Hello, book friends!
This is how we’re all starting e-mails now, isn’t it? But seriously, I hope this issue finds you and your people in a good place.
I’m skipping the podcast this week because we’ve got a storm system moving through and I don’t want to keep my laptop plugged in for as long as it would take to record and edit an episode. But I have a few quick things I wanted to share with you this week.
Remember that I said last week my big writing goal for this week was just to practice showing up to my novel? I’m pleased to report that I managed to do that. Not every day, but still, it’s progress. I even wrote some, though I’m not tracking word counts right now since the goal was just to show up. But the ice is melting and I’m starting to gain some momentum once again.
And in case you missed yesterday’s announcement and cover reveal, I’ve set a launch date for Revolution (aka Dominion Book Three) for August 14th, which officially gives me a set deadline. And few things motivate me like a deadline. (By the way, it’s available for pre-order.)
I’m finally starting to get into some sort of work rhythm, but I’m also starting to really be okay with not having a consistent rhythm in place. Last week I talked about my shrinking capacity during this pandemic. I have good days, where I’m focused and energetic, and bad days, where I’m… not. I’m learning to seize the good days and knock a lot of things off my list, and to not beat myself up about the bad days but use them to recharge and do the things that fill me back up. Every day doesn’t have to be the same, or to achieve the same level of productivity. The important things are still getting done.
One good outcome of this whole mess is that it’s making me a lot better at prioritizing and discerning what’s actually important.
Finally, remember how last week I said I’d changed my mind about doing a free Amazon run of Dominion/Desolation? After announcing the week before that I was going to do one? Well, I’ve changed my mind again. Please bear with me, y’all. I’m just trying to figure out this whole being an indie author in 2020 thing, and this stuff’s not as easy as it was a decade ago when I started.
At any rate, the more I thought about it, the more pulling Desolation from KU and turning it into a free reader magnet for an entire month sounded like a terrible idea, so I’m scrapping that and going back to my original plan to do a free promo on Amazon. That will happen next week, after some changes I made to the other books in the series and their product pages all have time to update in the system. I’ll send out another e-mail to let y’all know when the promo goes live.
And that’s it for this week. All of my freelance work is done for the time being, so (unless more comes in) I’m free next week to focus on my novel. My goal is to just keep showing up and making progress. I’ll let you know next week how I did.
Wishing you health, safety, sanity and far less interesting times,
Jean ♥
Weekly Distractions
The Holcombs are still at it. I absolutely loved this cover of Home by the Magnetic Zeroes:
This is the most entertaining and enlightening thread about Triscuits you’ll ever see: