This is my pen. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

My pen is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life.

Without me, my pen is useless. Without my pen, I am useless.

Hello everyone! My pen and I are here to say we are still working away diligently! Here’s a quick update:

I am about to break 60k on my first draft of the Tree Y’Edenel, which concerns me a little because I’m not yet a quarter of the way through the story I want to tell in this book. At the rate I’m going this may end up over five hundred pages and that’s….well, as much as I like a big meaty book, I think that’s a bit much. I’m still going and will until I get the whole first draft done, but then the red pen is going to come out and I’m going to be cruel with myself and cut a lot of it down. So wish me luck on that!

For a quick refresher, the Tree Y’Edenel is the second in my twelve book Immortal Elements high fantasy clockpunk series, after Vhantalya.

Speaking of, I’m finishing up my current round of edits with Vhantalya, and on the 8th it goes to my copyeditor! I’ve added quite a few more scenes based on feedback from the last round of betas and it will be going to out again to a couple of new betas at the same time it goes to the editor. If you have beta’d on Vhan before you probably will not get this final round-it’s nothing personal, but most of you first betas have read it about two or three times now and I really just want a couple of new perspectives on it. If you are a previous beta and REALLY want to read it again on this round, let me know and I’ll make it hap’n, cap’n.

I still have some surprises coming along with it as well that have started to arrive, but I want to wait until all are accounted for before I open that box for y’all, so stay tuned for that! Hopefully it won’t be a long wait.

My first round of betas for Reboot have started to trickle in, and I have to say, I’m very excited about what I’m seeing in the feedback already. I’m really looking forward to everyone’s thoughts. Friday is the deadline to have your beta feedback returned! If you are a beta and need more time to finalize please let me know!

I’m continuing to work on this year’s book covers. I have scrapped the Tree’s cover at least twice, just not happy with the direction it was going. I’ve also had some hand pain so it’s going a little more slowly than I would like. I think the one I’m working on now is gonna be a winner though! As soon as I get it done I’ll update the front page.

Let’s see, let’s see, what else? Ah yes! Book pimping time!

As many of you know I’m trying to carve out time in my day to make sure I keep up on my reading. Since last I posted I have finished three books:

On Kindle AU: Under the Whispering Door, by TJ Kline: I highly recommend. I thought it was a whimsical, well done story that had me crying at more than one point. Fun characters, a queer romance, and just the right touch of humor…how can you go wrong? I’d never heard of TJ Kline before but I am looking forward to reading more from them!

Boots: A Puss in Boots Retelling, and the Wolf and the Hawk, both by Julian Greystoke. I really enjoyed both of these, though there were a few typos that snuck into my copy. Julian writes very sweet, compelling character driven novels that are decent length, but are so fun that they feel much shorter. Her new novel Adventurer Mage is on my list, and she is quickly becoming one of my favorite character driven writers!

For Audio Book: I listen to audio books while I do my arting. I finished Stephen King’s Fairy Tale (always a fan of Stephen King for reasons, so I won’t gush too much here except to say, long slow burn in a meaty book which I *adore*) and am now on Babel, by RF Kuang. Guys. Guys. Babel is *excellent*. I’m about to the halfway point. It is an amazingly written commentary on racism and colonialism set in an alternate London where the science of language makes magic. It is not a fast or a light read, and it digs deep into some very charged political realities on race, poverty, inequalities of education, and the deep intricacies of linguistics and the very real spoken art of language. The audiobook is done superbly but if you listen a bit of a head’s up. There are more than one voice actor, and it took me a minute to realize the additional voice was for the footnotes. So bear that in mind!

Lastly, my bedside book is still Billy Summers, also by Stephen King. This one is going to take me the longest to get through because my bedtime is usually taken up still with writing and/or rereading what I’ve written, but I’m still chipping away at it. I’m just about to the halfway point. Again, Stephen King, so I won’t gush except to say that I’m enjoying it, and if you like a bit more crime novel thriller than horror it might be worth checking out.

Okay, back to editing! I hope everyone’s 2023 so far is going well, and thank you for following!