May Newsletter (2018)

From Patreon.

Apparently April is over with? Did that happen? I blinked and then zoooom it was gone! Wow!

Full disclosure: April was not a productive month for me. The first week of the month was wasted entirely because my hand was too messed up to do any writing. (I experimented with voice-to-text software but ultimately confirmed that my writing style just doesn't work well with the concept.) The second week was better in the sense that I had hand surgery (*jazz hands*), which was expensive and un-fun but immediately my hand felt so much better. Overnight, practically. So this was a surgery success story and that's always awesome.

However, it turns out that "feeling worlds better" and "able to write again" are not 100% the same thing and I wasn't cleared to really type up a storm until the 25th (and even then the doctor was like "...but I wish you'd wait until May, is the thing.") That means I haven't gotten much writing done this month (boo) but I will be able to write normally in May (yay!) so I can't complain too much. I'm just grateful I haven't lost my hand for life. ♡♡♡

Oh! But there was good news in all that! One, my book was announced and is available for pre-order! More on that below! Two, because I was off-work for the month recuperating from hand surgery, I basically had zero back pain at all for all of April. Yay for medication that works and taking it easy in bed! I could not be in a better mood if I tried. So let's talk about BOOKS and WORDS and THINGS.

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LET'S TALK PATREON REWARDS.

♡ $2+ (May) Character Concept: Nievh Hews! Even if you're not reading my Fire Mage wip, you'll want to look at this one. Laya's art is gorgeous and I love rambling about my writing process and characterization and world-building and shoes.

♡ $5+ (May) Fire Mage Chapter 4, the next chapter in my Fire Mage wip, &&& Early Access: No Man of Woman Born eBook, exactly what it says on the tin! This is not a drill! The book exists, long live the book!

♡ $15+ (June) Early Access: No Man of Woman Born Audiobook! This was on a one-month delay to iron out a couple last minute bubbles, but it's gonna be amazing and you want in on this. Cori Samuel is an amazing narrator and breathes beautiful life into my characters.

♡ $25+ (July) Early Access: No Man of Woman Born Paperbacks! We haven't finished the formatting for this one and it's gonna be close (*frets*) but it'll be soooooon, I promise.

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TRANS PROPHECY PROJECT: The book is finished! I'm so excited I could pop! eBooks exist and are going out to you today, and have been put up for pre-order at Amazon and elsewhere. There is a GoodReads page! There is a cover reveal at LGBTQ Reads which is a life-long goal of mine!! This month has been amazing.

What's next? Well, I'm still sending out ARCs (advance review copies) to reviewers for them to review. I also have to upload the audiobook when we near the release date as Audible doesn't provide a "pre-order" option. And I have to wrestle with formatting the paperback in CreateSpace, which is... taking longer than I'd like it to. But I will prevail!

You can help by spreading the word! Positive reviews help so much! Amazon doesn't allow reviews before release but GoodReads does, if you feel inclined to drop a few words in the word bucket. And, of course, I'll be marketing aggressively on my Twitter and blog. Thank you for your support and patience. ♥ ♥ ♥

EARTHSIDE #3 PARANORMAL ROMANCE: Since I couldn't write in April, I didn't write on this. I did, however, have a chance to re-read everything I have so far and was surprised and pleased to realize that the draft was actually... good? I needed some time and distance in order to see that. What's more, I had a long and very helpful talk with a writing friend and was able to see why I was blocked on this project and how to move forward. No spoilers, but it turns out the answer was to make one of my cis characters trans. I can't tell you how much joy and peace that decision is bringing me. This is going to rock your socks off.

FIRE-MAGE FANTASY: I cheated and did write on this one, despite doctor's orders. Unfortunately, I was a little drug-addled when I did so and didn't look at my notes, so I'm going to have to go back and heavily edit the stuff I wrote. (Right now it's just a mess of COOL DRAGONS and OMG I'M GAY and okay that's a good foundation but it needs some, er, polish.) Let it be known, however, that cool dragons exist and I am very gay.

ACCIDENTAL HERO: Another project I didn't write on because of my traitorous hand. This was particularly frustrating because I know what happens next and the words are all in my brain, but blocking them out onto the page is hard. Why don't we have brain-to-text transcription services yet? I wish to speak with a manager.

OTHER BUSINESS: NONE. Well, no, I'm also looking forward to posting more re-written fairy tales next month and hopefully we'll all enjoy that. Thank you so much for being here and supporting me and I love you all!

DON'T FORGET: Stay safe and take care. Try not to lodge a cyst in your hand that requires surgery to extract! On the flip side, my surgeon assures me that crackling knees are totally normal and not to worry about those. ♥