The kids are out for winter break! And yet, I’m still working and our oldest still has basketball games… what happened? The seasons rush by more quickly every year, and they overflow with activities when holidays arrive.

I’m proud (okay, proud might be an overstatement) to relate that Minty (elf on the shelf) moved most days, so I guess we didn’t foul-up her magic, even on the day she fell off the piano. “Don’t touch her! She's better off lying there until nightfall.” Poor elf... she's had a tough holiday.

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Writing Updates

I finished uploading Book 3 to Amazon and Barnes & Noble. For reasons I don’t understand, and didn’t try to figure out, B&N pushed the release date to Dec. 29th. The Amazon release date is still Dec. 25th, and I’ve never sold a book at B&N, so… 🤷‍♂️.

The release of Elf Hunt is just around the corner!

The Audible of Book 1, the Guardian of The Palace, released on the 20th of December. 🥳 Jillian is going to teach me how to advertise for Audibles now. 😬 Right, J? I'm really happy I went through with the creation of the Audible, and the process made me open up the cover art, which, again, improved significantly. I loved learning how to use Gimp to do the digital art creation. I keep learning new stuffs!

Speaking of stuff, I also started dinking around with images to create stuff. I mentioned this last newsletter… my dawning realization that I want/need swag. My plan is to make some bookmarks for starters, something like the image on the left or above, depending on where you're reading this. Yes/no on the bookmark? I, personally, want a bottle opener, but I haven’t found a web site for creating those yet. Mugs? I was thinking about some “trading cards.” They need some fancy swooshies around them, but I think that would be kinda fun. Terrible idea? Elliah trading card example (without swooshies).

You may have also noticed my new logo snuck into those images. Yes, I found something I liked. Not what I originally envisioned, but I like it. Now I'll have to go back and update my website and books with that logo. That'll take me a while, b/c I know I'll find other things wrong with Books 1 & 2 (things I learned in formatting Book 3), that I'll feel obliged to fix.

Summing up - Elf Hunt will release on Dec. 25th. The original Guardian book has just released on Audible (may not show up on Amazon or iTunes for a couple of days, according to the email). And swag is under development.

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o To-Do list for writing last week:

• Email updates
• Hop over to B&N and get the 3rd book uploaded there. done
• Poke on the new Amazon offering for hardbacks - see what it would take.
• Poke on logo ideas. done
• Research ways to create merch - maybe this time I'll try to understand the playing field before diving in. (Nah)
• Take care of whatever pops up with the Audible. done

o To-Do list for writing this week:

• Email updates
• Figure out how to back-up files to Google Drive (realizing how much I will lose if hard drive crashes)
• Poke on Amazon hardback creation
• Order some bookmarks.
• Fix the logo on website & books (but not in a rush before Book 3 comes out... I'm getting comfortable with the idea that as a self-published author, one of the advantages is that releases can be a little more fluid).

Previous Newsletters

• ​A week of Promotions - 12/12/2021
• ​Elf on the Shelf and the Bless-Yous of Winter - 12/05/2021
• ​Thanks have been given - 11/30/2021
• ​Reviews, but not bookish reviews... - 11/23/2021
• ​Lights, digital recording device, action… - 11/16/2021
• ​Annnnd... cue Christmas! - 11/09/2021
• ​Book 3 Hype-Up Coming Soon - 11/02/2021
• ​Losing Faith, a Calyx Twins Story - 10/26/2021 📜 Losing Faith, a Calyx Twins Story.pdf​
• ​New pics for Book 1 - 10/19/2021
• ​Happy Birthday, Middle Egg - 10/12/2021
• ​Age Before Duty -10/05/2021 📜​ Age-Before-Duty.pdf​
• ​Grundle's Hope - 9/28/2021 📜 Grundle's-Hope.pdf​

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