Open this email for a chance to win $100
Seriously! As a subsriber, you've already got an entry!
It’s been awhile since we’ve had a good ol’ fashioned giveaway, hasn’t it? Today, I’m excited to announce that I’m a part of a fun giveaway celebrating serial novels—me and seven of my author friends have chipped in for a giveaway where one person will win a $50 gift certificate to Amazon and a $50 gift certificate to Fly Paper Products, which has really cool literary products, like candles, mugs, tumblers, and more!
Entry for the giveaway is super simple—and as a newsletter subscriber, you’ve already gained one entry, so just click over and claim that entry now!
For another free entry from me, all you have to do is click on my serial novel, Blood and Feathers. At the bottom of every episode, there’s an author’s note—it’s right above the little thumb’s up that you can give the story, hint hint 😉 The first three episodes of the serial are 100% free to read, and in the author’s note of one of those three episodes there’s a code word. Enter that code word into the giveaway prompt, and you get another free entry for the grand prize!
We made this a super easy giveaway to enter, and all the authors have their code words hidden in the author’s notes of the first three episodes of their serials, so there’s absolutely no cost to you to just click the stories and find the words. Of course, we’re hoping you discover some fascinating new books to read and you stick around for the whole story (and give a few more thumbs up so we’re boosted in Amazon’s algorithm!), but I want to stress that this really is an easy giveaway to enter with some fun prizes we think you’ll really like!
Are you interested in author branding or book cover design?
Wordsmith Workshops is hosting a brand new seminar with the super talented Jessica Khoury, a bestselling author and graphic designer who makes fantasy maps, book cover designs, and more at Lizard Ink Studio!
If you like the new header in this newsletter and the new designs on my website, know that this is the result of a branding package from Jess! She organized a color pallet and design to work with my programs that I’m simply in love with.
For the seminar, she’s going to be making a book cover LIVE. And not just any book cover—she’s going to redesigning the cover of my short story anthology, The Future Collection, live while answering questions on book cover design and author branding! The Future Collection is going to be re-launched in time for the holidays, with a new story added to it soon.
Research is Best Served on a Falcon’s Wing
For my birthday recently, my husband got me the best present—a trip to learn about falconry!
There are more pics and videos at my Instagram, but I’m still in awe of this amazing experience. Look at those talons! That hooked beak! The wonder on my face was not an accident.
I came away with a lot of knowledge about the history of falconry—something I may be able to use in a story in the future. I’d researched so much of this previously as I wrote Blood and Feathers—a book about the destructive nature of birds required just that sort of history, even if my birds are far larger and more monstrous.
A lot of my pictures from the day are actually videos, which I can’t include in the newsletter, so do check out the Insta post. Slow-mo is cool on a swooping raptor!
All the book research in the world doesn’t compare to a falcon on your wrist.
Just in time for #NaNoWriMo, a Fast Draft Workbook!
National Novel Writing Month is upon us, and if you’ve been thinking about trying NaNo out for yourself—or just wanting to get a jumpstart on writing a book—this is the workbook for you!
The Fast Draft Workbook is something I’m actively using to draft my novels—I’ve got a lot of projects going at once, and this is helping me formulate them! I built this for my writer brain, but if your writer brain is like mine—if you’re able to write better the more organized you get and if you want to learn how to make an outline that works for you—then I hope you enjoy this workbook. It’s on a special discount now, just in time for NaNoWriMo, but the price is going up by the end of the year.
Don’t forget to vote!
Blood and Feathers is in the final quarter now, and we are absolutely careening toward an end! Every single week from now until completion, there will be a vote that will help determine the end of the book.
These votes may seem obscure—who to trust, what choices should the main character make—but I’m putting you, the reader, in the role of the main character, and with the same information she has, you have to decide whether to trust the magic system or break it, whether to love another character or send him away, whether to save one person or another. They’re hard choices, and they directly influence what type of ending the main character, Sine, and her whole nation will face. A dark and terrible force could be unleashed, dooming them all. Opening a cage may free someone or doom someone. You have to decide…
Voting is always free, and you can vote on the current poll right here! Remember, there’s a new poll every week (or, every three chapters or so). Some of the polls cast have already sealed into place one element of the story, so to see how that plays out—and to see how that influences the final end—stick around!
Also, thank you all for getting Blood and Feathers ranked so high!
It got up to #47 out of all ten thousand serials on all of Amazon, and it ranked in the top 5 of all young adult serials (and in the top 20 of all fantasy serials)! This little story is still clinging to the top ten, so please know that every single click on the story—even if you only click on the free chapters and thumbs up those—helps. Of course, I want you to love the story as much as I do, but I really appreciate your support in clicking on any of the pages, even the free ones!
What I’m working on now…
Blood and Feathers serialization, on-going now at Kindle Vella and Patreon
Museum of Magic, a YA fantasy with witches and witch bottles: pre-planning stage (you can see the behind the scenes of this pre-planning process at Patreon, and some snippets are being posted on TikTok or Instagram as well)
Secret adult science fiction project 1: outline complete
Secret adult science fiction project 2: currently drafting, about 25k words in
Adult historical novel: on submission to editors, wish me luck!
YA historical co-written fantasy: preparing to submit to editors
New story idea (paranormal with ghosts): starting the outline for it
As always--thank you, thank you, thank you. I’m happiest when I’m working, and all I really want to do is tell stories. Thank you for listening. <3
I swore I wasn't going to start reading stories on KindleVella. I *swore*. Darn you to heck, Beth Revis, and your little dog, too.
Loving Blood & Feathers. :)