The 5th and final book of the series is out on Amazon and I have print books on the way so I can do signed copies…unfortunately not in time for Dec 25 gifts. But they’ll make great early 2017 gifts!
Stay tuned for a January event where I’ll be publishing a guest post on this website from friend and fellow author, Joel D Canfield.
Everyone have a safe and happy holiday season, whatever holidays you choose to celebrate.
I’ve been reading a series of posts by Steven Pressfield, and one from this week talked about the hero of his story and the hero’s muse being a cat. It’s a great read – here. With the muse (or the universe or your higher being or whatever you choose to call it) being the source of creativity, inspiration, etc, I’ve been thinking about the who or what in my life might be a representation of my muse.
Sorry to disappoint, but I don’t have any earth-shattering epiphanies about that yet. Perhaps it’s the dog and his excruciatingly high-pitched squeaky tennis ball he is repeatedly crushing with his jaws as he runs around my desk while I write this.
One thing I know it is NOT… social media. This week I deep sixed my personal social media account. To do this meant sacrificing some visibitlity of these posts and info about the books because most of those friends and family on social media weren’t otherwise linked to the books’ website or fb page. Honestly that was the only reason I had the personal page in the first place.
I began noticing over the last few weeks odd things happening on my personal account that I did not appreaciate occuring by means of said social media tapping into my phone contacts and such, so I terminated the account. It’s been a rather freeing experience. I was never one to spend all my time perusing media feeds, but I certainly spent more time wasting on it than I should, especially when the time could be better spent writing.
With that distraction gone, I’m thrilled. I think by eliminating that distraction, I may have opened up another gateway of creativity. This morning a new story idea landed in my head, which is great timing since the final book of the Burnt Mountain series is written and close to being released (I know I keep saying that….sorry! Still waiting for the final book cover files to be sent to me. New cover artist = amazing work but not wicked fast).
So with a new potential story in play for a new hero, new setting, and new bad guys, I have a new project to work on in the additional free time I created by eliminating personal social media. 🙂
Image from sxc.hu
The much anticipated, at least by me, cover of the final book of the Burnt Mountain series. The new artists I worked with this round didn’t want to keep with the same font I’d been using before with my other artist, so I was open to suggestions.
I gave them an idea of what I wanted to see on the cover, so they created that and a version of their own interpretation. I ended up going with their interpretation with a few tweaks to bring over from my version. Let me know what you think of the new design. I’m liking it. A lot!
I’m a big fan of chickens and tend to not eat a lot of meat, but winner winner chicken dinner just rolls off the tongue, sorta. It’s a bit of a mouthful.
As indicated in earlier posts, I’m offering a free signed copy of the 5th book for the person that can get the closest to guessing the word count (without going over) of Burnt Mountain When Heroes Fall. Your range to choose from is 90,000 and 100,000 words. My friend, Joel, got the first guess in at 98765, so that number is taken.
I finished the rest of the little tweaky typo edits yesterday and have sent the stuff off for the cover art. A few weeks ago I entered the fourth book in the New England Book Festival, so I should hear something back about that in a month or so. Here’s hoping I get some good news from that soon. I could stand another trip down to Boston. 🙂
So get your word count guesses in through fb or the web site comments section. I’ll read ’em all. One guess per person, so if you have more than one person in your household, here’s your chance to get a few more guesses and a shot at a free book. I’ll announce the winner on Nov 26.
Image from sxc.hu
Firstly, if you know what Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em means, you’ve just dated yourself. Welcome to, at least, middle age! 🙂
Last week I turned another year older, which I don’t mind, because I can’t really keep up with my age anyway. I mean, it changes every year, so it is a bit difficult to keep track. This photo was taken from the Golden Rd in the Baxter State Park area. The peak looming in the background is Mount Katahdin.
Stellar fall colors up that way last week even with overcast skies, and they’re probably mostly gone by today. Fall is brilliantly spectacular in Maine, but it doesn’t last long. The Bangor area was peaking this week, so by the time I get home next Thursday, there might not be much left. It’s all good. I moved to Maine in 2001, so this was my 15th fall. Only one year during that time we didn’t have any colors due to a major wind storm ripping all the leaves off before they could turn. So we did have a “fall” in the sense of everything being on the ground and left with brown sticks for trees, but the colors didn’t happen.
Only one dud in 15 years, yeah, I’m OK with that.
This weekend I’m in the Boston area hanging out with friends before heading to Maryland on Monday. The cat and dog have me trained to wake up at 0500, no later than 0530, so my 0130 bedtime last night hurt. But when you go to bed hoarse and coughing from laughing so hard for so long, it’s all worth it. Here’s to another day of the same, and I’m looking forward to it.
Wee book update – the draft print is in the hands of test readers. Once I get the feedback from them, I’ll tackle the final edits (hopefully nothing major), then rock and roll with the new cover artist. If all goes well and no curve balls, this thing should be out by late November. I’m still doing the final word count contest too, so more to come on that.
Enjoy the rest of October in the mean time. I will!