My oldest daughter competed in her first high-school track meet over the weekend, and I have tons of pictures and videos, but I'm not allowed to share them. My big-haired middle daughter had her hair straightened for her weekend dance competition, but again, I'm on a share-ban. I do have a pic of my youngest girl out on a daddy-daughter date with me for Ramen Noodles (but we cheated and had Pho instead). She still lets me share pics - she's my IG videographer, and we still have fun doing goofy stuff that I will miss in a few more years (judging by my older daughters).

We also picked up a new bed for our smaller dog. It looks to me like she would fit, right? She won't touch the thing. It amuses me that she'll sack out right next to it. 🤦🏽🤷‍♂️😂

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Book 1 is going on an Amazon Prime Reading tour of India. That's exciting to me, b/c I *think* it creates an opportunity to get people started on my books. I like to believe I've become a much better writer as the books progress, so hopefully The Guardian of The Palace doesn't scare them away. But, and this wasn't clear, I think it is free in India during that time. Maybe just discounted. The bit I scratched out from the pic was the compensation Amazon offers for this effort, which amounts to less than $10. But if it gets me new readers, it's worth it.

We're going to launch the beta reading effort for Book 4 in two to three weeks. Meanwhile, I've been doing things out of order and continuing to edit for grammar and style. I noticed a structural whoopsie today which I'll have to address (minor one... a loose end that needs tying off).

I've also been having fun with book merch. I’m not advertising this yet, but I set up a store on my web site: https://sjmorriswrites.com/magiporium. The store is named after the character from Book 2, Rasheed, who bargained for first dibs on magical items from other worlds. I have yet to order anything from it — the interface won’t let me use the PayPal account I set up to receive money also be the one to place an order, so I’ll have to borrow my wife’s phone to test it. 🤫

But I have ordered several of the items directly from Printful, which is the machinery behind the web interface. The shirt I’m wearing in the pic with my youngest is one of the items.

o To-Do list for writing last week:

• Email updates
• Grammatical and Style edits for Book 4 - through chapter 21.
• list out the pics I want and decide whether they are truly achievable. Marking it as yellow. I dropped one of my complicated ideas and put in the request for a couple of pics. I still have a couple of complicated pics that I’m not sure are achievable affordably.

o To-Do list for writing this week:

• Email updates
• Grammatical and Style edits for Book 4 - through chapter 28.
• Follow through with pic orders.
• Mail beta reader copies. (Update with grammar and style edits that I have so far.)

Previous Newsletters

• ​March on! (yeah, that's terrible) - 3/1/2022
• ​Late-Feb Slog - 2/23/2022
• ​No rest for the weary - 2/16/2022
• ​Book 4 of The Guardian League, The Song Unsung - 2/9/2022
• ​Happy Birthday to my Wife - 2/1/2022
• ​Finding Books "Connected" to mine - 1/25/2022
• ​Hunting for Silver Linings - 1/18/2022
• ​Starting off the New Year with a Bang - 1/11/2022
• ​​Happy Neo Year - 1/4/2022
• ​Treasure - 12/28/2021
• ​Happy Holidays - 12/21/2021
• ​A week of promotions - 12/14/2021
• ​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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