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Work kicked back in for me last Thursday, and while I could get used to a two-day work week, my employer is not so inclined. Alas, the holiday hath ended; I must return to my regularly scheduled bedlam.

I’m saving up some home project pics, but this week centered around trying to make these pine chairs gray. My attempt to use stain failed—it would be generous to call it gun-metal blue (and not just blue). Now I am painting the rest, and painting over the stain.

Call to arms: Please post a review of Book 1 of The Guardian League if you've read it--Amazon and Goodreads are the platforms I focus on. The ability to land promotions deals at Amazon and Book Bub seem to depend on review count. Ironically, I have more people reading my newsletter than have reviewed my books.

Thaumatropc Roots (& The Guardian League)

I belatedly realized I did not flesh out one of my waypoints in Elliah’s story. 😬 With work restarting, and my brain puzzling out a connective storyline segment, my writing slowed. Maybe I will jump ahead to the next part and come back to the sticky wicket later… 🤔

I realized (again) that, with work so busy, it will take an eternity to finish the next book. However, I need fuel to keep the fire burning until my book is ready… not to burn… metaphor gone wrong! I started thinking of art work, and how I might use it to keep growing. So, I recreated a scene from book two, and made a mug out of it.

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I don't expect I'll sell any of those, but it keeps me plugged in and advancing with tools I like. I wish I were a better artist.

I mentioned last week that I challenged my daughters to create a logo for my upcoming series. Two of the three chose to participate. I am working on the top one (top of the picture)—it will read more cleanly into digital form, at least for the limited methods I know.

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AI ART: I leaned from responses to my questions last week why using the AI art is so hurtful. Apparently, those AI engines don’t pay the artists whose art they use to train the engines. Profoundly wrong. I also didn’t want to continue working the the artist who drew the original art because when I approached her about changing the face, she said she would have to completely restart. I can’t work with that. Every time I step out to work with a new artist, I get burned. I’d love to get some recommendations from folks. I’m relatively happy with the team I used for art in The Guardian League, but not over-the-moon excited. English wasn’t their first language, and we had enough translation misses that I keep hoping I would find an artist that I could build a relationship with.
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What else? Oh! I am still receiving feedback on the first third of Mother of Trees (MoT). Thank you again, folks that volunteered. You can see that I am taking steps to fix the problems mentioned. The bigger ones, I am waiting to fix.

o To-Do list for writing last week:

• Email updates
• THINK about feedback on first third of Mother of Trees. Poke ahead on next third.

o To-Do list for writing this week:

• Email updates
• Honestly, with where my head is right now, my goals this week are rather small -- find some next point in the story to latch onto and start writing. (Get out of the funk of the missed waypoint in the Faelian Swamp).

Immerse Yourself...

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Previous Newsletters

• ​Newsletter - Jan 3, 2022​
• ​Newsletter - December 27, 2022​
• ​Newsletter - December 20, 2022​
• ​Newsletter - December 13, 2022​

​​May you get lost this week in another world.

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