Tag Archives: publishing

Hidden Promise Cover Reveal!

If you signed up for my newsletter, you got a peek at this last month. For everyone else, the much-anticipated cover art for Hidden Promise is below!

But First

The artist for the first two books was Jonathan Lebel. Unfortunately, he was unavailable to continue the series this year. At some point, I will likely redesign all four covers to make them more fantasy-action images to highlight a battle scene or something dramatic. These initial covers are the grand images in my mind encompassing key moments just before or after. I imagine them as epic scenes like the one in The Fellowship of the Ring where the fellowship is cresting the hill just after they begin their journey. These covers are for me. They are emotional moments for my characters that I shared with them as I wrote. 

With Jonathan’s departure, I wanted to find an artist who could continue to capture these scenes with the same feelings while bringing their personality to the final product. I searched online and had many talented artists reach out to me via Twitter. From them all, Miguel Lobo’s work stood out to me as embodying similar fantasy worlds with light and character. 

Those are trees with mountains in the background. I’m getting better at drawing. If you don’t believe me, go look at the reveal post for Hidden Memory.

I again shared my stick figure drawing with examples and a scene description. This image is a look into the fairy sanctuary. The trees are enormously tall, so I envisioned them like sequoia trees. The time is early morning while the sun remains hidden below the horizon as the group is arriving within the habited areas after the final events of Hidden Sanctuary. Annalla has entered a home she never knew, a home she has heard about only in stories. 

Introducing Miguel Lobo

Miguel took it all and came back with an amazing first draft. He called it a sketch, but it was well beyond that to my eye. You will see the final product in just a short scroll further.

Miguel Lobo is an artist in Portugal. From his ArtStation account here, you can see some of the images that drew me to his work for this project. You can also find him on Instagram @miguellobo_art if that is your preferred application. 

Without further delay, here is the cover for Hidden Promise!

As a reminder, Hidden Promise will increase in price after its release, so preorder your ebook today to get the discount!

Upcoming Updates!

There are three parts of my life, and I’m not talking physical, spiritual, and essential this time (if you get that reference, thank you for reading my books and leaving a review!). I have writing, my personal life, and the job paying the bills. In that order, I write progressively fewer specifics about what is happening.

On the job front, this week was rough. I feel overwhelmed, wrung out, and a bit dejected. Feeling this way in one area tends to bleed over and make me feel behind in others, so I will keep this week’s post shorter to help me “catch up.” 

For your reading pleasure, here are a few highlights and upcoming events:

Cover Reveal!

The book cover is complete! It will be shared here and on social media in two to four weeks, but it is going out in the newsletter today! You might have another hour or two, as of this writing, to sign up and see it first. 

My new artist did a wonderful job of aligning with the feel of the other series covers while bringing his own artistic touch. The art is beautiful, and the scene gives you the tiniest glimpse into the fairy sanctuaries. 

Events & Book Signings!

I have three events lined up to sell signed copies of my books already this year: 

  • Dragon Egg Hunt – Tacoma, WA – 4/30/23
    • Put on by the charity org Wizards of Washington, and it’s free to the public. They have a variety of vendors and will be hosting an egg hunt!
    • I will have a booth where you can buy signed copies or bring your own copy for me to sign!
  • Spring Fairy Market – Tacoma, WA – 5/20/23
    • This is an annual event hosted by Crescent Moon Gifts. They are “Washington’s largest metaphysical gift shop and healing arts center,” and this event brings in vendors both metaphysical and fantastical.
  • Washington Midsummer Renaissance Faire – Monroe, WA – Aug 2023
    • The faire is moving to Monroe this year after outgrowing the previous location in Bonney Lake. I hope most of the regular faire goers can still attend at this new location as well as many additional people with the expanding capacity. 

Hidden Promise Release!

I have eight chapters to polish this weekend and most beta adjustments are complete. My editor is prepared to receive the manuscript on Monday, and I only hope I don’t have to stay up too late Sunday to get it to her. I’m on schedule with some buffer time to give the editor corrections a good review as well, so we are on track for the June release. 

The release date listed is for the ebook. The paperback will take another week or two, depending on how many fixes I need to do to the formatting based on my test copies (once they are shipped and received). You can preorder the ebook at a discounted price now. It will go up after release. For the paperback, I can’t do preorders, and pricing and such all depend on printing costs. More to come. 

Thank you!

This post ended a bit longer than I expected, but there is a lot going on! I also wanted to say “thank you” to everyone who has left a review on my books. On Amazon, I am currently at 38 reviews for Hidden Memory and 21 for Hidden Sanctuary. My goal is to hit the magical number of 50 this year, and I can’t do that without your help and support. 

Have a great weekend!

Deadlines and Demands

Managing multiple demands can be challenging, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. I mentioned in another post about starting a business, and for the last six weeks, I have been in “kick-off” mode to get it moving forward. On top of that, the third book in my series, Hidden Promise, is due for release in less than three months. I have to finish it and decide on a new cover artist. 

Businesswoman

For the first couple of weeks, I was putting all my time into this and paying attention to nothing else. My stress elevated, my sleep depleted, and I knew it would be unsustainable. I can’t run at that speed and not burn out, so I had to find a better balance. 

My first step was to assess my goals and identify the ones I was okay failing at. I’m a perfectionist, and this is one of the most difficult things for me, but when you have twenty hours of work and only ten hours in which to do it, some things will fall to the bottom. I had to decide what those were for me, and look at potential partial successes instead of “winning” at everything. While I’m still putting in a lot of hours, this has helped me carve out and recover a little time. 

Hidden Promise

I have received some great beta reader feedback and started working out ideas for revisions and adjustments. Fortunately, I have great alpha readers, so it will not require major rewrites. I would have liked another one or two beta readers to get some eyes on it, but I’m out of time. I have one month to squeeze in enough hours for the changes, and I will need every moment. 

My manuscript upload is due the first week of June, so I need it back from my editor with time to do a final review of the edits and corrections. Once I hit the “Publish” button on this one, I might take it easy on writing for the rest of June before starting up on my next project. My alphas already have Hidden Strenght to read, and this next book will be YA/NA genre, so closer to the 50-80k word mark instead of the 95-120k I have been writing. 

Time will tell. Who knows if I can actually mentally sit still for a whole month. 

Me Time

One of the most important things I do to manage multiple demands is to make time for self-care. I am striving to reprioritize spending time with loved ones. My husband and I halted our daily walks for a while since I was working so late, but we started back up again. Even if we shorten it to a smaller block, it is worth the time to step away, talk, and unwind.

Ultimately, managing multiple demands requires patience, discipline, and knowing when to be flexible. It’s important to be kind to yourself and to recognize that you can do less if you burn yourself out than by setting boundaries. I guess time will tell if I’m finding the right balance.

Sounders game this morning, and I’m trying to get at least another hour of revising in today. Happy Saturday, all!

Artist Search

You may have seen the post on Facebook recently where I announced that the artist for the first two books in my series is unavailable to continue with the third. I will eventually need to change all the covers to something more “action scene” oriented, but I have always wanted the first runs to be more artistic. These magnificent scenes played out in my head as the world came to life within my imagination. 

Jonathan Lebel did amazing work taking my stick figures and descriptions and turning them into beautiful imagery. 

The first is a scene from early in Hidden Memory when Annalla is still within the traken forest. She has her borrowed blade and boots, with her wings wrapped around her. 

The second is from Hidden Sanctuary when Annalla arrives at the river crossing. This is just before the events unfold (you know which events I’m referring to if you have read this one). 

Onto the Third

I want to continue in this same vein for the third and fourth before I look at shifting the style of all four, so the hunt is on for a new artist who can capture the same grandeur of my fantastical world. The cover of Hidden Promise will be an image of their arrival in the sanctuary, flying through and providing a glimpse of how and where the people live. 

My terrible sketch and description have gone to one artist, and I have reached out to a few others, so I hope to have a cover to show you in the April newsletter. It might be out a little later than my usual mid-month Saturday, but I hope it will be worth the wait. 

As for the cover of the fourth, you will have to wait until next year for more information on that one!

Have a great weekend!

My Grammar Police

Today is National Grammar Day! I don’t know if most authors are like me, but I’m much better at story than the grammar part of writing. I’m the “idea person.” With that limitation in mind, I reach out for assistance on this aspect of my work; the bigger the production, the more help involved. 

For blog articles, I’m simply writing in Grammarly’s free version. It’s straightforward and easy to use. It catches the more glaring mistakes, and I feel fine ignoring it sometimes when the suggestions are not fitting my flow. The web add-on also helps with grammar basics when writing my book’s first drafts. I do those chapter by chapter in AutoCrit, which provides some advice on pacing, overusing words, and other such, less-grammatical advice. 

Those are the basic tools. The real work comes from a couple of individuals at two specific stages of the book drafts. During the alpha review stage, my husband provides editing and feedback including catching glaring grammatical errors. Those pull him out of stories, so he finds more. While my other alphas help with story points and feedback, he helps provide a cleaner draft for my beta readers. A cleaner beta draft means the beta feedback is that much more valuable. 

The second person correcting any remaining grammar issues is my editor, Maxine Meyer. You will find her credited in my copyright as the editor, and she does an amazing job. I’m working on becoming more consistent with my tense usage, but that is the one she probably finds and fixes the most. I also have a love/hate relationship with commas. I love using them and hate their limited (appropriate) usage. 

Maxine cleans up the final manuscript before I submit for publication, and it is a crucial step in the process. Any and all remaining errors are mine alone, and she helps me get that as close to zero as possible for your reading pleasure. (Note: I only scribbled out the prices on the main pic as prices change over time and internet pics are forever!)

Hidden Promise

Hidden Promise is back in my hands with some beta reader feedback. I have a few minor adjustments to make, but I should have the manuscript in Maxine’s hands by mid-late April. This places me right in line for my release timetable of mid-June! I’ve gotten some great feedback from my beta readers, and my alpha readers have started on the series finale. I’m excited to share with you all how things are coming together in Hidden Promise and how it ends in Hidden Strength next year. 

As a reminder, Hidden Promise is only $3.99 until its release. The price will go up to $4.99 after go-live, so don’t forget to preorder!

Have a great weekend, and “Go Sounders!”