November Updates
Well! With Sons of Heaven & Hell, book 2 of the Hammer Falls trilogy, due in a mere 16 days, my nerves are a-bubbling! I’ve definitely learned some lessons from my initial total failure to advertise ANYTHING with book 1 release (I told literally 5 friends and didn’t have even one social media profile) - so have been slowly pushing my introvert soul out into the big wild. I still seem about 1% as good at it as literally every other writer lol but it’s 100% better than where I was and I’ve been blessed with some truly amazing readers!
So I now have an online (fb) Author Release Party planned, an Author takeover, and since my last update I also set up an instagram ‘Book Chapter Challenge’ (https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/bookchapterchallenge/ ) for authors to post a short (50-word-or-less) excerpt daily from each chapter of one of their books. I’ve obvs been using Lust & Other Demons, trying to get more eyes on the first novel as well as having a bit of fun.
Maybe by book 3, The Tree of Life, I will be 1.5% as good at it as other writers XD. Dreamin’ big ;)
As to Sons of Heaven & Hell, I’ve spent the month of slaughter culling mercilessly and am finally mostly-happy with it - still tweaking & twiddling. Waiting to hear from my betas. Trying not to let my multiple anxieties get on top of me: Will it be good enough? What will readers think? Will they still want to come along for the ride? Have I set up absolutely EVERYTHING that needs setting up for book 3? Will I do the story I have in my head justice? Will I ever get better at promo? What if I don’t? What if I’m crap generally? Blah blah. Angst. Jin is me lol.
In any case, whatever my anxiety is doing, I’m also working on the add-on novella Control, set in the same world, which I’m hoping to have done around xmas - FREE for newsletter subscribers plus I’ll also put it on Amazon for a cost. it will have to be read in order (2.5, post book 2 but before book 3). Then it will be onto book 3, The Tree of Life - already almost completely plotted but I’ll need to do more before I start writing. Following that I’m planning a second add-on novella (3.5), What Happens in Hell (stays in Hell). Then I will probably be onto a new standalone, The Angel Run.
I’ll also be adding an ‘Extras’ section to the website at some point soonish, consisting of 2 sections: ‘Deleted Scenes’ and another section I haven’t quite decided on yet, probably ‘Shorts’ (but I keep changing my mind about that so to begin with maybe just the deleted scenes lol) - the first will be an extended scene involving Jin & Dali. Bits of it found its way into another scene in Sons of Heaven & Hell, but I’d like to share it anyway!
Anyway, that’s it from me for now. Love to all & thanks for reading!
(Image from The Perpetual Almanack of Folklore, by Charles Kightly)