I wasn't going to write a newsletter this week. Just wasn't feeling it. But I'm a creature of habit (which is good and bad).
Last week, after doing the event at Vintage Books & Wine, I decided I needed to put more effort into editing and wrapping up the first book of the next series. For my first series, I had a rough draft of everything in the series before I released the first book, and I made so many corrections to the earlier books because of putting in that work, that I think it is the right way to go (for me). Yet I find everything to be moving more slowly this time around--life is busier, and I'm older, which cuts into my awake-and-clear-headed time at both ends. That creates an inertia that is difficult to overcome--the lift gets heavier while at the same time, my ability to grow an audience languishes without new material, so there's no energy pumping into the system. Maybe the latter is not true and just a feeling. Bottom line: I could spend more time on the series and surely make it better, but perfection is the enemy of progress, and I think I am falling into that trap.
Therefore, I am going to set a somewhat arbitrary goal of July 31st to release Book 1 of Thaumatropic Roots. I'll put energy into mapping that out, and undoubtedly discover it should be a different date.
o To-Do list for writing last week:
o To-Do list for writing this week:
| Immerse Yourself... |
Previous Newsletters
May you get lost this week in another world.
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...