Cats, Coffee and Halloween

Saturday night, we finally caved to having furbabies in the house again. After losing my dog and cat a few years ago, I just couldn't get over the feeling that getting another pet was replacing them. My sister's cat had a couple of kittens that finally reached weaning stages, so now we have She-Ra and Seven. It's nice to have cats in the house again. They adjusted pretty quickly and they do bring cheer to the house so it was time.

Onto the coffee...

You might also know I got a coffee brewer for my birthday and have since enjoyed the wonderful world of mass brewing, travel mug and K-cup coffee since. My dad's ex-wife, a sweet woman named Carole who told me I've always been the daughter she wish she had, had a bunch of K-Cup coffee in different flavors and types that she sent home with my dad. Not just coffee but cappuccino and lattes-- mocha, peppermint and my favorite, hazelnut. The bottom shelf of one cabinet is now completely my teas, drink mixes, and coffees and that also makes this girl over the moon.

As for Halloween, that's a week away, folks! I've done two of the four planned covers and it's highly likely I'll finish the other two this week as well. They're absolutely beautiful. For the first one, I went half and half, blending a photo with digital painting, but it made me confident enough to just source a photo and paint independently. I went with a simple stock texture background that will just change colors over the series and then each front and back cover will contain half a face with a solid spine between them. There will also be an object behind the title, something in theme with the book (there's a dagger on the first and a lute on the second, but haven't decided on the other two yet). Because I scrapped the original covers that I hadn't really planned, I do plan on posting the cover drawing I'm not using for UnSung sometime prior to its release. It's done in more of a comic style whereas I used more realism for the current ones. I'm very proud of these so far so it will be difficult not to share them right away.

In any case, proceeds for The Magical Book of Wands will be donated to the American Library Association. Preorder this anthology, that I am proud to be a part of, before its Halloween release and help us fight to keep public libraries available. Libraries aren't just for readers. They also provide valuable community services like free internet and children's programs. Authors will not be taking any proceeds so if you still wish to support us, follow our links provided after our stories to find our work or find us on Patreon.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07H7T24SG

That wraps things up for now. It'll be back to digital painting, scrambling to finish what I can prior to NaNoWriMo and maybe doing some diamond painting. Holy hell, the diamond chips are tiny. I've never done this before and they're definitely smaller than even my Mini perler beads, so there will probably be a lot of swearing. Wish me luck!

Nothing But Net!

If only I could always be so productive...

After one helluva crunch weekend, the first draft of UnSung is done, done, donnnnnnne. What does this mean? There are a couple places where I need to amend scenes and add some plot details, which may boost the word count (which currently sits at the 234.3K word count mark), but there's no more guesswork, only refinement to do.

Since the epilogue always leads into the next book, I've also warmed up the characters leading into UnHeard, my NaNo novel for next month.

The edit for UnSung will wait. For the rest of the month? Cover art! I've staged the foreground layers for painting, just need to get it done. I will be redoing UnNamed's cover to fit the new convention. In the future, when I start new series, I'll be planning themes in advance. I didn't do this for UnNamed because I only decided to make it an UnQuadrilogy at the last minute. One of these days, I'm sure I'll be able to do a standalone novel but fantasy is just too tempting for the serials.

Piscine, one of my many plotted projects in wait, will be a sci-fi mystery thriller. It is definitely planned as a standalone yet since it could very well become serial, even that is one I'll plan a cover for that could carry on a theme.

The Dreampunk Chronicles, a Steampunk YA project, will definitely be serialized. I use both real world places and surreal fantasy destinations there so the possibilities will extend as far as I dare. I am still planning to write one of these following NaNoWriMo, but... After I set up UnSung for publishing and UnNamed for republishing (just a new cover). 

For those that bought the first edition, I may try to get some posters printed of the new cover to you, signed and sent free of charge as thanks for early adoption. I'll have to look at expenses but I really want to look at swag, convention booth options and so on for the coming year regardless.

Yes, the webcomic is another script I play with. With the way things are planned already, that's looking at a Fall 2019 slot at the soonest. I should have the first Dreampunk and UnHeard at least drafted by then. More details on those at a later date since I'm planning too far ahead already to nail down dates.

In the foreseeable future, Virtual FantasyCon is right around the corner, November 4-10. VFC Reader's Corner is a group you can join for the details. Remember, The Magical Book of Wands is up for preorder on Amazon. It's a great mix of fantasy short stories (I had the chance to read it this past weekend) and it's worth a read! Historical, urban, dark, traditional-- whatever your fantasy tastes, there's something for everyone. 

Here's hoping 2019 is an amazing year! 2017-18 were full of great learning experience, ups and downs aplenty, so I'm going into in with the same blend of optimism and cynicism that keeps me afloat. Thanks for hitching along!