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.
Then the roof caved in...
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My youngest landed her layout with a twist this week—that was quite cool to see. She hit it on her first attempt. Just had to overcome the fear of it. Prolly a life lesson there somewhere. I do have a video, if anyone wants to see it. They asked her to move up to the elite level after class--for those few of you in Austin, that's Westlake elite, so moving pretty high up the ladder. Speaking of ladders... here was my fun for the week: a hole in the roof that probably happened last winter… found while hanging Xmas lights. Likely a limb broke off the overhanging tree last winter, and the rains this spring rotted a fair section of wood. Not beautiful, but it saved me $650 to do it myself, so I can live with the quality. Got any good patchwork fix stories you're hesitantly proud of? Oh, and do you need some felt paper or shingles? I have a lot now. Click here to be removed from family content. I am sooo frustrated with the writing industry. Many people have built livelihoods around sucking money from people who want to publish books. That’s my message to your wife’s writing club, Brett—don’t believe anyone in book marketing. I sent out a podcast email a couple of days ago--I have relegated that to the high end of the scams. At the low end, I get two to four emails daily of really poor quality trying to get me to buy into their marketing services... video creation, thinly disguised paid-for reviews, marketing advice. Twice in the last month I've had to notify Goodreads of slews of sloppy reviews from a new tactic where groups are throwing reviews on your books, then asking you to pay for it! I mean, it is frustrating enough to filter through all the cheats; now I have to exert energy to fix problems they create. It's terrible! On that cheery note, I sent Shepherds out for structural editing. It’s at about half its intended word count, and it’s a good place to see if the story holds, whether any arcs should be cut, and to hear someone else’s opinion on what needs more fleshing out. For my fellow authors, I use Libby James. I'd highly recommend her. All books by Steven J. Morris Indie Author Showcase Previous Newsletters
May you get lost this week in another world. Follow me on Goodreads. |
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.
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...
In this one: an old friend from way back, 20k words of progress, and a new reel from Thaumatropic Fractures. Last newsletter I asked for some accountability help. A few people reached out. One was someone I think of as an old friend from high school. But I've got to tell a little story about him. Way back before high school, in 5th grade, I transferred into a new school roughly mid-year. In one of my classes, the teacher insisted I do a placement test. But the placement test was this set of...
Hey Reader, Quick fun bit before today's update: the polls from my last email are in. I'd asked how many of you had actually read the three portal fantasy books that made me want to write the genre: Mordant's Need: 14.3% have read it The Darwath Trilogy: 0% have read it War of the Flowers: 14.3% have read it Almost nobody has read them, which tracks. They're buried treasure. If any of them ended up on your list because of that email, I'd love to hear how it goes. Okay, the actual update. I...