Newsletter - November 29, 2022

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I want to thank all of you for supporting me in my writing—the periodic dose of positivity from the friends I’ve made on this journey is priceless. The change of pace over the holiday did great things for me mentally—it’s so easy to get stuck in a routine. Someone at work recently reminded me of the “circle of concern”:

I spend too much emotional energy in that circle of concern, and the simple idea of letting go of the things you cannot control or influence added ten years to heart health (as measured by a totally scientific system of “what I believe to be true”). 😉

I had a great time with extended family visiting our home. The turkey I smoked turned out great, as did my brother-in-law’s fried turkey, and all of the sides filled any gaps remaining in my belly. I binge-watched Wednesday with my kids--it has been a long time since we've found a show that we could all enjoy, so that was great fun. I’m not looking forward to the return to reality.

One more domino toppled! I finally succeeded in getting my books on Ingram Spark and, from there, talked with the right person at my local B&N—and they ordered a few copies of my books! I’ll go in and sign them, force one of my daughters into embarrassed picture-taking, and celebrate (probably with a beer and cannonball from nearby Pinthouse Pizza).

In fantasy news, Elliah floated into the Heartland. It might be the shortest chapter I’ve written (though Scan had some pretty short ones in Book 4 of The Guardian League, so maybe not). It’s followed by a deep theological chapter that I’ll have to rewrite thirty times before I’m happy with it. But, overall, I made meaty progress. Or Elliah did. Or we made it together (she was much more cooperative this week, at least with me). Here's a little map of her journey to date. She still has so much to see! (and do!)

I’m toying an idea: after Elliah meets the Mother of Trees, I might perform a step that I think of as being similar to the bridge step of an overhand shuffle, where dealers try to get all the edges of the cards back in line, and then send that out to a few people for feedback. I asked before about getting some feedback on the teen angst elements of this story, and people offered, but I didn’t take anyone up on the offer due to a mix of embarrassment and thinking there were too few pieces ready for readers to really judge. But now there’s enough. (It still wouldn't be that soon... maybe before Christmas).

Reminder: there's a book giveaway wrapping up soon. You have to click on all each link to get an entry into the giveaway.