Apparently, I haven’t sent out a newsletter since The Hunt was released. Where in the world has this year gone? The Hunt was officially released last year on September 15, 2019.
My family and I are doing well – we’re all taking the world seriously right now, so trying to keep as safe and healthy as we can. Hopefully, you are all doing the same!
Because we’ve been staying home it’s meant a lot of family time! That unfortunately means not a lot of quiet time. I adore my husband and my girls – and we all get along great! Quarantine has actually been pretty fun for us. We had a whole birthday weekend for the girls in June, spent a weekend at my parents’ new cabin, and Halloween turned into a Trick or Seek in a spookified basement. There have been lots of games, movies, and art.
This means not great things for my writing, however. I need quiet and focus to write, and there hasn’t been very much of that this year! My husband and I realized that meant that his D&D campaign he’s been developing was going nowhere, and none of my editing was happening, so we started doing workshops with each other to help get us through the things we are stuck on and help motivate each other to finish our projects. He’s made fantastic progress on his campaign, and I have only 3 scenes left to edit in The Shield before I can break the book into chapters and send it off to Beta Readers! I’m really hoping I can get this book wrapped up and ready for publishing by early 2021. It’s been delayed far too long already.
The fifth book, The Streets, is over halfway through its current draft. This is another book that I’ve written twice already, but I trashed because of my growth as a writer and storyteller, as well as because of the new direction the series has taken. I love this version just as much as I loved the others though, so, hopefully, you will all enjoy it too!
I.O.W.A.
The only event that I will be participating in this year is I.O.W.A. (Imagine Other Worlds with Authors) – an author-focused event that usually takes place in the Cedar Rapids library, but this year is entirely online! So, everyone, no matter where you are, can join and take part in this event. There will be live panels, recorded videos, and other events. Check out the Facebook event page for this year! Everything will launch from this Facebook page, so no need to search around for access.
I’ll be participating in two panels and one reading.
Saturday 11/7: 11:40am – 12:40pm Ask an Author #1 (Talk to a panel of authors about their literary journeys)
Sunday 11/8: 1:00pm My Author Reading (I’ll read an excerpt from The Shield, so tune in if you’d like a sneak peek of the next book!)
2:40pm – 3:40pm World Building 101 (Discussion about creating and building up the worlds and settings for novels)
Check out the event page for a full schedule and the list of all the authors and booksellers involved!
Writing Progress
The Dark – Still available! Will be back as a Kindle Unlimited book for the holidays.
The Haven – The Haven is still sitting pretty and I have plenty on hand. I still like it more than its older brother. Pick one up if you haven’t yet! 😉
The Hunt – This book was released last year already! Wow! If you haven’t gotten a copy yet, it is available on Amazon and through your local bookstore!
The Shield – Editing stalled thanks to no one’s friend, Covid Quarantine, but I’m back to it and nearly finished with my Alpha edit. I hope to send it to Beta readers before the end of November! While they have it, I’ll get going on the marketing materials!
The Streets – About 190 pages in, and the end of the book has been planned. Moving slowly, but still moving! Trash pandas unite!
The System – I’ve got about 10 pages of new content written for this one already. More planning is needed though. 😉