic Roots. The gotcha for the forward-looking adventure in the Troll's Teeth (a set of islands you'll get to in Book 2) has me rethinking the backstory for a family in Book 1. This is the hard and fun part of fantasy--weaving the epic story together. In writing this newsletter, I realize I no longer do the thing that most often brought me clarity on my stories - I don't run by myself in the woods anymore. Hmmm... maybe I need to reintroduce that.
o To-Do list for writing last week:
Email updates- Bleh, I didn't even manage this.- Keep editing Mother of Trees. Grading myself as having done poorly the last couple of weeks on both these items. Not quite "red", but not green.
- Write ahead - Work through the gotcha for getting them back out of the Troll's Teeth. The solution I came up with requires some noticeable backstory changes. <-- pushing ahead with the story and will then circle back to make the backstory changes
o To-Do list for writing this week:
- Email updates, if appropriate
- Keep editing Mother of Trees <-- focus more here
- Write ahead.
Previous Newsletters
- Newsletter - May 1, 2023
- Newsletter - April 25, 2023
- Newsletter - April 18, 2023
- Newsletter - April 11, 2023
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...