I’ve talked a lot about how other people have responded to my books. I’ve also sometimes, but not always, shared how these responses affected me, everything from pleasant surprise to anger to a back-to-the-drawing-board analysis of the manuscripts. But I’ve never actually shared how I personally felt about my books. Especially since I’ve been gradually moving towards my work being mainstream quality fiction that meets genre expectations, I haven’t said much about my attitudes to this more polished work. I’ve redone my mission statement as an author—you can see in the header that I now define my work into 4 ideas “Inspire. Encourage. Amuse. Challenge.” And I’ve written a lot about it on the Home page of the website, as I’ve grouped my books into 4 genres instead of just a rambling list of publications. But what do I personally feel now? I thought it would be fun to let you know. Five books this week and five books in a later newsletter.:)

• The Birthday Present—This book has changed profoundly over the past 8 months, in a movement that has been both quiet and explosive. Neither one of the stories was rewritten much (and Millhaven Castle not at all) to synchronize them into the same world. The differences are subtler than a mere rewrite. This is a totally different book now and a MUCH better one.

• A Year with the Harrisons—This book is kind of weak. It isn’t my best work and never quite shook off the casual, unprofessional tone of its original release as a serial of PDF downloads on FB. But there have always been some readers who didn’t like it for no good reason, and that’s a primary argument for keeping it around. Must be more to it than most people thought.

• Facets of Fantasy—This book has aged quite a bit. There are still some good moments that get you involved in its melodramatic situations, but a lot of the character interactions look unintentionally funny at times. “Jurant” especially is just hard to take seriously right now and Don Tachimant’s permanent scowl and chip on his shoulder bring angst to the edge of absurdity.

• This Merry Summertime—This book is on the backburner. People were very interested at one time in my satire and my takes on writing craft and classic tropes, but no longer. However, the book still has much to offer. It shows my influences, insights on life, and background (more realistically than in Harrisons), and will be valuable to readers down the road.​ ​
• City of the Invaders—This book was always my least favorite. Others loved the story and it got consistent praise, but the more it moved into real dystopian instead of a fuzzily shown future era, the more I felt it had a distinctive and questionable quality about it. There's a latent edginess underlying the book like a razor. But I’ve come to realize everyone was quite right. It’s a REALLY good story. :)

And there will be more updates.

Celestine Princess is gradually coming along towards a potential publication date. I’m thinking sometime later this year, but haven’t pinned down an exact month or day on my calendar. Right now it’s all about the cover and while a creative delight (as it has always been to work on this new story) the cover brings out some of the central challenges of this book—blending it seamlessly into the Palladia world when the first two books were written years ago. It’s almost impossible to capture the tone of work that was gestated in the past. Its qualities are fluid echoes of the reality of those years and when time goes by, stories change, emerging like the hunks of ruined stone in murky foggy water around which Bard steers Thorin’s company in The Desolation of Smaug. They look formless, but start to appear, deeply rooted in invisible bedrock below the rippling surface of life.

Different eras produce different stories and while I don’t expect this one to be 100% similar, I do try very hard to meld it with the older Palladia material. I don’t feel I’m quite putting this new story INTO the old ones, like new wine in old wineskins creating rips, tears, stress, and incongruities. The upcoming book is standing apart from them more like an addition onto an older home. It appears new at first—jarring. You can definitely tell this renovation is more recent. But gradually it starts to blend with the older part of the house until it’s all one house and you can barely tell the difference aside from the different wiring tracks for the electricity in different parts of the house. (Speaking from experience of watching our 25-year-old addition to our house age.) A good coat of paint that spreads over the whole house is crucial for sealing it all together visually and that’s what the cover should be. But it’s been awhile since I’ve had this exact pattern of cover done, so it’s like getting back in the groove.

I now have a signup for my street team. Just click to go to the form. There is a lot of information you can read on the form and that information will be reiterated in the welcome email you’ll receive as you sign up. I’m so excited to start launching a formal street team! While I appreciate each of my wonderful readers who left positive reviews before, I stumbled on them randomly through personal networking or specific review requests. I didn’t have an organized team and I felt the lack of it over the years. Although Celestine’s publication is months away, I will also use the street team to get reviews for some of my currently published books. I want the street team to be a well-oiled, functional machine by the time I do get Celestine out there and will be presenting some review requests for the first books in the series before I launch the new book. And don’t worry—I’ll mention this street team again fairly often. Everyone will have a chance to know about it and sign up. :) The team is still embryonic and I'll add new features along the way.

And there will be more updates.